16 sheep are sheared the moment their wool grows back: observers notice when a sheep eats grass and fire a dispenser with shears. The wool is pushed up through the ceiling into a water channel and two chests. Shulkercraft gives about 800 wool per hour; our tests measured about 1,200.
This design works in Minecraft Java 1.16.4+.
Tick what you have gathered — it is remembered together with your step progress.
White Stained Glass5 stacks + 45×365
Shears2 stacks + 16×144
Observer×41
Jack o'Lantern×16
Spruce Trapdoor×16
Powered Rail×15
Hopper×10
Water Bucket×10
Smooth Stone×9
Dispenser×8
Dropper×8
Note Block×8
Spruce Fence×8
Sticky Piston×8
Dirt×7
Honey Block×5
Chest×4
Lever×1A sheared sheep regrows its wool only by eating grass (grass → dirt); the dirt turns back into grass by itself when grass is next to it. An observer detects the change and the dispenser shears the sheep. Our tests measured about 1,200 wool per hour on 1.17.1, 1.21.11 and 26.3 alike.
The lever line underneath pulses all units at once; flipping it does not move the note blocks (tested), so the farm keeps running afterwards.
Items that end up inside a full block are pushed out sideways or upwards, never down – here they travel up through the glass and grass layers into the water channel. Glass does not suffocate the sheep.
The design is by Jetmaymendo ("Lag Efficient Wool Farm", 1.16.4+); Shulkercraft's tutorial builds a 16-sheep version. Since 1.21.5 natural sheep colours depend on the biome – dye them for the colours you want.
~1,176 White Wool/h — Measured on 26.3 (Oct 15, 2026). Measured with our automated test on a local Minecraft server (fake player at the AFK spot); your rate depends on render distance, difficulty and surroundings.
This is the only version of this farm so far.
Download the original The schematic / world is offered by the creator or the tutorial author — we link to the original download.
Every sheep stands on its own grass block. A sheep only regrows its wool by eating grass, which turns the grass into dirt – an observer sees that and fires the dispenser next to the sheep, which shears it at once. A dropper behind every dispenser keeps it supplied with shears.
The clever part is the collection: the sheep's heads are inside a glass layer, so the wool appears inside solid glass. An item stuck in a block is pushed upwards, through the glass and the grass layer above it, until it reaches a water channel on top, which carries it to hoppers and two double chests. No hoppers under the sheep means very little lag. Dye the sheep for coloured wool.
