Isn't Alpaca Shearing Day some kind of national holiday??? Well, it feels like it should be to us. Yes, we were just a little bit excited that the day had finally arrived to shear our thick-coated alpaca yesterday. It's been almost 8 months since the alpaca came to live on Whispering Oaks Farm and we've been talking about "the day we shear them" since before they were even delivered here. After all, the whole point of having alpaca is to obtain their lofty fleece yearly and turn it into wearable articles of clothing. Hopefully, I'll be able to show you the entire process of how that comes to be over the next few months.
But, I digress. This morning Joel and I are walking a little bit slower and are nursing some newly acquired aches and pains. Alpaca shearing is hard work! Up and down, on our knees, wrestle an unruly alpaca. Holy cow.....we started at 8:30 Friday morning and finished up around 6:30pm. My TN friend, Barb, the all-wise-alpaca-lady who gave me my first spinning lesson is also the one who shears for several surrounding counties locally. As soon as she pulled up to the barn in her car we three hopped into action, setting up for the day's work.
Thank goodness Barb is an old pro at shearing. She assessed our barn setup in no time at all and we worked out where to attach the rope system used to restrain the animal's legs while the shearing takes place. So we set up her rubber mats on the gravel floor of the open area of the barn and she showed me how to put a halter on the animals, something I've never done before. Take a deep breath, Debbie, and let's get started.
Joel and I went into the girls' side of the barn where we had the alpaca penned in their stall to make it easier to catch them. The last thing we wanted to do was to have to chase alpaca all over the pasture to try and halter them, one at a time, and lead them over to the shearing area. Ok, how hard could it be? Giggle......all I can say is that
now we are old pros at haltering our critters.
Here's my favorite boy, Diablo, in all his fluffy glory. Just look at those puffy cheeks! And wait till you see him once he is sheared. I was a bit shocked at how small the bodies of these very strong animals appear once all that fleece is sheared off their body.
And before I go any further, let's clear up one thing right now. Recently I read on the internet that someone said,"I'd love to wear something knit from alpaca, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that knowing the animal had to die in order for me to have a sweater or scarf or hat made from their fleece." What???? Seriously, this person thought that animals had to die in order to harvest their fleece. Think about it folks, you take your dog to the groomer to have it's fur cut, right? Your dog is still alive, right? Sheep get sheared, alpaca get sheared, goats get sheared, all to obtain their fleecy coats.
And they are all still alive afterwards. If these animals didn't get sheared they would die in the heat of summer because of the heavy coats they wear! Shearing is a good and necessary thing.
I guess she was thinking about hides.....the way leather comes from cow hides, etc. And yes, then the animal dies because that is their skin. This is hair we're talking about......a big, fat, fluffy haircut of alpaca. Trust me, no one died on our farm yesterday. Hmmmm, I wonder if the writer of that falsehood wears leather shoes or carries a leather purse? Just sayin'.
Here's one last look at the boys at their fluffiest. Pretty soon they'll be bald and kinda weird looking.
Ok, so Joel and I went into the girls stall and Joel caught one around the neck(that's how you're supposed to do it), I haltered her and we proceeded to try and walk her out to the padded shearing area. Um, nothing doing. She wanted to remain with her sisters. Well, it took a wee bit of coaxing, prodding and pulling to get her onto the pad. Then the really fun part started. Somehow you're supposed to take a standing animal and get it to lie down flat so Barb could shear her. Easy-peasy, right?
Joel and I had no idea what Barb needed us to do to assist her. You can't believe how strong these animals are! Seriously. The idea is to keep calm, speak in low tones so as not to excite the animal, and be firm. Wow, Barb is incredible. She would take the halter and hold onto it close by the alpaca's head, all the while speaking to her in a low, soothing voice. Then, Barb would kneel down beside the standing alpaca, pick up one of the front legs and slowly start swaying back and forth, back and forth. Eventually the animal would bend its free front leg and both back legs and cush or kneel. Then Joel and I would grab the back legs and attach the straps above the ankles while Barb did the front legs.
Sounds simple enough, right? Ha! Several of the alpaca would lull us into thinking they were being submissive and then suddenly jump up and begin flailing around, jumping or kicking. Um, yes, it was quite exciting several times yesterday as we three wrested a 150-200lb. jumping jack animal. Thankfully, no one got hurt and all the animals finally behaved. I believe struggling with the animals is how we acquired our newest aches and pains. Ha ha, no pain, no gain. Or something like that.
It was Joel's job to hold the neck and head of each alpaca while Barb worked her magic with her electric shears. After shearing off the belly fleece(which is called "thirds") she began taking long strides across the abdomen of the alpaca. When she did that, the beautiful, luscious, thick and incredibly soft fleece came off the animal in large sheets. I wish you could feel how gorgeous this fleece feels.
And she kept shearing and shearing until she reached the backbone. Then I rolled this prime fleece up in the red fabric and took it over to a garbage can lined with clear plastic and dumped it in.
Meanwhile, Joel continued holding onto the alpaca's neck as Barb sheared down the legs and up the neck of each alpaca. The fleece from the main part of the body is called firsts and is the most valuable, and longest part, of the fleece. (By longest, I am referring to each individual hair length) The fleece that comes off the hips and neck are called seconds and are not quite as long as the body fleece, which makes it more difficult to use on a spinning wheel. Instead, seconds are used to make felted clothing or can be sent away to a mill to be turned into quilt batting for quilters. Woo-hoo! Lucky me, not only will I get to use my firsts to spin, but now I can use our seconds to have batting made for the quilts I create. Be. Still. My. Heart.
After turning the animal over to do the other side, the whole process is repeated. After approximately half an hours work, the alpaca has a nice cool summertime haircut and is free to join the other animals in her pen. One alpaca fleece almost fills a garbage can. I made a file card for each animal, noting the day, the animal's name, the quality of the fleece and any other comments Barb made about this particular alpaca. The card then gets dropped into the clear bag with the fleece, ready for me to clean it on another day. And now I have more information to use when it's time to breed which male with which female to create even more luxurious fleece.
It was my turn to hold the neck of one of the girls and she was nice and calm as I scratched her head between her ears. She even seemed to enjoy having me speak to her in a low voice. It was a joy for me to get to spend one on one time with each animal as we went thru the day. And most of the animals were quite relaxed while getting sheared once they realized they felt much cooler without their heavy coat on their body.
The boys watched us as we sheared the girls, one by one. Pretty soon it would be their turn.
You've heard of the horse whisperer, right? Well, I deem Barb as the alpaca whisperer. She truly has a magical touch with this breed. She can read their body language so well and knows when to be firm with them. It was amazing to see how they responded to her commands and actions.
As she sheared the necks and heads, Barb would pause and talk to the animal, gentling her into submission. We took this opportunity to check the color of each animal's conjunctiva (inner eyelid), their hooves(which Barb trimmed), their teeth(which Barb also filed down) and their general body condition. Now we feel we have a better idea of the overall health of our herd. What a great lesson!
Here Barb is coaxing one of our big guys to come further onto the pad.
Can you tell how happy I was that shearing day had finally arrived? I loved spending time with each and every animal and I made sure to scratch them all between their ears.....something they all seemed to enjoy.
And look at this glorious fleece. Seeing and feeling the fleece I will soon start to work with made all the months of feeding animals and mucking stalls worth the effort it took to get this far. What a blessing to be able to make my longtime dream of alpaca ownership come true! I still have to pinch myself to know that these animals are ours to work with and take care of.
We finished up with the girls and took a much needed break for lunch. Then it was time to shear the boys. Joel rounded them up and chased them into their stall. Take a long last look at how fluffy they are because soon you'll see what they look like sheared.
Here are some of the bagged fleeces, all ready to be worked by my ready and willing hands.
And then just before the last light of day gave out, we were finished with the final alpaca. Whew! And look how skinny they look! All except for their fluffy tails, that is. This morning all the animals were out in their pastures, grazing on grass and enjoying the cool early breezes of the day. They sure do seem happy to have shed their warm, heavy coats of winter.
And now I get to play with fleece!
Debbie
