Also (a total tangent) I want Swedish Finewool sheep, however they are not found in the US and are rare even in Sweden. I wonder if I can somehow procure a sample of the wool at least. Most of those Scandinavian short-tailed breeds have a double coated fleece (long, coarse out layer of wook (tog) and a very fine, soft, shorter undercoat (thel)) or they have a fleece that is altogether coarse and hairy. The Swedish Finewool has a short tail and presumably all the hardiness and intelligence found in the other members of its family group, but it also possesses a very fine, very soft, tightly crimped fleece. See more about this breed here.

Purebred Gotlands don't exist here either, but there are percentage Gotlands, which is to say that they are nearly all (but not quite all) Gotland. Gotland lamb is very soft...soft enough to wear next to the skin as an undergarment, but the adult fleece is not.

Hmmmm. I want sheep that are hardy, reasonably intelligent, and which have a short tail because I do NOT want to cut tails off of lambs. I don't care what the rationale for it is, I don't want to do it, period.