Shearing

Shearing -- at least for us -- is the hardest part of the alpaca year. Everybody talks about how much fun shearing must be and how great it is to have all this new fiber. To hear some breeders talk about it, shearing is glamorous. It's easy, it's fun, you get all this fiber. They put the happy face on it. Glamorous!

What alpaca breeders don't talk about how stressful shearing is or how physically exhausting it can be. There is a reason my posts have been rather short and terse this past week, and also a reason why there isn't -- yet -- a big description with before and after pictures on the blog. Shearing isn't glamorous. It's exhausting, dirty work.

The reason there are no pictures of the shearing process on the website is that holding an alpaca for shearing takes both hands and mental focus. There are too many distractions without thinking about the camera and I can't take my hands off the animal to push the shutter.

There are positive aspects to shearing. It is the time of year when alpaca breeders get together to help each other -- because few of us have enough hands to shear on our own. We catch up on the year's gossip and take a good look at each others' animals. The camaraderie is important in getting things done and building community.

Most of my blog readers will be focusing on all the new fiber as a positive aspect to shearing. Stash enhancement they say. Not so fast, I say. Right now, all of our raw fiber is in the living room. Yes, the living room. The fiber is in bags and the top of every bag is open to allow the fiber to breathe. I haven't looked at the fiber at all. Every single one of these fleeces needs to be skirted and gone over before processing begins. I might process many of my fleeces without washing them first, but I have to skirt them first.

Did I mention that panicked alpacas urinate on the shearing mat? Did I mention that urine gets on the fleece? That fleece got put in the garbage bag, not in with the good fleeces, but I have to go through the bags to figure out which is the garbage bag.

Meanwhile, that bag of garbage fiber is also on the living room floor airing out. Glamour anybody?

I'll just make this a very public "thank you" to Pam for her patience with me and my fiber.

I'm stiff and sore from shearing and I think every single one of my animals is as at least as stiff and sore as I am. Several are still moving like they're quite sore. I'm still stressed over shearing and I think half of our herd is still more stressed over shearing than I am.

And we use the shearer we do because she minimizes stress to both humans and animals!

Several alpaca breeders out there will speak up and say that if our shearer is making animals stiff and sore, we should use a different shearer. My answer is, "Watch your alpacas closely after shearing!"

I have worked with several different shearers at several different farms using several different shearing methods. In almost every case, the alpaca is shorn and then turned back into the pasture to be forgotten about. I've seen a bit of shearing. I also know I can see behavior in my alpacas that many breeders miss. More important, I know that Pam is extremely good at watching the alpacas and seeing small changes in motion and behavior. I'm not in her observational league, but I have learned from her. Last year, I was horrified at the limping and stiffness in our pastures after shearing. I almost changed shearers. Then, I thought about it. Last year was the first time we were in a position to watch our animals after shearing. This year, we're seeing much the same. As I think about it, if I am stiff and sore from shearing, those animals probably experience much the same thing. If I'm sore from struggling to hold them, they're probably sore from struggling not to be held. And since the method we're currently using puts the least physical stress on the holder, it might be reasonable to assume it puts the least stress on the alpaca.

But I still feel like I'm hurting my babies. It's one thing for me to hurt myself -- I like to think I'm a tough guy and I can take it. It's something else entirely to be hurting my babies. Did I say shearing was stressful?

Shearing is dirty work. Alpacas love to roll, so they are covered in dust and dirt. Alpacas sweat. This sweat mixes it with dust and dirt to make mud. If you're ever washed a fleece and seen all the mud wash off, you know what I'm talking about. Shears take oil. This oil gets on the fleece and on your hands. Alpacas don't have lanolin, but they do have body oils. These oils get on the fleece. Everything that gets on or into the fleece gets on your hands during shearing. It takes about two animals to turn my hands black and by the fourth, my face, shirt, and arms are black as well.

Shears make tiny hairs -- extremely fine tiny hairs. Wind blows these around and they stick to the gooey black mixture on your hands, arms, and face. Partially shorn alpacas struggle against you as you hold them, and the tiny hairs rub off. Think about he hairs down the back of your neck after a haircut. Alpacas have a lot more hair than you do!

Alpacas spit when they're afraid. Shearing is one time when our alpacas will take aim at us. (Injections are another.) Chances are pretty good that you'll get slimed during shearing -- and if you don't get hit by flying spit, you'll get an arm or hand in it while holding an animal. It's all part of shearing.

And it's a dirty job.

More on shearing later. I'm off to see if I can take some good after-shearing pictures today. Maybe I'll even make some progress toward enjoying some of my hard-earned stash.

Oh, and Chloe still hasn't had her baby.