Slimming down for Spring

Shorn sheep sure are skinny. And funny looking! We got all the sheep sheared this weekend and completed one of our major annual tasks. There was a bit of juggling the schedule to get them done before the rain came, but the shearing is finished. Even if they do look a bit odd with their suddenly disproportionately large heads and stick-figure necks, it is great to be able to see what kind of condition the ewes are in and and how much udder development they have. Their condition is great, which was good to see, especially because we've been relying on stockpiled grass. I also noticed at least three more ewes that had a little more udder development and do appear to be bred. So that brings us up to 46 that are due to lamb and time will tell if there are a few more.

Thursday night we built a wool bag stand. My job during shearing is to catch sheep, clean up the shearing area, gather up fleeces, and pack the wool in bags. The packing part has been exhausting in years past because I had to put it in the bag and then use my fists to punch down the wool and pack it as tightly as possible. So I had lobbied pretty hard for a bag stand. We finally got that accomplished this year, and while it did take some adjustment, it worked really well. Climbing up the ladder carrying the fleeces was a bit tricky, especially for the larger ones, but packing was so much easier. I just dropped the wool in and when it got close enough to the top I could step into the bag and press the wool down using my foot and most of my body weight, plus gravity was on my side. This was so much less work than using my upper body!

Shearing is hard work and from what I can tell you have to be flexible and strong to get it done. Brian got the shearing bug out of his system on Friday by doing 16, so Saturday he caught sheep, I packed wool, and our friend Tom did the shearing. Tom sheared a total of 49 sheep and Brian did 5 more. In all, these 70 sheep filled three standard wool bags plus three large garbage bags with wool.

Pictures from the weekend activities:

The before picture. Still wooly.

The rams before shearing. As you can see the grass is starting to green up; even more so after the nearly 2 inches of rain we had this weekend. This is about 3 or 4 weeks ahead of normal, but you won't hear me complaining!

Our new wool bag stand. There's a frame on the top that fits over the bag to hold it in place.

Brian shearing.

Tom finishing up the belly and inside of the back legs.

The wool bag filling up.

Freeee! The sheep always seem to be pleased with their new, lighter selves. The first thing they do after being shorn is a full-body shake. Then there's sniffing and licking and re-establishing their social order. Right after we finished shearing the rain started. Although we had quite a bit of rain and even a little snow, everyone seemed just fine. It's amazing how much body heat these little ruminants generate!