# Wool sheep in Florida?



## Shygal (May 26, 2003)

Is there any such thing? lol I have FL on my short list of places to relocate to some day, and I was thinking about how it would be difficult for sheep there. Do people raise any wool sheep there? Why would you even need wool in Florida, I like to knit and crochet but what would be the point there lol

How far south would be a reasonable place to raise wool sheep?


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## birchtreefarm (Jul 22, 2007)

Shygal said:


> Is there any such thing? lol I have FL on my short list of places to relocate to some day, and I was thinking about how it would be difficult for sheep there. Do people raise any wool sheep there? Why would you even need wool in Florida, I like to knit and crochet but what would be the point there lol
> 
> How far south would be a reasonable place to raise wool sheep?


Lots of folks have wool sheep in the south. I know of someone who raises Icelandics in FL, and another in LA. They aren't the only ones I'm sure.

And Gulf Coast Native sheep are a wool and meat breed that developed in the south, so it's definitely possible.

As to why you'd need wool in the south ... well, I dunno. I'd never live there if I could help it myself - I'm not a hot weather person!


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## tentance (Aug 16, 2012)

There don't seem to be a lot of people raising sheep for wool in Florida, but you can raise llamas if you want to. and alpacas. i'm not familiar with sheep enough to know why they are unpopular here, but it must have something to do with the heat and the drought/rain cycle. also you can raise any type of rabbits with no problems, even angoras. 
most large-scale farmers raise beef cattle, because we can grow grass about 4 times as fast as up north without irrigation or fertilization. 
as to why you would want to... for about 3 months of the year we do have some pretty chilly weather, it usually does freeze at least twice here in central florida. that is enough to take out your oranges, which is why the industry has been slowly moving toward southern florida.
on the flip side, florida has an amazing array of native and non-native plants, and virtually none of them have been experimented for dye use. if you were a good spinner and dyer, you could easily make a living with alpacas. those northerners sure like to knit and crochet!


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

I would love to have some wool sheep again but the heat in the summer, even in VA, I honestly do not think they would do well....
....between the heat and the bugs!
Would need tons of shade, barn with fans for when the bugs were really bad... 
Just to much work.

Maybe a short wool breed, like a southdown type, might be able to do better than a medium or long wool sheep?

I found one, yes, one person that raises sheep within a 2 1/2 hour circle of me, and they have hair sheep. Am in sheep no man's land.
See tons of Alpaca farms though..... 

You could just buy a couple of wether's of the breed you are interested in, to test out if they would do well in your area, before you bought a flock.


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

Forget Florida, move to Hawaii, especially the Big Island. We have woolly sheep, alpaca and angora rabbits. If you go high enough in elevation, it gets cool enough to wear warm woolly stuff, too. We also use a lot of the coarser wools to make rug yarn. Wool rugs and slippers are really comfortable on the feet. Because of the humidity (and sand) most houses don't have wall to wall carpeting, too, so small area rugs are good. The finer wools get made into shawls, scarves and such. Since it's a natural fiber, it's much more comfortable in the humidity than anything synthetic.


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## BobDFL (Jul 7, 2006)

Well there's at least 2 of us. I've been raising Katahdins for the past 7 years here in Central FL. but am now starting to raise Suffolk. These Suffolk are for show lambs for the 4-H kids in the area. I got my breeding stock from another breeder here in FL. but farther north in the Gainesville area.


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