We’re putting our woolen clothes away, but sheep can’t get ready for the warm weather so easily. These days they need a little help from their human friends. “Long ago sheep didn’t grow as much wool as they do now,” explains Mark Johnson, agricultural specialist at Kline Creek Farm. “And because their nutrition wasn’t very good the wool used to break off. But sheep are the oldest domesticated species and man has influenced which ones could reproduce into order to produce ones that would grow more wool.”
But a coat of wool that can be from 4 to 6 inches thick is incompatible with warm weather, so farmers shear the sheep in the springtime. At several places in the Chicagoland area visitors are welcome to watch. “We like to do it in April so that a little bit of wool can grow back before summer,” says Johnson. “You don’t want the sheep running around naked in July because they can get sunburned.”
Johnson and a few volunteers at Kline Creek Farm will show how sheep used to be sheared and the way it’s done today. They will use a modern electric-powered shears and one with a motor that needs to be hand-cranked by a helper. The event at Graue Mill and Museum will include a competition called “From Sheep to Shawl.” “In pioneer days women from different towns used to come with spinning wheels and looms and the group that was first to finish making a shawl was the winner,” explains Sandy Brubaker, who will be spinning wool.
Here are a number of events where you can watch sheep being sheared:
Ryerson Conservation Area, 21950 N. Riverwoods Rd., Deerfield, 847-948-7750: Sheep shearing and border collie herding demonstration, 1:30 p.m. Sunday ; $3 Lake County residents, $4 non-residents.
Kline Creek Farm, County Farm Road a half-mile south of North Avenue, Winfield, 630-876-5900: Sheep shearing and demonstrations of wool scouring, carding and spinning, 12:30-3:30 p.m. April 20 and 27; free.
Spring Valley Nature Sanctuary and Volkening Heritage Farm, 1111 E. Schaumburg Rd., Schaumburg, 847-985-2100: Springtime on the Farm, 1880s country fair that includes sheep shearing, music, crafts and games, noon-4 p.m. May 5; free.
Graue Mill and Museum, York and Spring Roads, a quarter mile north of Ogden Avenue, Oak Brook, 630-655-2090: Sheep shearing, noon and 2, 3 and 4 p.m. May 19; the event will also include spinning and weaving demonstrations; free. FIELD TRIP
