Shearing.

For our flock it was the first meeting with shears, or a shearing device. No wonder our sheep prudently hid in a safe place behind a straw barricade, sending curious goats to check what was going on. However, when they went to the ‘hairdressing armchair’ one by one, they were quite calm. The shearing does not last long; an experienced shearer needs a few minutes at the most for this. There are even world championships in this field. The best shearers can shear even 700 sheep in 8 hours, that is, 1.5 sheep per minute, and in New Zealand sheep shearing has even been a national sport since 1994.

Blackhead sheep are universal sheep raised for meat and just for wool. The shearing takes place once or twice a year, depending on the purpose of the wool. The growth of wool during a year is about 10 centimetres, and you get about 4 kg of fleece from one sheep.

Several kilograms lighter and deprived of wool, the sheep seemed quite surprised, but they quickly got used to the new situation. Anyway, they still had a few weeks before the herding, which is taking sheep to summer pastures, and their wool would grow a bit until then.