Shearing sheep...

 

Four shearers were on board

It's shearing time again!  The shearers showed up at about 7:30 a.m. and sheared 200 head in about 4 hours time.  Our job was to push the sheep up the alley and into the shearing trailer.  The sheep worked up the ramp pretty well for the most part, but at different points of the day, the sheep balked and would refuse to move and so we took turns shoving each one into the trailer.  It was hard on the arms.

Each ewe walked up the ramp into the trailer to be sheared

 

After they were sheared, the sheep were tipped out a small trap door on the side.  This ewe slid down the ramp but was soon on her feet again.

Chuck is the crew boss.  It's his rig.  He's been shearing sheep since he was in his early twenties.  I believe he learned the trade from some Australian and New Zealand shearers who came to the area in the 80s to shear and to teach.  He's been shearing for us for almost 30 years. The shearers and skirters all earn their pay individually according to how many head they shear and how many fleeces they throw and sort.

 It still mesmerizes me to watch a good shearer do his thing.  It's as though the wool slips off like butter. The shearing tools are extremely sharp so they do cut wool like butter. Shearing, in all actuality, is hard work, but the guys make it look easy.

 HP took off walking out to the sheared sheep.  I hollered, "What are you doing over there?
She replied, "Seeing my sheepy friends."  The girl loves the sheep.

 

This young man has been nicknamed "Champ" because he recently won the National Sheep Shearing Competition for the intermediate level.  We knew him from our home school group.

The skirters pull the fleeces through a trap door on the other side of the trailer.  They throw the fleeces onto a large lazy Susan style table where they pick off the undesirable wool from the bellies and legs and pick off the short pieces.  They throw the less desirable wool into a separate bag and put the whole, good fleece into another bag.  The bags are stuffed full and pressed tightly into a bale which is taken to town and sold at the local wool warehouse. The sheep averaged  about 11 pounds of wool each and the head man said that our wool was some of the best he's seen.  They will core each bale and grade it and the wool will be sold according to its weight and grade.

Next up....lambing!  The ewes are due to lamb on about February 15th.  I just love lambing season.  More to come in the days to come.