3. From fibres to wool

For getting wool, sheep are reared. Their hair is cut and used to make wool. Let us look at this technique in greater detail.

 

  

Travel to the hills in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, or the plains of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat. You can see herders carrying their herds of sheep for grazing. Sheep are herbivores and like grass and leaves. Apart from grazing sheep, rearers feed them on pulses, jowar, corn, oil cakes (material left after receiving oil from seeds) and minerals. In winter, sheep are held indoors and fed on leaves, grain and dry fodder.

 

Sheep are farmed for wool in various locations in our country. The names of sheep breeds raised in our country for wool production are included in the previous table. The table also shows the quality and texture of the fibres derived from them.

 

Some sheep breeds have a thick coat of hair on their body which yields fine quality wool in enormous quantities. These sheep are “selectively bred”, with one parent being a sheep of good breed. Once the reared sheep have produced thick hair, hair is shaved off to get wool.