Monday, July 14, 2014

Testing at Premier

Day 1 of our marking crayon test on a group of wool ewes. 
We thought our pastures could benefit from a color other than 'lush green'. Instead of planting wildflowers, we took a more immediate approach and colored a few of our ewes with our marking crayons.

In truth, we're testing how long the marks will stay bright. We hand applied one color to 6 ewes (for a total of 36 ewes). We'll check and document color changes for 3-4 weeks.

We applied the marks in 80º weather, so we used 'hot' rated crayons. Though the purple used was a mild (it's a new shade of purple and we had only one sample on hand). The mild purple crayon applied much easier and left more of a mark than the hot crayon. That serves as a reminder to use the right type of crayon for the temperature, otherwise you will wear down crayons faster than necessary.

We'll post an update at the end of the experiment.

Note:
Crayons made for 3 average daily high temperature ranges:

  • Cold: 25 - 65°F
  • Mild: 65 - 85°F
  • Hot: 85 - 100°F