Sheep Wisdom

Shearing

Take a look at these before-and-after images of our ewes taken during April and May, 2007.

Scroll down for a description of how we remove these beautiful Shetland fleeces.

Equipment

This is the shearing machine we have used for more than a decade. It is manufactured by Oster® is called the Shearmaster® and is available from NASCO. The selection of a shearing machine is difficult because one has to take into consideration characteristics such as weight, balance, torque, and parts availability. The Shearmaster® isn't the lightest machine around, and it isn't the most powerful. On the other hand it isn't the heaviest, but it is capable of plowing through very dense fleece, and spare parts are readily available from a number of sources. Another feature we like about this machine is that the head is interchangeable and we can fix a clipping head to the unit and have used it to fit cattle, goats, and llamas.

Here is what the clipping head and its associated spare parts looks like. There are a variety of combs (the bottom blade which works its way through the fleece) and cutters (the top blade which does the lions-share of the cutting) available for a variety of applications. After some experimentation we settled on the combination of a 13-tooth Arizona Thin comb and a regular style Wide Diamond cutter.

Here is just one set of statistics regarding sheep shearing, Professional sheep shearers can shear sheep in under a minute. World records are one sheep sheared in 38 seconds; one lamb sheared in 19.8 seconds; 720 sheep sheared in 9 hours; and 839 lambs sheared in 9 hours. We don't come anywhere near that kind of performance. We shear our animals on a fitting stand of the sort shown here. Of course when many folks think of sheep shearing they imagine the sort of activity which involves physical support and manipulation of the animal about its rump and flanks. We have always sheared our animals in a fitting stand and this works well for us and our situation.

Technique

Let's begin by letting images speak to technique.

Top-to-bottom and left-to-right.

Although different animals may have been photographed, these images represent the
various stages of shearing as it happens at Pairodox.

1. Here is the animal in full fleece. We have found that working with yearlings can be difficult indeed. Animals remember their experience the second-time-around however and are usually easier in subsequent years. Shearing can be traumatic for animals regardless of age and experience so take your time and reassure all your animals. We should point out that having the animal on the stand is a good time to evaluate general condition, vaccinate if need be, and to de-worm. We also trim hooves before releasing animals back on pasture.

2. We begin to shear by opening the fleece at the neck. Once this has been completed on both sides and across the top (the base of the neck) you should begin to roll the fleece toward the back. This procedure can be a bit delicate so take your time.

3. Once the fleece is open, cut and continue to roll the fleece toward the back. Short, regular, strokes are best. Try not to re-cut any area that you have already covered as this results in small bits of fleece called second cuts.

4-6. Be careful to sweep the area beneath the stand before you start. As the fleece comes off it will drape across the floor. A clean floor will help to ensure a clean fleece. Once the back end is reached the fleece may be pulled from the animal. We skirt the fleece on the animal; that is, we remove the usable portion of the fleece in one piece, and leave the waste wool on to be cleaned up after the main fleece is removed.

7-8. Here is the finished animal after more work about the legs, head, and belly. It is very difficult indeed to avoid some number of nicks and cuts while you are working. We treat these with AluSpray for protection. In more than a decade of shearing and enumerable nicks and scrapes we have never had one of these abrasions require additional attention beyond this cursory treatment. We now look over the fleece, remove gross organic material, and bag it for storage.

9. It always amazes us how confused lambs can be when their newly shorn Moms are put back out on pasture. Chaos ensues until the ewes can convince their offspring that they are who they say they are!

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A bit of useful advice at Lambing

     For a variety of reasons it can be useful, especially if you are lambing on pasture, to bring ewes and newborns into the barn. When doing this you are faced with two choices: to bring the entire flock in and then separate the individuals of interest, or to halter the ewe in question and lead her in. The former is tough because it is chaotic and the newborn is unlikely to follow, the latter is frustrating unless the ewe has been trained to lead. Once you realize that ewes become very, very strongly attached to their lambs you can use this knowledge to bring the ewe in with very little stress to the ewe, to yourself, and to the newborn. Here's what you do ....

Just be sure you allow the ewe to keep her eyes (and her nose) on the lamb and she should follow closely as you walk. If you pick up the lamb and march, with your back to the ewe, you will find yourself at the barn without Mom. Proceed slowly and allow the ewe to maintain visual and olfactory contact and all will be well.

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