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 considering each year (a sheep may be said to have been “shorn” or “sheared”, depending on dialect). The annual shearing most often occurs in a shearing shed, a skill especially designed to process often hundreds and sometimes beyond 3,000 sheep per day.

Sheep are shorn in all seasons, depending upon the climate, management requirements and the availability of a woolclasser and shearers. Ewes are normally shorn prior to lambing in the warmer months, but consideration is typically made as to the welfare of the lambs by not shearing during cold climate winters. However, in tall country regions, pre lamb shearing encourages ewes to take aim shelter accompanied by the hillsides correspondingly that newborn lambs aren’t extremely exposed to the elements. Shorn sheep understand frosts well, but teenager sheep especially will vacillate in cold, wet windy weather (even in cold climate summers). In this issue they are shedded for several nights until the weather clears. Some sheep may as a consequence be shorn afterward stud combs commonly known as cover combs which leave more wool upon the animal in colder months, giving greater protection.