Just about everybody, even individuals who didn’t develop up on a farm, know that sheep should be sheared of their wool.
That’s the solely method to get it off of them to show it into helpful clothes, in fact, however it’s additionally important for the wellbeing of the sheep since they don’t lose it naturally.
However do you know that wild sheep shed their wool with out the assistance of people? It’s true! However that brings up a great query: How did sheep ever shed their wool earlier than they had been domesticated?
Wild sheep shed their wool naturally through shedding, and by rubbing towards handy surfaces like rocks, cliff faces and timber.
Fascinating stuff, and it is sensible, however wild sheep undoubtedly do what most home sheep can’t.
In reality, home sheep are virtually completely depending on folks to take away their wool, or else it is going to grow to be an enormous downside.
On this article, I’ll inform you how sheep tailored to shed their very own wool earlier than being domesticated by people, and in addition look extra into their wool general…
Home Sheep Should Be Sheared to Stop Issues
The overwhelming majority of home sheep require regular shearing as a part of their general care routine, not only for the manufacturing of wool.
Shearing is solely the method of eradicating the wool from a sheep’s physique, like a haircut.
This has it has many advantages for the animal’s wellbeing, and neglecting to shear a sheep can result in a number of more and more critical issues, ones we are going to speak about in a single minute.
When sheep aren’t shorn, they grow to be overly woolly and their fleece turns into denser and ever extra matted, which makes it troublesome and tiring for them to simply transfer round.
This may additionally result in main warmth stress, particularly in sizzling climates.
Other than stopping well being points, common shearing additionally promotes wholesome fleece development, and improves the general high quality of the wool.
A well-shorn sheep can produce higher-quality wool that’s higher to be used in textiles and different merchandise.
Shearing additionally helps to stop the buildup of dust and particles inside the fleece, which may scale back the worth of the wool and make it much less fascinating to consumers.
What Occurs if You Don’t Shear a Sheep?
Neglecting to shear a sheep is just about dooming it to a sick, painful and depressing existence.
If a sheep is just not sheared commonly, it could undergo from a wide range of well being issues and illnesses except for being liable to heatstroke in sizzling climate.
As talked about earlier, the wool can grow to be matted and dense, making it troublesome for the sheep to maneuver round.
Wool is surprisingly heavy, and when filled with dust or mud or drenched in water, it could weigh a ton!
As well as, the wool can extra simply grow to be infested with parasites, comparable to lice and ticks, which may trigger additional well being issues for the animal.
It additionally has a nasty tendency to grow to be fouled with urine and feces, after which lay towards the poor sheep’s pores and skin, enormously accelerating lesions and different circumstances.
Over time, the wool will proceed to develop and grow to be thicker and thicker, resulting in a situation often called wool blindness.
This happens when the wool grows over the sheep’s eyes, obstructing its imaginative and prescient and inflicting the animal to grow to be disoriented.
In extreme circumstances, wool blindness may end up in the demise of the animal from mishap, because it turns into unable to navigate its atmosphere or discover meals and water.
For all of those causes, failure to shear a sheep will inevitably have dire penalties for the animal’s well being and well-being.
It’s crucial to conduct common shearing for nearly all home sheep species.
People Bred Sheep for Wool Retention Over the Centuries
Isn’t it unhappy that sheep are completely depending on us for shearing? How did this ever come to be. That half, no less than, is straightforward to clarify.
People have been breeding sheep for 1000’s of years, and one of many major causes for this breeding has been to enhance the standard and amount of wool that the animals produce.
Over time, people have selectively bred sheep with fascinating wool traits, comparable to size, power, and softness, whereas culling these with much less fascinating traits.
Selective breeding has additionally allowed people to create breeds of sheep which are higher tailored to completely different climates and environments.
Some sheep breeds are well-suited for chilly, moist climates, whereas others thrive in sizzling, arid environments.
This has allowed people to raise sheep in a variety of areas around the globe, making wool manufacturing a very international business.
And amongst all of those many, many home breeds of sheep, there’s one attribute that was chosen for time and time once more: wool retention.
Due to this, home sheep don’t drop their wool on their very own. It is sensible, for certain, as a result of in case you are elevating sheep for his or her wool you don’t need it falling off of them in clumps over time!
However the draw back to all this breeding is that almost all home breeds of sheep are actually unable to shed their wool on their very own in any significant manner.
Or no less than shed sufficient, and rapidly sufficient, to stop all the problems I talked about…
Wild Sheep Nonetheless Shed Their Wool Naturally
However not like home sheep, which require common shearing to handle their wool development, their wild sheep cousins advanced to shed their wool naturally and nonetheless achieve this to this very day.
In the event that they didn’t, they’d seemingly be extinct by now!
This course of is named molting, and permits wild sheep to shed their coats all on their very own within the spring and summer time.
Whereas wild sheep should require some grooming or upkeep of their coats, that is additionally achieved with out our assist; the sheep deal with it on their very own through pure behaviors comparable to rubbing towards timber or rocks.
Why Do Wild Sheep Lose Their Wool?
A yearly molt permits wild sheep to take care of their pure insulation towards chilly once they want it, and eliminate it to remain cooler once they don’t.
This shedding of the winter coat helps wild sheep adapt to altering environmental circumstances, as they put together for hotter climate.
In the end, they continue to be fairly comfy of their pure environments year-round. They usually do that with out the necessity for human intervention!
Throughout the molting course of, the outdated wool is steadily changed by new development regularly, which is usually lighter and fewer dense.
To assist the method alongside, wild sheep will scratch and scratch on any handy floor, rubbing backwards and forwards to dislodge outdated wool in large chunks alongside what simply falls out as shed.
Are There Any Home Sheep Breeds That Don’t Want Shearing?
Whereas most home sheep breeds require common shearing to handle their wool development, there are a number of exceptions.
These breeds have been selectively bred over time to supply wool that also sheds naturally, eliminating or enormously decreasing the requirement of shearing for well being, no less than.
These home breeds are often called “hair sheep” versus wool sheep.
One instance of a widely known home sheep breed that doesn’t require shearing is the Barbados Blackbelly sheep, which is native to the Caribbean and got here round as the results of British cross-breeding efforts.
This breed has a brief, coarse coat that sheds naturally, making it well-suited to sizzling and humid climates.
One other breed that doesn’t require shearing is the Katahdin. Created in Maine through the center of the twentieth century, this breed is understood for being clean haired, wholesome and hardy.
One other is the South African Dorper, identified extra for its glorious leather-based than its sparsely wooly and naturally shedding coat. These are among the finest sheep for warm climates.
These are just some examples, and there are a number of different hair sheep that don’t want shearing.
However most home sheep do, and many of the hair breeds are comparatively uncommon and will not be as well-suited to most environments or widespread makes use of as our normal wool breeds.
Be sure to analysis them effectively earlier than you make investments on a whim.
