Ready, Set, Shear!

I so look forward to shearing season, but two feet of snow two days before shearing nearly caused a major snafu this week. With shearing dates are booked months in advance, a shearer's dance card is pretty darn full at this time of year. If you're unprepared or if the sheep aren't dry, good luck trying to reschedule at the last minute. 

Tuesday night's storm dumped two feet of heavy, wet snow taking out the power lines for a day and half.  On Wednesday, Mike and I melted pots snow over a burner and trucked it down to the flock. On Thursday I hauled water from the fire station in the village.  If the power hadn't been restored on Thursday afternoon, we would have had to scrap our first of three shearing dates.

But we managed to shear on Friday, right on schedule. In round one we tackled rams and hogget ewes. Although it snowed all day our focus was indoors, harvesting fleece. 

We rounded up the boys and brought them into the holding pen. They feel much safer when crowded together and we don't have to chase them when it's their turn. "Savory" was first up. This is the way to hold a 275 lb. ram. Keeping the head up says, "I've got you, pal". A sheep with its head lowered is stubborn and powerful. Get the chin up and the sheep relaxes once it realizes you're in control. At least that's the theory. You can lead a sheep this way but it really helps to have another person pushing from behind, especially if the sheep doesn't want to budge.

 

Since rounding up the flock is a major production, shearing day is a great time for annual maintenance tasks. I'm fortunate that my shearer Andy Rice doesn't mind tending to hooves, cdt vaccinations and deworming. Some shearers only want to shear. 

Savory gets a pedicure (above) and haircut, below.

While his twin brother, "Cilantro" watched over my shoulder. ( I know they don't look like twins, but that's what you get sometimes when you breed a cormo ram to a cross-bred ewe). I have more to say about Cilantro's shearing in a separate post.

Although we worked steadily, didn't quite finish with this group by day's end. There are still ten rams yet to shear. There's no sense rushing, especially with fine wool sheep. The fleeces are dense, the skin soft and full of wrinkles. It takes nearly the same amount of time to shear a 120 pound hogget as a full grown ram, but a ram will give five times the amount of wool. The hoggets are more wrinkled and still haven't grown into their skin. It's easy for a shearer to nick a skin fold if he doesn't take his time. 

We'll finish up the boys on Monday when we're slated to shear the bred ewes. Then we'll finish the remaining fine wool sheep on March 8. (And in case you're wondering, the Border Leicesters have their turn a bit later in the spring.)

Shorn hoggets at the feeder.

We have a huge stack of beautiful fleeces to show for a long day's work. I promise to share some shots of the goods in another post.

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Comments

[Lisa]

God, I can't wait to see these fleeces, they look amazing.

[Carolyn]

I learn so much from your blog! Totally fascinating! One question: Are the sheep cold now that their fleece is gone and it's still winter out there?? They look so much smaller!

~The sheep are 5 - 15 lbs lighter sans fleece, and cooler I am sure. But they are housed indoors, well-bedded and close together for comfort. Their sheep covers give them a protective shell and help trap body heat. The young ones were dancing and frolicking in their pen yesterday morning. They seem to like the freedom from their heavy winter coats and are ready to play. We'll keep all of them indoors until they've grown a bit of insulation. It was a balmy 45 in the barn this morning, but snowing (again) outdoors.~

[Andrea]

Beautiful animals, beautiful fleeces and I love your hat!Now if only Spring would arrive.

[Valerie]

Great photo of you and Savory. And he is big! Hats off to you,Mike and Holly for your hard work keeping things going during the storms so that shearing could stay on schedule. Good luck for shearing tomorrow!

[Jody]

Yes please show lots of fleece close ups! They look incredible!

[Aimee]

That last hogget shot is so cute! "Who? Moi? Pose?"

[Ann]

Yes, I too learned so much from your post today and I'm glad they will be indoors for awhile till their coats come in a bit. Your photos are amazing especially to someone like me who has only seen sheep from a distance. Thanks!

[Konna]

I love learning about all the aspects of being a shepherd from your blog. Savory is so big...until he gets his fleece off! Hope the other scheduled days work well too.

[Kristy]

That's a lot of weight and bulk - I feel so different when I lop three inches off at a haircut! I'm ready the shed my winter coat so I'm sure the sheep are too. :)

I'm amazed at how white the fleece closest to the skin looks. Mind-boggling.

Enjoy the up-close-and-personal time with your flock!