The Benefits of Fall Shearing in a Commercial Flock

I do quite a bit of local shearing. Most people do their shearing in the spring. That is books and old farmers recommendation. 

Time of shearing is actually more of a personal choice. I have long wool sheep so am continously shearing at home, but for those who have to hire a shearer, picking a time that works for you and your shearer is imperative. 

While spring shearing has many benefits and is preferred, I want to point out some advantages to getting on the fall shearing schedule.

#1 The shearer is not as rushed. This makes it easier for you to get a day and time that works for you and the shearer. Not to mention they will have a bit more time to go over flock health with you and just general life happenings.

#2 More room in the barn. In the Northeast, most shepherds house their sheep solely in the barn over the winter. Having the fleeces off the sheep creates more room in the pens and at the feeders.

#3 Easy of lambing. While spring is generally the time small flocks lamb, a lot of commercial flocks try to have a fall lamb crop as well. Fall shearing makes lambing easier in the late fall and early winter.

#4 Less moisture in the barn. Let's be honest wooly sheep create a humid environment.  Taking away the bulk of the wool reduces the humidity.  This lessens the chances for upper respiratory problems and other health issues in the barn.

#5 Checking overall flock condition.  We pasture our sheep over the summer. As we bring them in like most shepherds, we like to check over body condition on our ewes. Having them shorn makes this easier. Even if you do not summer pasture, fall is still a good time to check body condition before going into the winter months.

These are only some bullet points on fall shearing. I still recommend talking with your local shearer on their recommendations.  Some have a fairly busy fall schedule or only travel in the spring.

I Don't Know How You Do It

     This seems to be a recurring question(statement) in my life. I hear it quite often. Yes my days do seem full to most people. There are many times I get up about 4am only to not be able to get back to bed until 11pm. And while I don't know if these comments come as a sign of our times or just because I actually do push myself. The truth is some days I don't know how I do it all. Most times my answer to this comment is "I just do it". Is there another choice? It needs done so I do it.

     For those who don't know I work at a "paying" job and then also farm, shear and sell wool products. Most days are pretty full between some or all of these tasks. Believe me the animals don't care if I'm having a sick day or just had a really bad day in the office. They still want food and need medicine and milking.

     Most days my life is rewarding. I love what I do and I wouldn't change it for the world. I truly believe there's nothing better than the smell or sound of a newborn lamb. Watching them take their first steps and their first drink. Watching my kids grow up in this life. I believe they are better people for it and appreciate life so much more than other children their age.

     Then there are the days that I hate. Having to pull a stuck kid or treating a ewe for flystrike. There are the days I start shearing when my feet hit the ground and keep going until I collapse, only to still have to go out and do my regular chores. Those are the days I don't know how I do it. They are also the days that I take the time to sit and just watch the lambs or talk to the goats. They remind me that I love my life and with the bad there is always the good.

     It gives me time to love and appreciate life. This life teaches me so much more than I could ever learn anywhere else and I appreciate all of that. I wouldn't want to raise my children any other way and I hope they someday learn that when things are bad in life to simply go to the barn. It's a reset button.

     So you ask how I do it. How I keep going when most people would stop or just not even start? I really don't know except is has to be done. I can only truly say it's with the grace of God and the strength and patience that he gave me. God does truly make barn calls!

Looking for a Shearer

I've been going along to help shear for a number of years and now I'm the shearer myself. As I've been doing this I've noticed a lot of things. Some people are a joy to shear for while others are just a real bear. Many times it has nothing at all to do with the sheep. The people and how they treat the crew can make or break a day.
Here's a couple of tips to make life easier and make your shearer want to come back.

#1- We are here to help you. Remember you called us to do a job that you can't or won't do yourself. It is a dirty, hard job. Not many people do it and chances are you had to scrape around to find our name. You are not the only person who has called us and I will get to you. Just give it time. Weather and health play a lot into how many I can do and how fast I can do them.

#2- When we say lock the sheep in, lock them in. That doesn't mean wait until the minute we are pulling in the driveway. (This is only excusable if you have a very small  elephant proof paddock.) I came to shear your sheep. Not chase them around a field. This cost time which in turn costs me and you money. Once you have them locked in, make sure it is full proof. Sheep will try to get out and just because they are ok with you in the barn doesn't mean they are ok with the crew in the barn.

#3- If you want to help, for me, that is fine. But you must be willing to do what I tell you or get out of the way. Remember I'm using electric knives moving at a very high rate of speed. They can cut off a finger. When I tell you not to do something it's for the safety of everyone involved including your sheep.

#4- Yes your sheep are hot. It's not likely that they'll die from being hot. Remember on the other hand if the shearer comes out both them and your sheep could die from heat exhaustion while shearing. It can wait another day. If you were that worried maybe you should've called the shearer earlier. Don't wait until the last minute. We don't like shearing in hot weather and unless it's our fault that it's late shearing we are most likely only doing it because we feel bad for the sheep not for you.

#5-  Don't gripe about the price. Once again I go back to the basic theory. We are doing a job you are either unwilling or uncapable of doing. I can tell the customers who have either actually shorn, or attempted to shear a sheep. They have respect for what I do and are willing to pay for it without complaint. Believe me we are not making money. If you only knew what the cost of our equipment and upkeep is you'd be surprised.

#6- Leave water. ok while not a rule it is a suggestion. A welcome one at that. I always appreciate a drink at the end of a job. Even in cool weather I break out in a sweat.

She's Gonna Shear?

That is a question I've heard a lot of the last few years as I've started doing more, but more so this year as I'm doing the majority of the shearing. I'm sure the majority of people are just used to seeing K doing it and me helping or catching the sheep, but some are genuinely surprised that I could be strong enough to handle this.

I had never planned to shear for other people. My soul purpose of learning how to shear was purely selfish. I decided many years ago that I was going to have sheep. ( believe it or not, before I wanted to learn how to spin) I also decided that I was not going to call all over in a panic trying to find someone to shear my sheep. So I asked K to start teaching me how to shear. It started slow. I would finish off the back of a rather large ram or take the first pass on one that we decided to do standing up. Always with him watching over me and giving me tips on what to do or how I should hold something.

A few years later I started watching youtube videos and watching demonstrators at events. I wanted to know how other people did it. How did they hold the machine, the animal, their bodies. I was getting the hang of it. I would shear the occasional animal at home and still help out where needed on the road. Over time I began to be the one to do the alpacas and llamas. It was much easier for him to hold them and me to shear them. I am a little more agile and can move out of the way easily when they decided to jump, and he is stronger and can  hold the heads and front shoulders more easily.

Last year I started to do more sheep at the house, but was more than happy to still let him shear other people's sheep. I just didn't want to deal with most of them. Lets face it. We shear a lot of pets. That and I'm always scared of nicking the sheep. I hate doing that in front of other people. I would do the occasional one as his knee would give out or his sugar would spike.

Then this last year the inevitable happened. After years of hard labor parts of your body just give out. I waited and waited for him to say let's go out. It was getting later and he simply just said "You go do it". So I started at home. I would grab a couple and shear them. It started to become more than the little bit that I had been doing. Then the people started to call and I just decided that instead of losing the income all together I would bite my fears and go to the mat. Literally we just started going out. Now he still stands over me and directs some things, but as we've gone through this year (what could be classified as my first year) I've gotten better and less afraid of what I was going to do to other people's sheep. I'm still learning and I'm learning that it's going to be a continual process. I'm never going to be one of the people that do a hundred in one day, but I'm okay with what I can do.

That's to Graphic

** Disclaimer: I am a parent and I do not tell you how to raise your children, please don't use this as a place to bash my parenting. **

The other day I was working at my job. For those of you who don't know me. I pretty much can do anything on the front end of Walmart. This particular day I was working in customer service. Not that extravagant of a day. Nothing much going on.

I had a customer bring back up a dvd series of "House", with a small boy in her cart. Probably about 4 or 5 years old.  I went through the normal questions; "Return or exchange", "Is there anything wrong with it?". The customer was very nice and in no way snotty. I found she wanted to do an exchange and there was nothing wrong with the movie. She wanted to exchange it for the "Bones" series. Turns out she already had this season of house.

I said something at that point that "Bones" was my daughter and I's favorite show. The lady proceeded to tell me that the show is to graphic for her young son.

This got me thinking. What exactly is to graphic? I'm talking in general senses. I don't let my children watch "Edward Scissorhands" or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but my daughter really does love to watch "Bones" and we watch "House" on occasion. My children have also watched and assisted in kidding and lambing season. They have helped to butcher chickens and turkeys.


I don't find these tv shows to be to graphic and I'm very open with them about the tv being about actors and the storys and blood are fake. I think my children are well rounded for it and they learn, so yeah "Bones" isn't to graphic for my kids. Not after they've torn apart a chicken.

A Day Off

Many times when I say I have a day off, it simply means I'm not working at walmart that day. I know this is true for most moms. There is always the laundry, dishes, bathroom that needs cleaned. Not to mention the errands that need run. So much to do in our busy lives how many of us actually do take a day off.

Mostly my days off are relaxing to me though. I get to work on stuff that I enjoy and that brings me joy. How many people can say that. I would do this all of the time if it would pay the bills, but alas I shall keep working at walmart to pay the bills and doing this in my spare time.

So what exactly did I do today. Well to start I ran over to a friend's house to grab her picker and some gates that she no longer needed. Then off to the bank and a quick trip to the post office to check on a package. Back to the farm and get started on barn stuff after a quick lunch.

In the barn we started with regular chores. That involved trying to find a lamb's mom. Poor little guy had been running around all day yesterday and we couldn't tell who his momma was. This part actually just involves a lot of sitting and watching. Still can't find momma. Well we'll give it a couple more hours. Keep going with chores.
Now it's time for shearing. We decided to try to get 8 to 10 sheep shorn every week. Not that outrageous of a goal, but it takes time. Started setting up for shearing and getting all the stuff together. We got 12 done today so not that bad of a day. Even marked a couple fleeces to take a look at later for Maryland Sheep and Wool show. While shearing I was still watching the lamb to find momma and she did finally come up and claim her lamb. I got them moved into one of the lambing pens and made sure she had hay, water, and a feeder for corn tomorrow.

After shearing we came inside and I got to play around with the picker. That nifty thing makes quick work of a fleece. I much prefer it to picking by hand. Then after picking up the kids from grandma's house it was back out to the barn. A fire was started to burn trash(had to be watched), and I started pitching manure in the only empty lamb pen. My goal is to get them all cleaned within the next 3 weeks. We'll see how it goes.

Fleece, Fleece Everywhere

As a side effect of being a spinner and a shepherd, I have a lot of fleeces. By a lot, I mean A LOT. I can not begin to describe the number and quality of fleeces I go through each year. Lets face it some of the fleeces I see are nothing but junk. I simply open the bag wrinkle my nose and ship them out. Maybe I am a little to particular, but after 11 years of spinning and fiber handling and putting my hands into literally thousands of fleeces, I think I have every right to be. It takes a special fleece to make me jump up and down.

This was once again brought to my attention today as we were cleaning the barn for the straw to come in. There is a method to the madness in my sorting system. The fleeces that are first up to wash or that are particularly nice go to the house. The next best fleeces ( the ones that I don't want washed RIGHT now or that I haven't skirted yet) go out to the camper. Yes you read that right I use a camping trailer to house fleeces. The last batch are the" these are in my way and I don't know what I want to do with them yet" group. Yes this is a group and it's the largest group by far. I once again encountered this group today while cleaning the barn. This group unfortunately seems to get moved around quite a bit and eventually finds their true home. This is usually when I'm in a hurry and don't have much time to think about it. Once again my procrastinators nature at work.

Updates

Ok so I've been really bad at this lately. I'll admit it. I get busy and forget to post stuff.


At home: My grandpa passed away this week so that involved a quick trip out to Iowa. Which involved a rental car and 3 days in it with my sister and 2 little girls. It was good to see family that I haven't seen in forever again. I just wish that I wasn't seeing them at a funeral and we could all get together more often. My mother's family is thrown to the end of the earth almost literally. They live all over the country. I used the occasion to get pictures of all of them together and the separate family groups. My mom also used this time to get a group picture of her 6 kids. This is the first time we have all been together in a little over 5 years. I have to get the pictures off my camera yet and see if editing is needed and then create a file and send it out to everyone. May start on that this afternoon.


On the farm:  Lambing is coming along at a slower rate than I would like. We had a nice spurt there for a little while and now we are only having 2 or 3 ewes lamb a week. The older lambs are looking good and I'm happy with the fiber coming in on the fiber lambs. We started out with a string of ewe lambs and are now running into a string of ram lambs. Mostly 3/4 BFL.

In the shop: I had ordered some top from an etsy shop. Loved spinning it. It just seemed to glide onto the wheel. I wanted to navajo ply it, because it had a wonderful colorway that I didn't want to muddy up with a 2 ply. I needed to work on my navajo ply techniques. I finally felt comfortable the other night and pulled it out and went to work on it. The ply came out better than I had ever anticipated. Watching the youtube videos really did seem to help.

We have our first show of the season coming up this week. I can't wait for it. Of course right now I'm in a little of a panic mood. Trying to think if I've got everything. Hoping for a good show with a  good turnout.