What’s Rooing?
It’s Rooing Time
One of the things we were interested in seeing at Fiber Fusion 2024 at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds was a demonstration of rooing. I’d seen a definition of rooing as plucking wool from certain breeds of sheep, kind of like you pluck the loose hair from a fluffy dog. So, I had imagined someone grooming and plucking their sheep daily and collecting the wool over time. Sounds laborious and time consuming. I was so happy to have someone actually show me what it’s about.
Sapphire (I think that was her name) was the Icelandic sheep volunteer. Icelandic sheep have the gene that promotes molting and allows wool to be peeled off.
Here Sapphire is getting rooed. Her owner, Maia, is holding up some of the wool she has peeled off.
First the sheep needs to have the “molting” gene that their wild ancestors had before them. From what I was told Icelandic sheep have this gene. The gene controls the way their wool grows. One year the hair grows in one direction and then in about March the hair stops and grows in the opposite direction. This creates a weakness that allows the wool to break and be peeled off.
Sheep being rooed (wool peeled off).
How does a sheep’s wool come off in the wild?
A wild sheep or a domesticated sheep with the “molt” gene, will rub their wool off against trees and rocks, leaving their tufts and hunks of wool hanging about. Which is great for the environment and gives birds nest making material. For domestic sheep rooing, helps get the job done all at once.
Big horned sheep molting in the wild.
Watcha gonna do with the wool you grew?
Shrek the Sheep broke loose and lived 6 years without a shave, he ended up with 60 pounds of wool. This is not the record! Other sheep have weighed in with 80 to 90 extra pounds.
Most domestic sheep do not have the molting gene and need to be shorn every year. I’m sure you’ve all heard about sheep who’ve run away, or been lost and have finally been found with 60 to 90 pounds of extra weight on them from wool. Shrek the Sheep pictured above, escaped and eluded capture for six years, living in caves. When finally apprehended, he was barely able to walk and was burdened with 60 pounds of wool.
Sheep produce between 2 to 30 pounds of wool a year. This is great for breeds that are used to produce fiber. The trouble now is an overabundance of the coarser wool that comes from animals bred for meat. In order to keep these sheep healthy they must be shorn once a year. Lately with the falling market for coarser wool, farmers have been losing money as the sale of this wool does not cover the cost of getting their sheep shorn.
Lately farmers are looking into different uses for this coarser wool, including fertilizer pellets and using wool like moss in planters to help defray the cost of shearing. Both of these were on display at the Fiber Fusion 2024. See more information in this NPR news article: “Wool prices are so low, Midwest sheep producers have to find new uses — or raise sheep without it.”
Hanging basket seen at Fiber Fusion 2024 using wool to line the basket, instead of moss. Wool like moss holds in moisture..