Many Australian’s can easily conjure childhood memories of sheep shearers demonstrating their craft at Shows across the country.
But what about the sheep? Here’s a few facts to get you started. You can estimate the age of a sheep by its teeth. Sheep only have front teeth in their lower jaw, but have molars at the back on both their top and bottom jaws. It’s not uncommon for the ewes or female sheep to give birth to twins, and even triplets.
The first mechanical shearing hand piece in Australia was used during 1887 — before that shearers used large hand shears, just like big scissors. Whilst human hair grows about 10mm per month, wool grows about 6mm per month and lanolin, the natural oil in wool coats each fibre and helps give the fleece its unique insulation properties.