Editors Note: Although FarmShares features the fine vegetables, fruits, and nuts of the Capay Valley, livestock is also a valuable contributor to our local agriculture. Valley farms and ranches raise cattle, pigs, goats, poultry and lamb for a diversity of benefits, including meat, dairy, and fiber products as well as sustainable land management. Here’s a fun interview with Dru Rivers to discuss Full Belly Farm’s flock of sheep.

Why do sheep get sheared?

Well actually, “shorn” is the right word! It happens once per year because they get really hot in the summer and need their wool off. The wool, if it stays on for too long will get really matted and loose a lot in quality. We always shear in May, right before it gets hot, but not too early because we also don’t want them to get too cold!

What do you do with the wool?

We sort the wool carefully and put it in big bins and then send it to a spinning facility called Green Mountain Spinnery. There, they spin it into beautiful yarn. They are the only certified organic spinnery in the U.S. We chose them so that the yarn can be certified organic.

Who shears the sheep?

His name is Daryl Darling and he has been shearing our sheep for many years. He is one of the top shearers in the country and has won many competitions for speed and quality Believe it or not, he has been in sheep shearing competitions all over the world. The one in New Zealand is called the Golden Shears. The Golden Shears is watched by the whole country.

Daryl brings this old, rickety, but very functional trailer that the sheep walk into up a ramp so that the sheep shearer can easily access them and shear them without a struggle. Sheep shearers often get bad backs, but the trailer makes it easier. Daryl can shear a sheep in about 6 to 7 minutes. This year, he and one helper did 95 sheep in about 3 hours.

So how many sheep are there at Full Belly?

We have 200 sheep. But in the spring we only shear the ewes (the moms) and we leave the lambs un-shorn. We shear the lambs in August.

What kinds of sheep do you have?

A mix of Rambouillet and Marino, plus there is a little Lincoln blood in the herd. These are mostly wool breeds, but also good for meat. We also now have a few Romney-Wensleydale crosses. Romney wool grows very long. Sometimes you need to shear them twice per year. Their wool is world-renowned for its luster and softness.

When did Full Belly start keeping sheep?

Our first sheep came 26 years ago as a Holiday present. One ewe and one lamb.

Why does Full Belly keep sheep?

The sheep are an amazing tool for us on this organic farm. We move them around the crops and they eat down the crop residues from each field and at the same time they fertilize fields, all the while providing us with wool and meat! They used to be used on many farms — they are such a dual purpose animal!

How did you learn all about sheep?

I spent a year in New Zealand working on various sheep farms and I also spent five months in Norway working on a sheep farm.

Is there anything else that you want to tell our CSA members?

I helped to sort the wool when we sheared the sheep, and afterwards there was a lot of lanolin on my hands. It made me think about what an amazing fiber the sheep produce. They secrete that lanolin on their wooly pelts in order to shed water. That wool, made into sweaters (especially if it is cleaned to preserve some of its lanolin) can provide naturally waterproofed fibers. Lanolin is sometimes used in chap stick, shoe polish and for a number of medical purposes. Baseball players are purported to use it to break in their baseball gloves!

By Judith Redmond

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