Langlois is world famous in the wool industry for its incredibly clean wool. We average around 144 inches of rain a year (that's 12 FEET of water!) and most of our sheep flocks are pasture raised, no barns or shelter, so all that rain hits the wool and washes it very clean. We shear in the spring in between rainstorms and the resulting wool has a reputation with the wool pool and woolen mills around the countr for being very clean. For instance, wool sheared in the Willamette Valley will lose nearly half its weight when washed and local coastal wool will lose less than 1/3 its weight. The other factor, of course, is that the list of sheep breeds that can survive 144 inches of rain a year is very short! They need to be practically amphibious. We have 24 different breeds of sheep in Coos and Curry counties, but the Coopworth and Romney breeds predominate.
submitted by Sandie McDonald