Merino sheep can absolutely learn to come when called, but they will do it on Merino terms. This is a breed with an exceptionally strong flocking instinct, the trait that lets huge Merino flocks be managed as a single flowing unit, paired with a wariness of anything novel, including a person doing something slightly different from yesterday. The flock will not trickle in like tame individual pets. One day, after enough patient repetition, it will arrive as one body, and that arrival will look sudden even though it was weeks in the making.
Quiet is not a style choice with Merinos
Everything about the approach must be lowered: voice, pace, posture, and expectations. Use a soft, carrying call rather than a shout, because a raised voice reads as alarm to a flock already deciding whether to be alarmed. Stand or crouch in the same place beside the feed, in the same yard corner or race entrance, and then be still. Merinos investigate safety collectively, with heads up and ears rotating, and a motionless person beside familiar feed is a puzzle they can solve. A person advancing on them is not a puzzle; it is simply pressure, and the flock will flow away from it as one.
The lead sheep is the whole strategy
In a Merino flock the first sheep to commit carries enormous social weight, because the instinct to stay bunched is stronger than individual caution once movement starts. If your flock contains one calmer animal, an older ewe, a wether, a former pet, position the feed so she finds it first and protect her confidence fiercely. If no such animal exists, you are training the boldest of a shy flock, and the honest timetable is daily repetition over several weeks, measuring success by how close the flock feeds to you and how quickly heads come up at the call, long before they walk to it.
Wool, heat, and timing shape the sessions
A Merino in full fleece is carrying serious insulation, so training sessions and any gathering should happen in the cool of the day, and a flock that has bunched and hurried in heat is a flock at risk. Call them at a walk, always, and if the flock breaks into a run, stop and reset rather than letting the exercise become a chase. Time the routine to the flock's natural rhythm, calling when they are camped or drifting toward the yard end of the paddock anyway, so the call cooperates with their movement instead of demanding a reversal of it.
Yard payoffs for a fine-wool flock
A Merino flock that walks to a call arrives at shearing, crutching, and health work measurably calmer than a mustered flock, and calm sheep grow and keep wool quality better than stressed ones, with fewer sheep injured against fences along the way. Keep paying the call with feed inside the yards on work days, and after handling, release the flock to good grazing so the day's ledger balances in their minds. The breed remembers disturbance for a long time, which is exactly why the gentle version of this training is worth the extra weeks.
Planning patience in advance
With Merinos, deciding your method before the first session prevents the mid-training improvisation that nervous flocks read as threat. If you want to think the sequence through first, KinsLe's Kinny can be asked for guidance on a calm gathering routine for your flock, and the plan you settle on stays saved with the Merinos' profile so every session follows it.