Large crowd on hand for sheep shearing
Breeanna Stanford, right, shows off a newly-shorn registered Hampshire sheep to visitors during last Wednes- day’s (May 18) annual Sheep Shearing Day at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The event had been postponed from May 5 because of inclement weather, but this day the weather cooperated and was not a factor.
Museum staff and volunteers helped herd cars into parking lots and visitors into the barn and animal pen areas where the shearing took place. There was even a “train” pulled by a farm tractor to shuttle visitors from the parking fields on the west side of the museum property to the farm area. Most of the sheep were of the Border Leicester variety, a British breed of polled, long-wool white sheep, which are large but very docile. Registered Hampshire sheep were also on hand.
Before shearing, each sheep’s hooves were trimmed, which needs to be done several times a year. The shearing of the wool is usually done once a year, in the spring. The museum’s sheep-shearing event is held every spring.
“It’s over a decade that we’ve been doing this now,” said Will Meyer, the museum’s marketing director. Because the museum — which also is a working demonstration farm — doesn’t have a large population of its own sheep, most of those sheared during the event were brought in.
Shearers said the sheep mostly don’t mind the shearing, and as observers saw, they generally remained quite docile as they were held gently and sheared with electric shearers.
There were also wool spinners and weavers on hand to show visitors how the sheared wool is processed and made into finished products, such as sweaters.
Other activities included sheep herding, interactive children’s programs, animal meets and greets, historic demonstrations, live music and museum tours.