All adults have now had their haircuts and are looking very trim.

Shearing today is a welfare matter as over centuries man has selectively bred wool onto sheep as it was a highly prized natural material. So much so, that in years gone by the farms annual rent would have been paid for by the wool produced with the meat being an additional profit.

Today, things have vastly changed and sadly people seem to want to wear clothes made of plastic and cotton and have carpets made from the same plastic that is all refined from oil. As a result wool has lost its value and it costs more to shear a sheep than you get back when you sell the wool.

However wool remains a fantastic natural product that is a great carbon store and slowly but slowly it is getting a little bit more interest again but its nowhere near what it used to be.

So an alternative approach is to try to selectively breed the wool off the sheep again. This would restore them to how they were before they were domesticated. This would remove the risk of the animal getting flystrike which is caused by maggots laying eggs in dirty wool, but it seems a shame as wool is so sustainable and useful for everything from insultation to fertiliser.

You can rest assured that Paul is experimenting with reducing wool cover. The two photographs below are from two aged rams and you can see the difference in wool cover for yourself!