Did you know?

There are more than 1,000 different breeds of sheep. Ninety per cent of them produce wool.

It’s winter and you are cold. What kind of clothes would you prefer to wear? More specifically, what would you like these clothes to be made from? The answer is that you would prefer clothes to be made from wool rather than man-made fibres like nylon. Fibres in wool trap the warm air from our bodies. This stops it from flowing out into the cold surroundings. The warm air remains there and keeps us warm. 

Wool usually comes from sheep. It can also come from other animals, like goats. For thousands of years, farmers have been cutting wool from their sheep. A sheep’s woolly coat is known as a fleece. Electric shears are used today to cut the fleece from the sheep. Sometimes scissors or hand blades are used.  But the way sheep are sheared today is the same very hard work as it always has been.

Shearing usually takes place in spring. At this time of year, a sheep’s wool can be long. If it grows any longer, the sheep become uncomfortable and stressed – especially in hot weather. The long fleece can also pick up a disease. It’s best for the sheep to have their fleeces shorn – even if they do not like it when it is happening! When sheared properly, the fleece of each sheep comes off in one piece and can be very heavy. Once completed, the sheep looks smaller and very different – like you after a haircut.

Shearing a sheep is a very skilful job. These skills are often passed through families of shepherds. They often work in gangs and travel from farm to farm. A good professional shearer can shear one sheep in less than two minutes. A world record of 37.9 seconds was set in 2016! Sheep shearers also work long hours. It has been known for 839 lambs to be shorn in just nine hours!

Often, once the sheep have lost their fleece, they are dipped into water that has chemicals added to it. This makes sure that the sheep’s skin is protected from insects. Sheep also have to be looked after carefully at this time. If the temperature drops, they need to be kept warm as they no longer have their thick coats. It takes six weeks for a sheep’s new fleece to be long enough to provide protection from the cold.

It’s a tough life being a sheep shearer. It’s probably not a job for those of us living in an urban area. But if we want to wear the best warm clothes in winter, we have to rely on the sheep farmers, shepherds and shearers to work hard each year and shear the wool from the sheep.

Question:

Watch Australian sheep shearers in action and be prepared to be amazed!

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