Sheep shearing on Rowley Farm

Sheep shearing on Rowley Farm usually takes place in June of each year. 

We employ a gang of sheep shearers to come to the farm for a day.  They bring a trailer which is set up with a handling system for the sheep.  Our 350 flock only usually take them about 3 hours to finish.  This year our daughter helped to wrap the fleeces which are then put into large sacks before we sell them.

In the UK we shear sheep for several different reasons, the following are the main reasons:

• To keep the sheep cool.  Many sheep’s winter coats are about 2-3 inches thick and therefore it would be like wearing a thick woolly jumper when the sun is out in full force.  Less wool, the cooler the sheep are
• For the wool.  After shearing, the wool is sold to the Wool Marketing board.  Most wool in the UK is not worth that much and it usually costs a lot more to shear the sheep than what the wool is worth
• Flystrike (the health of the sheep) – flystrike is when flies find a damp area of wool and lay eggs which then hatch into maggots.  The maggots then eat away at the lamb flesh and can result in septicaemia and usually kill a sheep.  When sheep do not have the thick woolly coat, it is less likely that flies will lay their eggs.