May 4, 2011
Each spring HREC shears the fleece (wool) off the sheep flock ...about 1000 head in all. The wool is removed for several reasons, 1) to market the wool... and this year's wool price is high, 2) to reduce problems of "fly-strike" (myiasis - a disease caused by a parasitic dipterous fly larvae that feeds on living tissue), and 3) and to remove the "wool sweater" from the sheep for the hot summertime period. HREC has slowed the shearing process down this year, having only one contract shearer instead of a "crew" of shearers. Here you see the shearer just releasing a ewe that was shorn and the resulting fleece.
