Guide to a Safe Shearing Day
Our goal is an easy, low-stress shearing day for you. That takes a bit of work ahead of time from you. These steps are essential to help us keep sheep comfortable and handle fiber with care.
Fast sheep at least 20 hours prior to shearing.
Remove all feed at least 20 hours before our appointment. NO pasture (even very short pasture), NO hay, NO grain. Empty hay feeders and remove sheep from pasture. Sheep with full rumens are uncomfortable and will struggle while being shorn. Healthy sheep can go many hours without food or water.
Sheep must be dry.
Shearing wet sheep is unsafe. Period. Sheep will get wet from light sprinkles, dew, multi-day rain storms, and snow. If sheep are rained on and then locked inside the day before our appointment they will not dry out. Yes, this can be challenging but the risks to sheep and shearer’s safety are not worth shearing wet sheep. If you are unable to keep sheep inside and dry, you need to watch the forecast and let us know in advance if we will be unable to shear.
Sheep must be penned up near the shearing area the night before shearing day.
When we are scheduling shearing we do not account for time to chase and catch sheep. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. Sheep will behave unexpectedly when strangers show up. Trust us. Shearing after sheep are stressed, chased around is not safe for the sheep either. The most common reason we are late to an appointment is because sheep were not caught at an earlier job.
Provide plywood, or another clean surface.
For matters of biosecurity we recommend you provide plywood for us to shear on. Rubber mats and clean wooden barn floors work just as well! We do travel with our own plywood but cannot disinfect it between farms. Store yours away until next shearing and it will last years and reduce the spread of disease.
Have things ready for your wool.
Being prepared for the day means having a plan to clean the work area and gather wool. Have a broom to sweep the shearing area in-between sheep, bags or containers for the wool, markers to label fleeces, and anything else you need ahead of time. If you plan to skirt on shearing day, set-up an area away from the shearing board and get extra helpers for that job. We don’t schedule time in between each sheep for skirting on the shearing board.
Electricity
Our shearing machines require electricity to run. Please arrange for an outlet or extension cord to be reasonably near the shearing area. We do have extension cords with us, but they only go so far!