Shearing day is one of the most important days of the year on alpaca farms. It is the day that we harvest the beautiful fiber that our alpacas have grown over the last year. Getting organized for the day ahead of time certainly makes the day less stressful and chaotic. Teamwork and a well thought out plan will make shearing day run like a well oiled machine.
That being said, shearing is one of my least favorite parts of raising alpacas, because though our shearers claim it takes them just eight minutes to shear an alpaca, and though they are not harmed in any way, it still is a scary experience for them. Some tolerate it better than others. All of them feel better when it’s over.
Sloppy Joes, buns, chips, apples, Little Debbies, bottled water, coffee, grooming tools, halters, leads, bags, labels, broom, dust pan, garbage cans, and helpers! I think I have everything ready for shearing day the next day. The shearers are to arrive sometime between 11am and 1pm so we plan to spend the morning cleaning alpacas. I can relax … until … I get home about 7pm and there is a call from the shearers that they will be arriving at 7am!
Seriously?
My 16 year old daughter Abby usually keeps us organized on shearing day, but she is on medical status at school, and can’t miss more school without a doctor’s excuse. So be it. She will go to school post-shearing day and be unexcused. We need her help!
Three of our grandchildren also stay home from school for “family business”. Their mother feels helping with shearing day is as much an education as a day at school. How right she is!
Friends arrive to help. My 21 year old son Aaron drags himself out of bed.
We will shear light colored alpacas first, then medium and dark colors to try and limit different colored fiber getting mixed together.
Some of us will clean alpacas with several different types of grooming tools, picking out hay, straw, and burrs the best we can, and as much as each alpaca will tolerate. It is much easier to clean fiber while it is still on the animal than after it has been sheared off.
Someone will halter the alpacas, they will go into a holding pen, and await their turns.
A team of four strong and young men come from ShearingAlpaca.com. They are very experienced at handling the alpacas, laying them down on a mat, and restraining their legs to be shorn.
The head shearer on the shearing crew will shear the blanket first. The blanket is considered to be the prime fiber. Another shears the neck, the belly, the legs.
Topknots, tails, toes, and teeth get trimmed.
And there is lots of fiber to gather. The blanket is laid on a flat plastic sheet to be carefully rolled in the sheet. This way it can later be unrolled the same way it came off the alpaca and skirted. Skirting is the process of removing coarse or dirty fiber away from the blanket.
And of course, there is always time for my children to check text messages!
Until they see they are having their pictures taken!
Llamas are twice the size of an alpaca and according to our shearers, the “take down” is much more fun!
Our llama, Silver Beauty, has her own ideas about getting a hair cut.
She is down, and the shearers discuss what they might have done differently!
The cleaning is done. Grandson Keandre’ and son Aaron take a break.
It is Sam’s turn to be shorn.
One of the shearers and Sam take a break!
Cuddle time?
The shearers finished 24 alpacas and one llama in about three hours. The shearers were paid, the fiber was loaded in the trailer, tools were put away, the floor was swept, and our alpacas were all a little bit lighter. And cooler!
The sloppy joes were ready but it was only 10am! We loaded up and headed to another alpaca farm nearby to help with shearing there. Finally, with another herd shorn, we sat in the sunshine and enjoyed some lunch!
Today is Thursday, we sheared on Monday. I just now feel recovered!
Our shearers were scheduled to arrive at 10am Monday morning. Sunday night we received a call and were told the time would be changed to 2pm. I contacted our helpers and hoped they would still be able to come. Considering the forecast of 100% rain we thought this might actually work out better. We would be able to get alpacas into the barn and fans on in an effort to get them dry.
We did not pen them in the night before because we thought we’d have time to deal with wet alpacas first thing in the morning. Instead, at 7:30am we received another call saying the shearers would be there at 10am. The owners of the farm scheduled at 7 were not home when the shearers arrived, so this put them ahead about 4 hours!
We shifted to high gear, contacted our helpers, brought the alpacas in, set up pens so they could spread out, and turned on the fans!!
All’s well that ends well. Suris dry more quickly than huacayas, we learned that!
Trying to stay organized, keep helpers organized, and shear alpacas in an orderly fashion we started with our light colors, shearing suris first, then moved to browns, multis, and black. We are working with a certified sorter apprentice this year and by doing so are hoping to learn how to sort fiber ourselves. The fiber from all alpacas was taken off and carefully laid on a sheet of plastic, then rolled up so it can later be unrolled on a skirting table.
Head, tail, and belly can then be more easily identified and coarser fiber skirted away, versus throwing it all in a bag and having finer fiber contaminated by coarser fiber.
It was a great plan except that at the end of the day, all our neatly rolled blankets had to be unrolled and spread out on the barn floor to dry! The best laid plans . .
Several days later the fleeces were dry. We rolled them back up until next week when they will be unrolled again and sorted!
And now the alpacas all look a little silly. Several days of cold weather followed shearing day. I am sure we had some cold alpacas. I would rather err on the side of having some cold weather than go into June with pregnant females still in full fleece. With fiber that is warmer than wool, alpacas get hot! Teeth, toenails, topknots and tails are trimmed on shearing day. It’s kind of like a day at the spa, well not exactly . . .
Today the sun is shining. It is warming back up and we have a herd of happy alpacas!
And lots of beautiful fiber!
We’ll be sorting our fiber next week, then making decisions about what we will do with our crop this year. All grades of fiber can be used for something! Click Raw Fiber if you’re interested in purchasing some before it goes to the mill for processing.
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