Shearing Season
Ladder crew with the 2007 clip
photo by Gemma Dunn
Shearing time is well and truly the transition from winter into spring. For the ewes, that transition is very real in a flesh and blood sort of way. They are not symbolically throwing aside their winter coats. They are ACTUALLY giving up the wool which has sustained them through blizzards and 35 below temperatures.
Annual shearing is critical to the long-term health of the sheep. They have been bred for millennia to produce fiber for human needs, and this selective breeding has created a fleece that needs to be removed. Wool is a miracle fiber, protecting the bearer against cold, moisture and even flame. It is far better than any petroleum based synthetic substitute.
We try to shear the odd lots of sheep ahead of time, so that when the main crew comes in, they can get to the business of shearing the “main line.” This is an annual dance, with many a step and misstep as the shearing contractor coordinates his crew, his equipment, his customers, and that ultimate tune-caller, Mother Nature. We in the meantime, try to reach the shearing site at the optimal time, so as not to use up too much feed, and keeping a safe timing ahead of lambing. Needless to say, this doesn’t always work perfectly.
Once shearing starts, it is as if it is the only thing going on in the world. The staging of the sheep as they come and go, the coordination of people, work and meals, the clatter of the shears, the anxious scanning of the skies--our whole universe is made up of these.
Shear Pleasure crew, 2007
Badwater Pasture
Sweetwater County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon O'Toole
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Badwater shearing encampment
photo by Pat O'Toole
Modesto bringing in the sheep
photo by Sharon O'Toole
George at the gate
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Jose working the chute
photo by Pat O'Toole
The weather, of course, is the least predictable of all the factors. Our ewes were still “in the wool” when they were struck by a March storm, but our friend in northern Wyoming was hit just as he was shearing, and lost 700 head—some to exposure and some to suffocation when they blew out and piled up. It is the tragedy that we all fear as we go into this vulnerable season.
We have had very good luck so far. The shearing crews travel with a large portable shed which they can set up virtually anywhere. They follow in a caravan of pickup trucks and camper trailers, and can do without electricity or running water. The shearing machines and mechanical packer run off a generator.
Ingrid shearing
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Gemma carrying a fleece
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Packing a black fleece
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Wool bales accumulating outside the shed
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Loading the wool, destination: China
photo by Sharon O'Toole
This year we opted to shear in the Badwater pasture, which is some 40 or 50 miles south of the Red Desert winter country, and about 40 miles north of our lambing grounds near Dixon, Wyoming. We had a stretch of good weather and the shearing crew worked straight through for five days. Often it extends into a week or more as we are interrupted by wet weather.
The crew, all from New Zealand, consisted of six men and a woman, and averaged 200 head apiece per day. Two young women made up the sorting and packing crew. They are highly skilled and can sort the wool by factors such as grade and fineness. We separate the finest fleeces from the rest (which are also fine), and sort out bellies (short and dirty) and tags (manurey and REALLY dirty). In the United States, wool buyers do not pay extra for further sorting, as they do in Australia and New Zealand.
The shearers and packers work incredibly hard, with only a break for lunch. They do it day after day, week after week, and if they follow the shearing jobs around the world, month after month. It is one of the pleasures of our business to work with them, and some have become friends.
As soon as the shearing job was done, the crew packed up their equipment, their shed, and their homes, and headed out to set up at the next job, some 200 miles away. They finished our sheep at 6 p.m. and planned to start again the next morning at 8 a.m. Their departure was accompanied by rain clouds.
We have spent the last week trailing (again) from Badwater to the lambing grounds at Cottonwood and Loco. These are large landscapes of rolling hills and small streams. It includes our private land, a Wyoming state lease, and some BLM leases. It is an area slated for coal bed methane development, and we indeed wandered off on a few new roads as we moved the sheep camps south. These roads look better than the old two tracks (which they have largely rendered useless), but often dead-end at a drilling site.
We didn’t mind fighting the mud as we moved the sheep camps south--better mud than dust. Last spring lacked the characteristic pale green we usually see, as the drought dug in. So far we have had timely rains, as we appreciate them all the more for having seen their lack in recent years.
We are now settled in on the lambing grounds, and—hallelujah!—are seeing fine warm days, perfect for the new lambs hitting the ground.
Sheep on the trail on Wild Horse Butte
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Yellow-headed blackbirds at the Badwater Reservoir
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Siobhan, Brian & very patient guard dog
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Siobhan and Pepe with early lamb and shorn sheep
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Meghan (our cook!) with Antonio, Seamus, Modesto & Gustavo
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Seamus & Pat at the corral
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Comments
Great photos
Work with the Hammer in 82-86 I had a great time with him
Posted by: Jim Mason | January 6, 2008 12:09 AM