We breed in October or November to lamb in March and April. Although many folks shear before lambing we wait until after all the lambs
are on the ground and this is mostly because of timing. If we were to shear before lambing we would have to do so in February - perhaps
Pennsylvania's most miserable winter month. Every year we promised ourselves that the fleeces will be off by the end of May - and most years
we manage it. If you keep the fleeces on much longer you risk felting and overheating the summer sun.

     Unlike many shephards we have always sheared on a fitting stand. Although this isn't the quickest of methods we find it much easier on the
lower back. It also involves and a lot less tossing about of often nervous animals. It takes two of us 20 minutes to shear an animal; we take our
time and do 4 or 5 at a clip. One of us uses the electric clippers to remove the fleece while the other uses hand shears to clip about the head, legs,
rump, and other (sex-specific) 'tender' spots.

     Having the animal on the stand is a good time to evaluate general condition, vaccinate if need be, and to de-wormed. We also trim hooves
before releasing animals back on pasture.

     Begin by opening the fleece at the neck. Once this has been completed on both sides and across the top begin 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.

     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.

     It is very difficult indeed to avoid some number of nicks and cuts while you are working. We treat these with something called 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.

     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 a number of suppliers. 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 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.

     This second image shows Here is what the clipping head and its associated spare parts. 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 on the
right. 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.

     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. 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 little stress to her, yourself, and to the newborn. Here's what you
do .... pick up the newborn and be sure to allow Mom 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.