Sheep Shearing!

Sheep at Killearn Farm

The medical director at Gore Medical Centre lives on a working sheep farm about 21 km from town. Her husband grew up on this farm and one of her three sons will most likely take it over when his parents retire. The weather cooperated (no rain; you can't collect wet fleeces because they will get moldy before they can be processed) and the shearing crew confirmed that this Saturday was the day the farm's sheep would lose their winter coats. We were invited to watch what happens, and we jumped at the chance.

Saturday was a brilliant day. Bright, sunny, and warm. We arrived at lunchtime (excellent planning!) and after coffee and a bite were able to catch the crew's afternoon work. Shearing teams travel from farm to farm. The crew at Killearn Farm this weekend included 3 shearers (all men) and 3 collectors (all women). They sheared and collected fleeces from 600 sheep between about 8 am and 3 pm. This is not easy work, but the pay is good: $20-$25/hour for collectors and the shearers are paid per sheep. A ram can weigh 70 kilos (150 lb), and they do not necessarily want to be shorn. The sheep didn't make much noise in the barn, but in the barnyard it was very loud. Many lambs had been weaned from their mothers just a day or two ago, and there was almost constant calling between ewes and lambs.

Sheep are lead into the barn and separated into pens. Sheep do not like to be split from the group and got very anxious if they found themselves alone. Killearn Farm has three sheep dogs that helped with the process, although we found that often the dogs preferred the company of people to that of sheep. They had to be convinced to go back to work. The men doing the shearing went into a pen and physically dragged each sheep to his shearing station. We learned that the key is the hold. If a sheep is held too tightly, for example, it will fight and kick and make all sorts of trouble. In my opinion these shearers were experts and fully in control of their sheep.

The collectors worked as hard as the men shearing. They were extremely diligent at keeping the shearing station floor clean of cuttings (the shearers clip off dirty, matted sections of wool) and immediately when a fleece was free from its former owner, it would be gathered up and laid out on a large table. Any additional yucky areas were removed by hand (American hygiene freaks will notice that not one of these workers is wearing gloves) and collected in a bin. The best remaining fleece is kept in one piece and rolled into a loose ball that is put in another bin. That bin includes a hydraulic compressing mechanism that squeezes the fleece into a bail. The wool broker will send a truck out in a few days to collect the bails, determine the wool quality, and pay the farm.

Before

After

Unweaned lambs waiting to be reunited with their mums.

 After shearing the sheep are unceremoniously ejected from the barn through a shute. They seemed to shake off the experience pretty quickly and milled around until the rest of the mob was shorn. Then it was time to be put out to pasture. That they liked. Some were not the brightest and got cornered by fences or trees. The dogs (and Ruben) helped get them where they needed to be.

Lambs were happy to be reunited with their mums,
but still hesitated to follow down this steep embankment

 Just watching all of this was exhausting! We were very happy to join Glynnis, Jim, their son Ben, and daughter Emma (in town for the shearing from Nelson) back in the house for cool drinks and fresh bread with jam. We had the most delightful conversation, too. Everyone we've spent time with her is so nice!