With Minecraft's 1.19 Wild Update, wool has become more useful than ever. Previously only useful for aesthetics, crafting, and trading, wool now has a new unique trait: noise suppression. This is immensely useful in traversing Ancient Cities without triggering sculk sensors, and subsequently summoning the Warden. Because of this, players need wool more than ever.

Wool is obtained rather simply by shearing sheep, or by crafting it using four pieces of string. For full automation, it's sheep that players will want to use. Sheep can be sheared multiple times, as they regrow their wool after eating grass, and can also be dyed, such that they drop dyed wool. This allows players to save on dyes that they would otherwise need to use for crafting colored wool.

How To Build An Automatic Wool Farm

Minecraft - wool farm design

This wool farm is rather resource intensive, so it is intended more for players who are decently rich in their Minecraft worlds, requiring a fair amount of iron to make. Players will need to build a small auto-shearing machine for each sheep they are housing on their farm, so if players want one of each color, 16 will need to be made in total. Keep that in mind when figuring out how many resources you'll need. For each auto-shearer, players will need:

  • One Dispenser
  • One pair of Shears
  • Two Observers
  • One Redstone Repeater
  • One Redstone Torch
  • Three Grass Blocks
  • Three Solid Blocks
  • Five Glass Blocks
  • One Hopper Minecart
  • One Hopper
  • One Rail
  • One Chest

The first shearer built in the system will require one extra grass block and two extra glass blocks. To obtain the grass, players can either make use of the Silk Touch enchantment to mine and obtain grass directly, or they can lay down a chain of dirt blocks leading to grass, and wait for the grass to grow across it.

First, figure out where you want your collection chest to be for the auto-shearer. The machine itself is five blocks tall, with the chest at the bottom, so if players want the chest at ground level, they should have their grass platform (pictured below) three blocks above the ground. Construct a T shape out of the four blocks of grass, with an observer facing the middle one.

Place a repeater coming out of it, into a block with a Redstone torch above it. Set the repeater to four ticks, then place an observer above it, looking at the torch, and outputting into a dispenser. This dispenser should be facing towards the grass blocks and will have a pair of shears in it. Eventually, these shears will break, so players can feel free to put multiple pairs of shears in, to prolong the need to refill.

Minecraft - wool farm design

Next up, place a hopper two blocks beneath the middle grass block, outputting into a chest. On top of this hopper, place a minecart rail, then a hopper minecart on the rail. Hopper minecarts have an interesting property, in that they can pick up items through blocks. This means that any wool that drops on top of the grass, will get sucked through the grass block and into the hopper minecart. It will then get funneled into the chest.

Minecraft - wool farm design

Now it's time to build the cage for the sheep. Back on top of the machine, build two-high glass walls around the center grass block. It's important to use glass here, as it can be placed on top of grass without turning it back into dirt, which is essential in making it possible for the middle grass to regrow.

Minecraft - wool farm design

At this point, the machine is fully functional, and all that is needed is a sheep. There are numerous ways to do this, such as luring them with wheat, dragging them in with a lead, or using a rail system to bring them up on top of the machine. It does not matter what method players opt to use, so long as a sheep ends up in the cage. If temporary blocks are used, make sure to destroy them afterward, so other mobs do not wander up onto your machine.

Minecraft - wool farm design

The machine is now up and running! When the sheep eats the grass, it will regrow its wool, as well as trigger the observer when it detects that the grass block is now dirt. This will power the dispenser, which will shear the sheep and deposit the wool in the chest. The sheep will be instantly sheared every time it grows its wool, making for maximum efficiency. After a few minutes, the grass will regrow, and the sheep can eat it once again.

Players do need to be careful, as sufficient light is required for the grass to grow. Placing a light-producing block, such as a froglight or a piece of glowstone over the sheep will ensure that the grass can grow 24/7. Otherwise, this machine will only work during the bright daylight hours. With machine number one complete, players can nowbeing to connect multiple machines together, as seen below. Connecting the glass blocks like so will make this machine maximally compact, and will save a few resources.

Minecraft - wool farm design

Don't forget to load a pair of shears into each dispenser! Each pair of shears has 238 uses, so they should last a fair while, but if players notice their sheep not getting sheared, that means it is time to refill the dispensers.