what happens to a sheep if it isn't shorn?

Question

are they dependent on people to sheer them? would they just keep growing wool until they died of heat in the summer??

Answer 1

OK, how long hair grows (in all animals with hair, including us, not just sheep) is down to two factors...

1) How quickly the hair follicle grows hair, and

2) For how long the hair follicle will continue to grow before it becomes dormant for a while and the hair falls out.

If the follicles grow hair quickly and for a long time, then they will tend to grow long hair. If they grow slowly and for only a short time, you get short hair. That's why the hair on our heads tends to be longer than on, um? "other" parts of our body. :)

When animals moult, it is simply a process of these settings getting changed. In the summer the follicles will grow more slowly and for shorter periods than in winter.

So, in theory, sheep should manage their own hair length perfectly well. In practice, the human influenced breeding of sheep may have bred out this natural process, but I'm afraid I don't know enough about sheep to be able to tell you if that's true or not.

Answer 2

It depends on the breed. Some ancient breeds of sheep shed their wool naturally anyway (e.g. Soay) and never need shearing, some are a half-way house between naturally shedding and types that need to be shorn. In this case they would probably start to shed their fleece naturally after a bit. Finally, modern domestic breeds have been heavily selected for retaining their fleece and they lose very little over the summer months. They will start to grow a new fleece in the winter and it is true that they just add to what they already have. These breeds need to be shorn each year. That's what human selection has done to them.

Answer 3

They found this sheep up in the highland mountains in Scotland that had been running away from the sheepdog and never came in to get shorn. It ended up looking like a rastafarian sheep all dreadlocks and matted bits. Originally when sheep were wild they probably didn't get like this but years of breeding sheep to get the maximum wool from them means they are now reliant on man to shear them.

Answer 4

That is very cruel and no sheep cannot live without someone to take care of them. They are as helpless as a baby.
The wool gets fleas and ticks and almost like a fungus growth under it. In the spring you have to shear it off and scrub them down with stuff to kill the bugs and fungus and the wool you can sell. It is full of lanolin and they pay good for wool and by winter it has grown back enough to keep them warm all winter.
In the winter time it is cold and they don't get that bad stuff under thier coat.

Answer 5

Blue bottles would lay their eggs on the fleece. The eggs would then hatch out in to maggots which would then eat into the flesh of the sheep. Known as Fly Strike. Its the reason that dipping of sheep occurs.
Some breeds of sheep will naturally use there fleeces over the summer and it will fall out like some people lossing there hair.

Answer 6

no they malt like a dog not as short as if they were shorn,

probably just surmising here the ancients first started using the bits of wool that fell off to start making fabrics with.

Answer 7

eventually their fur/wool grows out so much, that the force of any strong wind acting upon the surface area of their fur/wool can cause them to become airborne.
once they enter thermal flows they are elevated above 1000 ft and become clouds.
rain is actually sheep crying because they are scared and want to come back down.

Answer 8

those sheep are bred especially to produce that wool, while a wild one isn't. with out human intervention, the species of sheep does no longer exist, and with out human intervention, it is going to die off.

Answer 9

They would moult. Sheep have been bred to produce more wool than is natural. Left to nature they don't produce as much.

Answer 10

nothing, nature takes care of itself the hair would reach a natural equilibrium. , sheep existed way before humans, however i reckon the fact thay tey have been bred specifically for fleece might mean that it would take a while