07 Apr Tue 2009
Shearing Time!
The plan was to shear the main flock thats been out on pasture starting yesterday but with the lovely winter weather keeping its hold on April, we've had to hold off. Shearing days are always busy for everyone working as the flock needs to be all brought together from their individual pastures and sorted, shorn, and taken back to their pastures without getting mixed up. Shearing also lets us get a good look at each individual animal and assess their body condition score, trim any hooves that need attention and perform some internal parasite control if needed.
Usually only one or two people are needed to help the shearer. One person will catch the ewes, and bring them to the shearer, hopefully keeping the time between animals being sheared as short as possible. The other is the wool handler and is responsible for sweeping up the shearers board and keeping the area clean, and collecting and skirting the fleece before it is bagged or baled.
The atmosphere around shearing is always enjoyable as it brings many people together to work the flock and enjoy the weather!
Boy, this brought back great memories. When I was a kid, we helped the neighbors when their sheep were sheared. We kids help round up the sheep, caught the lambs and then helped to scoop up the fleece and carry it to the wooden baling contraption to be bundled up. Lanolin covered arms and chest, itchy neck, "dancing" naked sheep, and lambs hopping about with a newly wired tail. There would be milk and cake when we were done. Ahhh, those were the days. lol