Updated 25 October 2026. Facts on this page come from minecraft.wiki, minecraft.net and the live Artemis PvP server; sources are listed at the bottom.
Wool Farm in Minecraft: Automatic Sheep Shearing
A wool farm shears sheep automatically: put a sheep on grass in front of a dispenser holding shears, and power the dispenser when the wool regrows. Sheep regrow wool by eating grass, about 63% within 50 seconds and over 90% within 2 minutes. Dye the sheep first and you get colored wool every time.
How do you build a simple wool farm?
- Place a dispenser facing sideways and put shears in it.
- Place grass blocks one block lower in front of it, where the sheep stands.
- Keep the sheep in place with fences or glass.
- Wire the dispenser to a clock or an observer; the sheared wool drops into a hopper below. Each shearing gives 1-3 wool.
- Dispensers: dispensers.
Why do the sheep need grass?
Sheep regrow wool only by eating grass, which turns it to dirt; grass spreads back over time. If the mob griefing game rule is off, sheep still regrow their wool but leave the grass untouched. Grass: bone meal and grass.
How do you get colored wool?
Use dye on a sheep and it keeps that color for every shearing, so one dye gives endless colored wool. Build a row of farms, one per color, and feed them all into one storage system so every color is ready for builds. Dyes: dyes. Sheep: sheep and wool.
What about string duplication?
Old wool farms that duplicated string with tripwires stopped working in Java 1.21.2, when string dupers were removed. Use shear farms instead. Uses of wool: wool and carpets.
Frequently asked questions
How fast does sheep wool grow back?
About 63% chance within 50 seconds, over 90% within 2 minutes.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against these pages; the wording is ours.