Thursday, 25 June, 2009
Sleek Sheep
Scarcely 7:30 a.m. and the telephone was ringing. It was Suzy. "The shearer's here and he's going like lightening. If you want to see him work you'd better hurry!" Professional sheep shearers "going for the gold" can shear sheep in under a minute. World record is one sheep sheared in 38 seconds. Suzy has just five ewes - I got my shoes on, grabbed the camera bag and hurried over.
The sheep were huddled in one corner of their barn, with the goats
in another. Goats don't get sheared, but they still looked apprehensive.
Don's clippers were humming along and the tangled fleece came away
smoothly. Black sheep bleach to brown in the sunlight. Freshly sheared
and they look not just sleek and svelte, but elegantly ebony black.
As well as muscle there's a skill to shearing: handling a heavy animal,
flipping them around to get top, bottom, sides & avoid nicking their skin.
Hard on the shearer's back too. Don shears about 3,000 sheep each year.
Some sheep are more relaxed than others, or maybe just resigned.
No one is going to wash, card, spin, and then knit something from this wool.
Susie's sheep are Finn X Dorset crosses. Their fleece isn't worth anything much
but they still need to be shorn. How nice and trim she looks, all set for summer.
If you're near eastern Pennsylvania and have some sheep that need sheared,
I can recommend Don Nehoda. Give him a call at 215-348-7343. After all,
if he's already shearing 3,000 sheep, what difference are a few more.