Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a ''

shearer A shearer is someone who shears, such as a cloth shearer, or a sheep shearer. Origins of the name include from near Bergen in Norway 1600s weden of that periodas ''Skea'' (pronounced "Skeg" meaning "beard") and Heddle (meaning market place) as mig ...

''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or "sheared", depending upon dialect). The annual shearing most often occurs in a

shearing shed Shearing sheds (or wool sheds) are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities. In countries where large numbers of sheep are kept for wool, sometimes many thousands in a flock, shearing sheds ar ...

, a facility especially designed to process often hundreds and sometimes more than 3,000 sheep per day. Sheep are shorn in all seasons, depending on the climate, management requirements and the availability of a woolclasser and shearers. Ewes are normally shorn prior to lambing in the warmer months, but consideration is typically made as to the welfare of the lambs by not shearing during cold climate winters. However, in high country regions, pre lamb shearing encourages ewes to seek shelter among the hillsides so that newborn lambs aren't completely exposed to the elements. Shorn sheep tolerate frosts well, but young sheep especially will suffer in cold, wet windy weather (even in cold climate summers). In this event they are shedded for several nights until the weather clears. Some sheep may also be shorn with stud combs commonly known as cover combs which leave more wool on the animal in colder months, giving greater protection. Sheep shearing is also considered a sport with competitions held around the world. It is often done between spring and summer.

History

Bronze age Crete

Europe's oldest city,

Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...

, derived its wealth from the sheep wool industry. The largest group of

Linear B Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...

tablets is the great archive principally of shearing records though also of sheep breeding. The

medieval English wool trade The medieval English wool trade was one of the most important factors in the medieval English economy. The medievalist John Munro notes that " form of manufacturing had a greater impact upon the economy and society of medieval Britain than did tho ...

was one of the most important factors in the English economy. The main sheep-shearing was an annual midsummer (June) event in medieval England culminating in the sheep-shearing feast. It had always been conventional practice to wash sheep. ;Australia's fine wools In Australia, until the 1870s,

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

washed their sheep in nearby creeks prior to shearing. Later some expensive hot water installations were constructed on some of the larger

stations Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

for the washing.Gilbert, Lionel, New England Readings, Armidale College of Advanced Education, Armidale, 1977 Australian growers were influenced by the Spanish practice of washing their very fine wool after shearing. There were three main reasons for the custom in Australia: # The English manufacturers demanded that Australian woolgrowers provide their fleeces free from excessive vegetable matter, burrs, soil, etc. so they could be processed in the same way as any other raw wool # The dirty fleeces were hard to shear and demanded that the metal blade shears be sharpened more often. # Wool in Australia was carted by

bullock team An ox-wagon or bullock wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen (draught cattle). It was a traditional form of transport, especially in Southern Africa but also in New Zealand and Australia. Ox-wagons were also used in the United States. T ...

or horse teams and charged by weight. Washed wool was lighter and did not cost as much to transport. The practice of washing the wool rather than the sheep evolved from the fact that hotter water could be used to wash the wool, than that used to wash the sheep. When the practice of selling wool in the grease occurred in the 1890s, wool washing became obsolete. Australia and New Zealand had to discard the old methods of wool harvesting and evolve more efficient systems to cope with the huge numbers of sheep involved. Shearing was revolutionized by the invention of an Australian sheepgrower,

Frederick York Wolseley Frederick York Wolseley (16 March 1837 – 8 January 1899) was an Irish-born New South Wales inventor and woolgrower who invented and developed the first commercially successful sheep shearing machinery after extensive experimentation. It revolut ...

. His machines made in Birmingham, England, by his business

The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Limited was a London-incorporated public listed company created to capitalize on a sheep-shearing machinery business established by Frederick Wolseley in Australia which was managed by Herbert Austin wh ...

were introduced after 1888, reducing second cuts and shearing time. By 1915 most large

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

sheds in Australia had installed machines, driven by steam or later by internal combustion engines. Shearing tables were invented in the 1950s and have not proved popular, although some are still used for

crutching Crutching refers to the removal of wool from around the tail and between the rear legs of a sheep for hygiene purposes. It can also refer to removing wool from the heads of sheep (''wigging'' or ''eye-wooling''). It does not refer to the proces ...

. In the US, the worldwide shortage of shearers is becoming a consideration for those wanting to expand wool production. With sheep numbers declining in that country the profession sees significantly less interest in becoming a qualified shearer. Importing labour during the Australian off-season has also become problematic because of delays in obtaining work visa and because shearers numbers are limited worldwide.

Modern shearing in Australia

Today large flocks of sheep are mustered, inspected and possibly treated for parasites such as

lice Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

before shearing can start. then shorn by professional shearing teams working eight-hour days, most often in spring, by machine shearing. These contract-teams consist of shearers, shed hands and a cook (in the more isolated areas). Their working hours and wages are regulated by industry awards. A working day starts at 7:30 am and the day is divided into four "runs" of two hours each. "Smoko" breaks are a half-hour each and a lunch break is taken at midday for one hour. Most shearers are paid on a piece-rate per sheep. Shearers who "tally" more than 200 sheep per day are known as "gun shearers". Typical mass shearing of sheep today follows a well-defined workflow: * remove the wool * throw the fleece onto the wool table * skirt, roll and class the fleece * place it in the appropriate wool bin * press and store the wool until it is transported. In 1984 Australia became the last country in the world to permit the use of wide combs, due to previous

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...

rules. Although they were once rare in sheds, women now take a large part in the shearing industry by working as pressers, wool rollers, rouseabouts,

wool classer Wool classing is the production of uniform, predictable, low-risk lines of wool, carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state and classing (grading) it accordingly. Wool classing is done by a wool classer. Basis for ...

s and shearers.

Wool removal

A sheep is caught by the shearer, from the catching pen, and taken to his "stand" on the shearing board. It is shorn using a mechanical handpiece (see ''Shearing devices'' below). The wool is removed by following an efficient set of movements, devised by

Godfrey Bowen Walter Godfrey Bowen (13 February 1922 – 2 January 1994) was a New Zealand farmer and world acclaimed sheep shearer. With his brother Ivan, he developed the Bowen Technique, which involved the shearer using his spare hand to stretch the sheep' ...

in about 1950 (the ''Bowen Technique'') or the ''Tally-Hi'' method developed in 1963 and promoted by the Australian Wool Corporation. Sheep struggle less using the Tally-Hi method, reducing strain on the shearer and there is a saving of about 30 seconds in shearing each one. The shearer begins by removing the belly wool, which is separated from the main fleece by a rouseabout, while the sheep is still being shorn. A professional or "gun" shearer typically removes a fleece, without significantly marking or cutting the sheep, in two to three minutes, depending on the size and condition of the sheep—less than two minutes in elite-competitive shearing. The shorn sheep is released and removed from the board via a chute in the floor or in a wall, to an exterior counting-out pen. The

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

in Australia has developed a non-mechanical method of shearing sheep using an injected

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

that creates a natural break in the wool fibres. After fitting a retaining net to enclose the wool, sheep are injected with the protein. When the net is removed after a week, the fleece has separated and is removed by hand. In some breeds a similar process occurs naturally

Fleece skirting

Once the entire fleece has been removed from the sheep, the fleece is ''thrown'', clean side down, on to a wool table by a shed hand (commonly known in New Zealand and Australian sheds as a ''

rouseabout Roustabout (Australia/New Zealand English: rouseabout) is an occupational term. Traditionally, it referred to a worker with broad-based, non-specific skills. In particular, it was used to describe show or circus workers who handled materials ...

'' or ''rousie''). The wool table top consists of slats spaced approximately 12 cm apart. This enables short pieces of wool, the ''locks'' and other debris, to gather beneath the table separately from the fleece. The fleece is then ''skirted'' by one or more wool rollers to remove the sweat fribs and other less desirable parts of the fleece. The removed pieces largely consist of shorter, seeded, burry or dusty wool etc. which is still useful in the industry. As such they are placed in separate containers and sold along with fleece wool. Other items removed from the fleece on the table, such as faeces, skin fragments or twigs and leaves, are discarded a short distance from the wool table so as not to contaminate the wool and fleece. Following the skirting of the fleece, it is folded, rolled and examined for its quality in a process known as

wool classing Wool classing is the production of uniform, predictable, low-risk lines of wool, carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state and classing (grading) it accordingly. Wool classing is done by a wool classer. Basis for ...

, which is performed by a registered and qualified wool classer. Based on its type, the fleece is placed into the relevant wool bin ready to be pressed (mechanically compressed) when there is sufficient wool to make a

wool bale A wool bale is a standard sized and weighted pack of classed wool compressed by the mechanical means of a wool press. This is the regulation required method of packaging for wool, to keep it uncontaminated and readily identifiable. A "bale of wool" ...

Rooing

In some primitive sheep (for example in many

Shetlands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

), there is a natural break in the growth of the wool in spring. By late spring this causes the fleece to begin to peel away from the body, and it may then be plucked by hand without cutting – this is known as ''rooing''. Individual sheep may reach this stage at slightly different times.

Shearing devices

Whatever device is used, shearers must be careful to keep it clean so as to prevent the spread of disease amongst a flock. Blade shearing has recently made a resurgence in Australia and the UK but mostly for sport rather than commercial shearing. Some competitions have attracted almost 30 competitors and there have even been shows created just for blade shearers to compete in.

Blade shears

Blade shears consist of two blades arranged similarly to

scissors Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutti ...

except that the hinge is at the end farthest from the point (not in the middle). The cutting edges pass each other as the shearer squeezes them together and shear the wool close to the animal's skin. Blade shears are still used today but in a more limited way. Blade shears leave some wool on a sheep and this is more suitable for cold climates such as the Canterbury high country in the South Island of New Zealand where approximately half a million sheep are still shorn with blade shears each year. For those areas where no powered-machinery is available blade shears are the only option. In Australia blades are more commonly used to shear stud rams.

Machine shears

Machine shears, known as handpieces, operate in a similar manner to human

hair clipper A hair clipper, often individually called the apparent plurale tantum hair clippers (in a similar way to ''scissors''), is a specialised tool used to cut human head hair. Hair clippers work on the same principle as scissors, but are distinct fro ...

s in that a power-driven toothed blade, known as a cutter, is driven back and forth over the surface of a comb and the wool is cut from the animal. The original machine shears were powered by a fixed hand-crank linked to the handpiece by a shaft with only two universal joints, which afforded a very limited range of motion. Later models have more joints to allow easier positioning of the handpiece on the animal. Electric motors on each stand have generally replaced overhead gear for driving the handpieces. The jointed arm is replaced in many instances with a

flexible shaft A flexible shaft, often referred to as a flex shaft, is a device for transmitting rotary motion between two objects which are not fixed relative to one another. It consists of a rotating wire rope or coil which is flexible but has some torsional s ...

. Smaller motors allowed the production of shears in which the motor is in the handpiece; these are generally not used by professional shearers as the weight of the motor and the heat generated by it becomes bothersome with long use.

Animal welfare

Animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity ...

organizations have raised concerns about the abuse of sheep during shearing, and have advocated against the selling and buying of wool products. Sheep shearers are paid by the number of sheep shorn, not by the hour, and there are no requirements for formal training or accreditation. Because of this it is alleged that speed is prioritised over precision and care of the animal. In 2013, an anonymous shearer reported instances of animal abuse by workers, an allegation to which an Australian Worker's Union representative added that he had witnessed "shearers gouge eyes and break sheep jaws."Kath Sullivan
Union concerned about shearers mistreating sheep
" ABC Rural, 17 October 2013. Australian Wool Innovation insisted that animal welfare was a priority among shearers. The following year, the

RSPCA The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest an ...

began a cruelty investigation following the release of video footage that

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

said was taken in more than a dozen shearing sheds in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. ''The Guardian'' reported that the video showed, "sheep being roughly handled, punched in the face and stamped upon. One sheep was beaten with a hammer while another was shown having a deep cut crudely sewn up." The Shearing Contractors Association of Australia "applauded" the investigation, and Wool Producers Australia president Geoff Fisken said the behavior shown in the video was "unacceptable and unsupportable" but that "we're sure it doesn't portray the 99.9% majority of wool shearers – and those shearers would be appalled by it as well". More recent footage and images of Australian workers abusing sheep have been released by anonymous sources, some of which was included in ''Dominion'', a recent Australian documentary on animal farm abuses. No comment has been made about this by the Shearing Contractors Association of Australia.

Shearing in culture

A culture has evolved out of the practice of sheep shearing, especially in post-colonial Australia and New Zealand. The sheep-shearing feast is the setting for Act IV of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

A Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...

''.

Thomas Tusser Thomas Tusser (c. 15243 May 1580) was an English poet and farmer, best known for his instructional poem ''Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry'', an expanded version of his original title, ''A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie'', first publishe ...

provides doggerel verse for the occasion:

Wife make us a dinner, spare flesh neither corne,
Make wafers and cakes, for our sheepe must be shorne,
At sheep shearing neighbors none other thing craue,
but good cheer and welcome, like neighbors to haue"

In Australia

Tom Roberts - Shearing the rams - Google Art Project

Shearing the Rams ''Shearing the Rams'' is an 1890 in art, 1890 painting by Australian artist Tom Roberts. It depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed. Distinctly Australian in character, the painting is a celebration of pastoral life a ...

'', a painting by Australian painter

Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...

is like an

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

for the livestock-growing culture or "life on the land" in Australia. It was parodied in

Michael Leunig Michael Leunig (born 2 June 1945), typically referred to as Leunig (his signature on his cartoons), is an Australian cartoonist. His works include ''The Curly Pyjama Letters'', cartoon books ''The Essential Leunig'', ''The Wayward Leunig'', ' ...

's ''Ramming the Shears''. The expression that Australia's wealth rode on ''the sheep's back'' in parts of the twentieth century no longer has the currency it once had. In 2001, Mandy Francis of Hardy's Bay, Australia, constructed a blackbutt seat for the Street Furniture Project at Walcha, NSW, Australia. This seat was inspired by the combs, cutters, wool tables and grating associated with the craft and industry of shearing. During Australia's long weekend in June 2010, 111 machine shearers and 78 blade shearers shore 6,000 Merino ewes and 178 rams at the historic 72 stand ''North Tuppal'' station. Along with the shearers there were 107 wool handlers and penners-up and more than 10,000 visitors to witness this event in the restored shed. Over this weekend the scene in Tom Robert's ''Shearing of the Rams'' was re-enacted twice for the visitors. Many stations across Australia no longer carry sheep due to lower wool prices, drought and other disasters, but their

s remain, in a wide variety of materials and styles, and have been the subject of books and documentation for heritage authorities. Some farmers are reluctant to remove either the equipment or the sheds, and many unused sheds remain intact.

Contests

Sheep shearing and wool handling competitions are held regularly in parts of the world, particularly Ireland, the UK, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. As sheep shearing is an arduous task, speed shearers, for all types of equipment and sheep, are usually very fit and well trained. In

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

a sheep shearing contest is one of the events of the

Royal Welsh Show The Royal Welsh Show ( cy, Sioe Frenhinol Cymru) is organised by the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, which was formed in 1904. It takes place in July of each year, at Llanelwedd, near Builth Wells, in Powys, Mid Wales. The first show was hel ...

, the country's premier agricultural show held near

Builth Wells Builth Wells (; cy, Llanfair-ym-Muallt) is a market town and community in the county of Powys and historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire), mid Wales, lying at the confluence of rivers Wye and Irfon, in the Welsh (or upper) part of ...

. The world's largest sheep shearing and wool handling contest, the

Golden Shears The Golden Shears International Shearing and Woolhandling Championships is the world's most prestigious sheep shearing event. It was founded in Masterton, New Zealand, and been held in the town's War Memorial Stadium each March since 1961. It in ...

, is held in the Wairarapa district, New Zealand. The shearing World Championships are hosted by different countries every 2–3 years and eight countries have hosted the event. The first World Championships were held at the Bath & West showground, England, in 1977, and the first Machine-Shearing winner was Roger Cox from New Zealand. Other countries that have hosted the sheep shearing World Championships have been New Zealand (3 times), England (3 times), Australia (2 times), Wales, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa & Norway. Out of 13 World Championships, New Zealand have won the team Machine contest 10 times, and famous New Zealand sheep-shearer

David Fagan Sir David Alexander Fagan (born 1961) is a New Zealand sheep shearer, who has won the New Zealand Golden Shears contest a record 16 times. From Te Kuiti, Fagan has set 10 world records, and won five world, six world team, and 16 national ti ...

has been World Champion a record 5 times. In October, 2008 the event was hosted in Norway. It was the first time ever that the event was hosted by a non-English speaking country. The newly crowned World Machine Shearing champion is Paul Avery from New Zealand. New Zealand also won the team event, and the traditional blade-shears World Champion is Ziewilelle Hans from South Africa. A record 29 countries competed at the 2008 event. The next World Championship will be held in France in July 2019. World Blade Shearing has been dominated by South African and Lesotho shearers, Fine Wool machine shearing dominated by Australian shearers, and New Zealand dominating the Strong Wool machine shearing.

References

External links

Golden ShearsWalter BowenFarmingAds How to Shear A Sheep
Sheep shearing information, Training, Competitions, World Shearing Records, World Shearing Championships {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheep Shearing Australian culture British culture

Shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...

Australian sheep industry Agriculture in New Zealand Sports originating in Australia