Shearing Day 2014

Our shearer was a little late so I was off the hook this year as I had to do the kindie run. Can't say I minded in the least! So it was over to the shearer, his assistant, the other half and our neighbour. We generally have someone else of the male persuasion around to help with the heavy lifting (persuading the alpacas into the shearing shed) and our neighbour kindly "volunteered". We have been doing it for a few years now and are a well oiled machine, especially when I am not there! We favour the floor shearing over using a table, having tried both. For our animals the less time in the shearing shed, the less stress and they average about 5 - 7 minutes per alpaca.

Pretty much sums up how I feel when I see the bags of fleece

We also make it easier on ourselves by not sorting fleece at the same time as shearing which is a big "no no" among some of the larger breeders and we are guilty as charged. It ends up sitting in bags waiting for us to sort it. Next on my list of things to do...