Annual Shearing
Nearly all sheep need to be sheared once a year, some breeds even need shearing twice and some breeds naturally shed their fleece, some of our sheep do, or at least they partially shed. Some people keep sheep specifically for the fact they can be sheared and provide a wonderful fleece! Most farmers nowadays don’t benefit financially from it and only shear for welfare issues. Sheep are usually shorn in early summer, May/June/July time, depending where in the country you are and how warm/cold it is at the time. It is necessary to shear them, if you don’t you run the risk of the sheep over heating in very hot weather and dramatically increase the risk of fly strike. Most lambs aren’t sheared until the following year, though some longwool breeds are sheared before the winter. If you buy lambs from us in July/August you won’t need to shear them until the following year. Its probably best to get a local farmer/shearer to shear the sheep for you if you aren’t confident enough to have a go yourself. But if you are, for a small number of sheep you can purchase some hand shears and find plenty of useful tutorials online, like I did! You can shear your sheep whilst they are tied and standing up it you aren’t strong enough to turn them over. Shearing takes practice to get good at it but it is great fun and personally I find it very therapeutic (though hard work)!