2 Ways to Make a Minecraft Wool Farm: Automatic & Manual

Written by Kyle Smith

Last Updated: October 25, 2022

Trying to build a wool farm in Minecraft? There are a couple ways to go about it! Make a manual farm by leading sheep to a fenced area near your base. Build an automatic farm by placing an observer under a dispenser containing shears. The sheep triggers the observer and dispenser, which shears the sheep and drops the wool into a hopper. This wikiHow article will show you how to make a Minecraft wool farm two different ways.

Things You Should Know

Make an automatic wool farm by setting up a dispenser and observer that shears a trapped sheep and collects the wool with hoppers.
Create a manual wool farm by leading sheep into a fenced-off area. There, you can breed and shear sheep.
If you want your sheep to produce different wool colors, dye them! They’ll drop wool with their dye color.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Automatic Wool Farm

1
Gather the required items. This farm uses an observer under a dispenser to shear a single sheep automatically.^{[1]
X
Research source} You’ll need the following items:
- 1 Dispenser
- 1 Observer
- 1 Redstone Dust
- 6 Glass Blocks
- 2 Dirt Blocks
- 1 Shears
- 1 Chest
- 1 Hopper
- 1 Minecart with Hopper
- 1 Rail
- 1 Shovel (optional, for digging under the farm)
2
Place the dispenser. Put your dispenser so that the output hole is horizontal and facing where you want the sheep to stand.
- Set up your farm on dirt blocks that have grass on top of them. This will allow the sheep to eat grass and regrow wool.
- Whether you’ve just started playing Minecraft or you’ve already beat the game, this automatic wool farm is a great addition to any Minecraft world.
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3
Make a one-block hole directly under the dispenser. This is where you’ll place the observer. You’ll also need to dig the block one-down and one-behind the dispenser to get to the block below the dispenser.
4
Place the observer. The observer’s red dot should be facing the opposite direction of the dispenser’s output hole. This way, the observer will observe the dirt block under the sheep.
5
Fill in the hole one-down and one-behind the dispenser. The observer will now be completely hidden under the dispenser.
6
Place redstone dust on top of the block one-down and one-behind the dispenser. This links the observer to the dispenser.
7
Place the glass blocks. Put the glass two blocks high on the three blocks directly adjacent to the dirt block the sheep will stand on (in front of the dispenser). From above, your farm will look like this:
- [empty] [2 glass] [empty]
- [2 glass] [sheep] [dispenser]
- [empty] [2 glass] [empty]
8
Place a dirt block on top of the dispenser. This will allow you to fully trap the sheep.
9
Dig under the farm until you’re under the grass dirt block. You should be directly below the grass dirt block in the glass.
- You can check your position by digging straight up to see if you’re in the glass container.
- Since you’re under the grass dirt block, you should be three blocks below the surface.
10
Dig out some walking space underground next to the grass dirt block. This will let you place the needed automatic collecting components.
11
Place a chest underground. The chest should be three blocks below the front glass block.
12
Place a hopper underground. It should be three blocks below the grass dirt block.
13
Place a rail on top of the hopper. Have it running perpendicular to the dispenser.
14
Place a minecart with hopper on the rail. This will collect the wool, place it into the hopper, which will send the wool to the chest. Take the wool from the chest when you need more! The side view of the automatic farm now looks like this:
- [glass] [empty] [dirt]
- [glass] [empty] [dispenser]
- [dirt] [grass] [observer]
- [empty] [hopper minecart] [dirt]
- [chest] [hopper] [dirt]
15
Place dirt blocks to fill in the two-block-high gap next to the minecart and the hopper. This will keep everything neat.
16
Put the shears in the dispenser. The shears will wear over time. Place more shears in the dispenser to keep the automatic farm running longer.
17
Lead the sheep into the glass container. The final part of the wool farm is the sheep! Follow these steps to get them into the container:
- Place a dirt block next to the container so you and the sheep can jump up onto the top of the farm.
- Use wheat or a lead to get the sheep to follow you.
- Jump up to the top of the farm to lead the sheep into the glass container. The sheep will fall in as they walk toward you.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Manual Wool Farm

1
Gather the required items. This farm keeps sheep inside of a fence enclosure where you can manually gather wool by shearing them. Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 Gate
- 7 or more Fences (7 is the minimum for having 1 internal space for a sheep)
- 1 Shears
- 1 Wheat OR 1 Lead
- Additional Wheat (optional, for breeding sheep)
- Additional Leads (optional, if you want to lead multiple sheep to your farm)
2
Place the fence and gate. This will be your manual wool farm. Make sure the inside of the fence has grassy dirt blocks for the sheep to eat. Eating grass allows sheep to regrow their wool after shearing.
- You might want to place the farm close to your base for quick access.
- Check that the fence is completely closed off so none of your sheep escape!
- Read more about how to start a farm for any animal in Minecraft.
3
Find sheep for your farm. You’ll need to lure sheep to your farm. Here are some tips to locate them:^{[2]
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Research source}
- Sheep spawn on grass blocks at light level 9 or higher.
- Sheep can appear in the Snowy Taiga biome even though the grass is covered by snow.
- Sheep can show up in village shepherd and butcher houses. They may also be in village animal pens.
- Sheep will randomly make a bleating sound. Go toward the bleating to find the sheep.
4
Lead sheep to your farm by holding wheat. You’ll need sheep in order to harvest their wool coats. Hold the wheat in your hand. Sheep will follow you if you’re within a six-block radius.
- You can also use the lead method in the next step as an alternative to using wheat.
5
Optionally, press the use button on a sheep while holding a lead. This will attach the lead to the sheep and allow you to take them to the farm.^{[3]
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Research source}
- Leads can only stretch up to 10 blocks before breaking. If the lead breaks, pick it up and reattach it to the sheep.
- Multiple sheep can be attached to you by leads, but you’ll need one lead per sheep.
6
Bring the sheep into the fenced area. Open the gate and lead the sheep into your wool farm.
- Once they’re in, you can detach the lead from the sheep by clicking the use button again while holding the lead.
7
Shear the sheep. Press the use button on a sheep in your farm while holding shears. This will remove the wool from the sheep. Your Minecraft wool farm is up and running!
- The sheep will regrow its wool if it has grass available to eat.
8
Optionally, breed the sheep. This will allow you to increase your sheep population, thus increasing your wool output. To do so:^{[4]
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Research source}
- Have at least two sheep on your farm.
- Click the use button on two or more sheep while holding wheat to make them enter “love mode.”
- Sheep in love mode will approach other sheep in love mode.
- After meeting for a couple seconds, the two sheep will produce one baby sheep.