Vermilion, Alberta (Rural Roots Canada) – Sheep shearing is an ancient tradition dating back to the earliest days of agriculture and in the 21st century, Reba Fajnor is keeping the tradition alive and well.
Fajnor, from Saskatchewan, recently showcased her sheep shearing skills at Chatsworth Farm in Vermilion, Alberta, for Open Farm Days, giving a few sheep a much-needed haircut.
“We domesticated sheep several thousand years ago,” she explains. “Sheep could shed their own wool every year, like most wild animals do, but we bred that ability out of them when we domesticated them, so it’s our responsibility to give them that haircut every year.”
Shearing the wool off sheep doesn’t hurt the animals, explains Fajnor. Removing the wool annually helps keep sheep healthy, as a thick layer of wool can become heavy, dirty, and home to parasites.
“These aren’t tame animals necessarily, so they don’t always like being handled, but shearing them in and of itself doesn’t hurt them,” says Fajnor. “We want to get it off every year to keep them comfortable and healthy.”
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Most wool is used for textiles, and Canadian wool is no exception. However, Fajnor says the type of wool produced by sheep in Canada has plenty of other uses, too.
“It can be used in gardening as a mulch to keep the roots cool and the water in. You can use it around planting trees. There are even pelletizing mills now, where they’re punching it through a little die and getting really tiny pieces so you can rototill it,” she notes.
Canadian wool is also considerably absorbent, which also helps with product diversification and usage.
“It’s being looked at as a way to clean up oil spills, for example, as it sucks up a lot of stuff,” says Fajnor. “It’s also highly insulating. It can be used for insulating outbuildings or whatever you need to keep warm.”
Sheep wool has an oily feel. That waxy substance is called lanolin, which also has several practical uses according to Fajnor. “Sheep produce lanolin on their skin. It is a wax. It feels oily, but it is a wax, and it conditions their skin and wool as it grows, keeping it from getting tangled and matted. It waterproofs their skin a little bit, keeps them comfortable, and helps repel some of the insects that get down to their skin. It serves a lot of purposes.”
It’s also a by-product of the wool production industry and is used in human products, too. “The lanolin can be removed from the wool, and is used in skin cream and stuff like that.”
From skin care to spill cleanup, and textiles to tree planting, wool’s versatility underscores why the ancient practice of sheep shearing remains just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.
