Two weeks ago was shearing day here at the farm. We had a young fellow and his father come out and shave all our sheep – except Pumpernickel, who seemed to have some really tough wool near her skin, and he didn’t want to force things and cut her, so she is half shaved and half stubble. Very punk.
Are sheep normally shorn in the fall? Don’t they get cold in the winter?
‘Normal’ sheep are generally shorn in the spring – the Icelandic sheep produce a large amount of wool (I think about 12″/year), so you can shear them twice, and an inch or two will grow back before it really starts to get cold. The wool will also naturally break in the spring, and you need to shear before that happens, or you will have a weak spot in the wool – in the ‘old days’ this trait (other breeds have it too) made for easy wool collection when shears weren’t common, since you could just comb out the wool.