big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
There is a lady who teaches blade shearing around here and today she came to my house to give me my first lesson on my two sheep.
I'm going to her place in a few weeks to "intern" on her sheep until I get it down perfectly. She has a pretty big dairy and meat sheep operation. I am also going to buy my first dairy ewe from her.<--question for you milkers (goat and sheep) about that on a future thread.
It was not as hard as I thought, however getting close to the skin without hurting the lamb/sheep was daunting at first. Soon I realized I shouldn't fear the blades, even though they are razor sharp and extra pointy. You learn to follow the shape of the body and actually don't need to get right up to the skin. Little Oliver has about 1/2 an inch of fleece left.
For any of you with your own sheep out there, don't fear the blades! You have to get really good ones though. (I wrote the name down of the kind she said to get, I left that outside and will edit that in later.)
I also learned a few "holds" to subdue the sheep while shearing. The "New Zealand" hold literally put my lamb-ram to sleep.
On another note, my sheep Dolly who is a Border Cheviot has the most beautiful fleece! The lady taught me how to shake off the fleece, pull off the stray edge pieces etc and roll it up to bag it for future washing etc. (That bag of wool smells like a jar of lotion!) She said it was beautiful wool and would be great for spinning. So to anyone who wants a multi purpose sheep (meat, wool and even a little milking) a Border Cheviot is great. (Plus she is very docile.)
I went ahead and had my lamb ram (e. freisian x icelandic cross) sheared b/c his fleece was pretty long and we still have one more hot month left. The difference b/t lamb and sheep fleece is a. lamb fleece has very little lanolin in it and b. it doesn't hold together like a big "pelt" as my sheep's fleece did. Dolly's fleece looked sorta like a blanket when she held it up by the ends. Little Oliver's fleece was just falling apart. It still makes for great wool though.
I'm going to her place in a few weeks to "intern" on her sheep until I get it down perfectly. She has a pretty big dairy and meat sheep operation. I am also going to buy my first dairy ewe from her.<--question for you milkers (goat and sheep) about that on a future thread.
It was not as hard as I thought, however getting close to the skin without hurting the lamb/sheep was daunting at first. Soon I realized I shouldn't fear the blades, even though they are razor sharp and extra pointy. You learn to follow the shape of the body and actually don't need to get right up to the skin. Little Oliver has about 1/2 an inch of fleece left.
For any of you with your own sheep out there, don't fear the blades! You have to get really good ones though. (I wrote the name down of the kind she said to get, I left that outside and will edit that in later.)
I also learned a few "holds" to subdue the sheep while shearing. The "New Zealand" hold literally put my lamb-ram to sleep.
On another note, my sheep Dolly who is a Border Cheviot has the most beautiful fleece! The lady taught me how to shake off the fleece, pull off the stray edge pieces etc and roll it up to bag it for future washing etc. (That bag of wool smells like a jar of lotion!) She said it was beautiful wool and would be great for spinning. So to anyone who wants a multi purpose sheep (meat, wool and even a little milking) a Border Cheviot is great. (Plus she is very docile.)
I went ahead and had my lamb ram (e. freisian x icelandic cross) sheared b/c his fleece was pretty long and we still have one more hot month left. The difference b/t lamb and sheep fleece is a. lamb fleece has very little lanolin in it and b. it doesn't hold together like a big "pelt" as my sheep's fleece did. Dolly's fleece looked sorta like a blanket when she held it up by the ends. Little Oliver's fleece was just falling apart. It still makes for great wool though.
