CANFIELD — Travis Johnson said the key to shearing sheep successfully is to get them seated on their rear so they will sit still.

Johnson, of Malvern in Carroll County, spent four hours Saturday at the Canfield Fair demonstrating how to shear sheep and then letting the public have a sample of the sheared fleece.

“Probably the most important thing I have learned is to know how to handle them to get them in such a position where you can shear them. If you can’t do that, you are going to have trouble. Once you are able to get them seated you can get your movement down to shear them. From there, it should be a smooth transition,” he said.

The smooth transition showed as Johnson sheared two sheep in less then five minutes, which he did as part of the each half-hour demonstration.

The public could sit in bleachers on the main floor of a large barn building or on the second floor and watch the demonstration.

Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep’s wool is called a shearer. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year.

Johnson said he has learned to shear sheep more quickly with experience.

“You gain more endurance the more you get used to doing this,” he said.

The sheep he had with him had been sheared early last spring and then again this weekend, which helps to cool them off in hot weather.

Johnson said he was shearing only about a dozen sheep during the day at the fair. He said he can have as many as 100 sheep to shear on some jobs.

David Clouser of Polk said in the United States, people often shear 100 to 300 sheep per day but in Australia where there are lot more sheep they can shear between 2,000 and 3,000 per day. He said most shearing is done between January and May.

He said the fleece from the sheep on Saturday was placed in a large pile and the public was given a plastic bag to take some with them. Whatever else is left is shipped to a company in South Carolina where the fleece and wool are used.

Siblings Mila Smith, 8, Alleia Smith, 7, and Cameron Smith, 3, who were at the fair with their family, were among those getting samples of the fleece.

“It is really soft when you touch it,” Mila said.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com