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. The annual shearing most often occurs in a shearing shed, a facility especially designed to process often hundreds and sometimes more than 3,000 sheep per day. A working group of shearers and accompanying wool workers is known as a shearing gang.
Machine shearing a Merino, Western Australia. The shearer is using a sling for back support.
Shears and cowbells c. 250 AD Spain
Sheep in modern Crete
Throwing a fleece onto a wool table.
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool.
Wool before processing
Unshorn Merino sheep
Shorn sheep
Champion hogget fleece, Walcha Show