Sheep 101 - Shearing

A Texas sheep shearer	An Art and a Skill Cutting or shaving the wool off of a sheep is called shearing. Shearing doesn't hurt a sheep. It's just like getting a haircut. However, shearing requires skill so that sheep are shorn efficiently and quickly without cuts or injury to the sheep or shearer. Most sheep are sheared with electric shears or shearing machines. Some sheep are sheared manually with scissors or hand blades. While some farmers shear their own sheep, many hire professional sheep shearers.
World Records A professional shearer can shear a sheep in less than 2 minutes and will remove the fleece in one piece. The world record for shearing sheep is 839 lambs in 9 hours by Rodney Sutton of New Zealand (2000) and 720 ewes in 9 hours by Darin Forde of New Zealand (1997). The most sheep shorn in an 8 hour period manually using hand blades is 50 by Janos Marton of Hungary (2003)	Shearing Crew in Texas
A Yearly Haircut Sheep are usually sheared once per year, usually in the spring before the onset of warm weather. Sheep with long fleeces are sometimes sheared twice a year. Some lambs are sheared to make them more comfortable during the summer. Many ewes are sheared before they lamb, because it results in a cleaner environment for baby lambs. Shearing before lambing keeps the fleeces cleaner.	Sheep Shearing in Kazakhstan
High-Tech Wool Removal Because sheep shearing is so labor-intensive, other technologies are being developed for more efficient wool removal. Australian scientists created a chemical method of shearing called "bio-clip." With bio-clip, sheep are injected with a natural protein that causes the wool follicle to break and the fleece to drop off on its own. Scientists have developed a shearing table so the shearer doesn't have to hold the sheep. They have also developed a robot for shearing sheep.	Robotic Sheep Shearing Photo Source: University of Western Australia Click HERE to learn more about robotic sheep shearing.
Freshly shorn sheep in Switzerland	Shorn Sheep Freshly shorn sheep need protection from the elements. This is because it takes up to six weeks for the fleece to regrow sufficiently to provide effective insulation. Sheared sheep also require more food to maintain their body temperature during the winter.
A sheep that has not been sheared for a few years	Timely Sheep Shearing Sheep grow wool continuously. If they are not sheared at least once per year they can become very uncomfortable and stressed, especially when it is hot and humid. The wool will become matted and more difficult to shear if it is not removed in a timely basis.
Wool x Hair Lamb	No Wool - No Shearing - No Problem Hair sheep do not need shearing because they lack wool or their coats are naturally shed; however, crosses between hair sheep and wool sheep need to be sheared. The fleeces from hair x wool crosses are not very desirable since they contain a mixture of hair and wool fibers. They are usually discarded. It takes anywhere from 1 to 3 generations of crossing (and keeping back and breeding the female offspring) to eliminate the need for shearing in a flock of traditional wooled sheep.

. . New Words . . Shear - to cut the wool off of a sheep. Fleece - the wool of a sheep or similar animal. Follicle - the skin structure from which hair or wool fiber grows. Crossing - the act of mixing different species or varieties of animals or plants and thus to produce hybrids. Generation - each succeeding stage in reproduction from the original copy.

How long does it take to shear a sheep?

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