Talk:Sheep shearing

Create this article

"Sheep shearing" shouldn't redirect to "Sheep shearer", so I suggest to remove the redirect and create an article somewhat along these lines:

• Summary
• 1. Historical shearing
• 2. Shearing today
• 3. Shearing "workflow"
• 3.1 The sheep-catching/catching pen
• 3.2 Shearing
• 3.3 Fixing cuts, etc.
• 3.4 Throwing fleece
• 3.5 Skirting/separating parts of fleece and rolling
• 3.6 Wool classification
• 4. Shearer
• 5. Shearing devices
• 6. Shearing culture
• 7. References

Any more ideas on this? Lisa 02:05, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

I think your right. Charles Esson 05:36, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Sheep Wool

Would a sheep's wool keep growing if it's not sheared? How to keep it warm after shearing?

Yes the wool keeps growing. A sheep is ruminant; the fermetation of their food generates heat; the keys to keeping the animals warm are: a) Don't shear in winter. b) Provide shelter. c) Feed them them well. Charles Esson 05:36, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

New Zealand and Australian View

In the classing section I altered the article so the wool is put in a bale instead of a bale or bag. I did this because the rest of the article talks about how it is done in Australia and New Zealand.

The problem is Australian and New Zealand represent only about 36% of the wool industry. South Africa (1% of the clip) (1986 personal experance) for instance still uses hand shears for a large proportion of their clip. USA ( 0.7% 0f the clip) use wool bags not bales; how do china do it? At 18% of the clip how chine shears is of interest.

Charles Esson 05:36, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

In South Africa, shearers earn much less than in Australia and New Zealand. As a carry on from apardhied, pay for labourer type jobs is much lower than for "skilled work" (mind you - good luck shearing a sheep your first time around). In these circumstances, it is easier to just hire more workers, than it is to buy machinery.

I understand that South Africans do quite well at the "Golden shears" type competitions.

Given they are still in use, it is a shame that the photo of hand shears is an antique which is not in usable condition. It is especially a shame because I wanted to steal it for mulesing, but given the general POV issues there the last thing I want to do is imply rusty shears are used for cutting skin off sheep... Garrie 05:51, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Wages

I just returned from NZ visit and was told shearers get approx. NZ$1.50 per sheep.--Billymac00 (talk) 18:56, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Illustration

I don't think the recent addition of Sheepshearing.jpg at Machine Shears adds anything. It shows a sheep held in a grooming stand with its back unevenly shorn and belly still covered. Whatever is going on there is not standard shearing practice.Cstaffa (talk) 15:05, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I fully agree!Cgoodwin (talk) 04:17, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Past Tense

There is a reference to the "past tense" of the verb being either "sheared" or "shorn" depending on dialect. I think this is imprecise to the point of being misleading. Obviously there is not just one way of expressing past action in the English language. Without further qualification, "past tense" usually refers to the preterite (simple past tense) and not the perfect tense (which is formed using the present tense of the verb to have and the past participle). The examples given of differences in the "past tense" of the verb to shear are actually examples of differences in the past participle of the verb rather than in the preterite. As far as I'm aware the preterite form of this verb doesn't differ. Preterite = sheared (e.g. "I sheared 100 sheep") Past participle = shorn or sheared (e.g. "I have shorn 100 sheep" or "I have sheared 100 sheep"). Apodeictic (talk) 17:32, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Quite right. I've changed it, giving examples to show which past tense it applies to. Richard New Forest (talk) 19:35, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Cold weather

What exactly happens in colder climes? Do they only shear sheep in the summer, or do they send them back out to the fields to fair freeze in winter? This isn't adequately explained in the article. 86.161.144.200 (talk) 17:50, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

They are normally shorn in summer, and by the time winter comes they've grown plenty enough wool to keep warm. Actually they don't need too much fleece for warmth – and of course other similarly-sized animals with quite short fur manage perfectly well, such as most goats, dogs, calves etc. More often their fleece makes them too hot.

Late last autumn I sheared one of our ewes because she had fly strike. She then moulted all the rest of her wool, leaving her completely naked just as the frosts began. She did seem cold, so I got her a dog coat – but after a few weeks she had grown a centimetre or so of wool and didn't need it any more, even when we had several days of minus 10 C over Christmas. (In fact she'd got so fat in the yard on all the extra hay that she didn't fit in the coat any more...)

We do need to make the timing of shearing clearer in the article. Richard New Forest (talk) 22:19, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Sheep are shorn in all seasons, depending on management requirements. Ewes are normally shorn prior to lambing, but consideration is made as to the welfare of the lambs by not lambing during cold climate winters. Shorn sheep tolerate frosts well, but young sheep especially will die in cold, wet windy weather (even in cold climate summers). In this event they are shedded for several nights until the weather clears. Some sheep may also be shorn with stud combs which leave more wool on the animal, giving greater protection. The moult that Richard has referred to is as a result of sickness, fly strike etc. and this leaves a sheep quite bare after all the fleece has lifted.Cgoodwin (talk) 22:48, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

In Britain shearing is almost always done in summer, but I don't know about elsewhere.

My fly-strike sheep is a Shetland, and they moult naturally in spring, so that may be why she moulted quite readily after the fly-strike. She's OK now, despite having had an area of 40 by 50 cm stripped of skin. Very fat though... Richard New Forest (talk) 20:28, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Shearing Season? Climate considerations?

I came to the article seeking information about the time of year when shearing is done and found no information. The article is lopsided with its down-under orientation. What health considerations go into deciding when the shear sheep? The article badly needs expansion by people who have knowledge of these things. Thanks.
Telpardec (talk) 12:23, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Globalize

I noticed the history section focuses on Australia and New Zealand. While admittedly those are among the top producers of wool today, sheep-shearing is over 5,000 years old. I have no direct knowledge of the subject, but I think this ought to be addressed. Lockesdonkey (talk) 23:19, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Rousing

@Donama: Please would someone inject a consistent use of their personal favourite name for the highly skilled person that works in the shearing shed. I like Rousabout. I'm not sure the latest link provided is appropriate unless its to an etymologist talking technical stuff. Eddaido (talk) 22:43, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I think the link should remain and sources need to be consulted to figure out how to deal with different spellings of the word or just use the proper spelling. Growing up working in Australian shearing sheds, I only ever heard/used "rousie" but it is absolutely a corruption/shortening of the word roustabout. Donama (talk) 22:56, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I think your "corruption" only relates to etymology. And about spelling try the Google test and relate it to the occupation under discussion. I did. I believe there are Oxford English dictionaries for both Australian and New Zealand usages, what do they say? Eddaido (talk) 23:48, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

@Donama:
rouseabout /cannot type characters/ n. & v. NZ & Aust > n. an unskilled labourer or odd jobber, esp. on a farm. > v.intr. work as a rouseabout.
rousie /cannot type characters/ n. NZ & Aust. colloq. = ROUSEABOUT.

quotation from: The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary Edited by Tony Deverson and Graeme Kennedy. This dictionary is the first large-scale English dictionary especially prepared for New Zealand users. Compiled at the New Zealand Dictionary Centre in Wellington, it reflects research into New Zealand words and their use, including new words, and new uses of older words that have evolved in New Zealand. The dictionary also reflects research into international English conducted by Oxford dictionary centres worldwide. The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary contains over 100,000 definitions, including over 12,000 New Zealand entries and a wide range of encyclopedic information. BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Publisher: Oxford University Press Print Publication Date: 2005 Print ISBN-13: 9780195584516 Published online: 2005 Current Online Version: 2005 DOI: 10.1093/acref/9780195584516.001.0001 eISBN: 9780191735226

No entry for (my) rousabout.

A solution might be to use rousie. Eddaido (talk) 02:14, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Sure, we are currently using "rouseabout/rousie" anyway. Thanks for checking this out. Donama (talk) 02:16, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Redirection from 'Shearing'

I was redirected to 'Sheep shearing' after entering 'Shearing' while actually searching for the pianist 'George Shearing' whose given name I didn't remember. I had expected to be directed to a 'Disambiguation' page that would offer a list of options to choose from. It was only when I explicitly typed in 'Shearing disambiguation' that I was directed towards the page titled Shear. Merely by accident I spotted an expression including 'shearing' that didn't seem to have anything to do with the term 'to shear', sheep, or wool further down that page. So I kept scrolling. The section titled 'Surnames' eventually brought me to the musician's wikipedia article I was really looking for. But before that I was close to giving up. I just couldn't imagine there wasn't anything on George Shearing... There seem to be several issues at the same time concerning this obstructed search. I feel I shouldn't have been redirected to 'Sheep Shearing' in the first place. I feel I shouldn't be directed directly to the 'Shear' page on entering 'Shearing'. At least there ought to be somekind of hint or an alternative link. It might actually be a good thing to have the surname 'Shearing' on that 'Shear' page - as kind of an 'extra' (the logic seemingly being to guide people searching for articles related to the participle or adjective 'shearing' and related or derived terms to the respective articles via the base form.) There ought to be a preliminary page for 'Shearing' branching off to further options, I guess.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Korinthus (talk • contribs) 21:14, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

World Championships need updating.

It currently says the upcoming one is in 2019. Crushcastles23 (talk) 06:22, 1 May 2023 (UTC)