|
|
|
> MSU News
Shearing School students pick up clippers out of shear necessity
February 27, 2002 -- MSU-Bozeman News Service
 |
| Annable Lombard of Fromberg is already on her third sheep by day two of the Extension sheep shearing school held in January in Bozeman |
|
Bozeman--From February to May in Montana, the clippers are buzzing. This is traditionally the time when professional sheep shearing crews travel the state, shaving away a day's wages one ewe at a time. But Montana State University sheep specialist Rodney Kott says changes in wool and lamb markets have caused a significant decrease in the number of large sheep operations. Shearing crews are stretched to find large flocks to shear, and now the crews themselves are becoming scarce. But smaller producers still have sheep to be sheared. That's why MSU Extension is helping to bring new shearers into the fold. Several picked up the clippers for the first time at a four-day Extension sheep shearing school in Bozeman in January.
Judith Basin County Extension Agent Jim Moore and Blaine County Agent Mike Schuldt taught the class with help from Kott and Moore's son, Brad. They started in a classroom, with a handout that included 20 pages of detailed illustrations, annotations, arrows and even diagrams of where the shearer's feet should be. The method, developed by the New Zealand Wool Board, combines positions and techniques that good shearers have perfected over the years all into one shearing bible of sorts. According to Kott, the two main goals in good shearing are to minimize stress to the sheep and to keep the fleece as marketable (long and uniform) as possible. Some degree of efficiency helps, too.
Next came a video of a New Zealand professional deftly manipulating sheep and shears to shuck a fleece off the animal the way some people can peel an orange or apple, all in one piece. "That's about 40 seconds," Schuldt commented. "Forty-six strokes, if you do it all right." Schuldt accompanied that remark with a wry smile and the caution, "It's not as easy as it looks."
"It's not like mowing a lawn," said Schuldt. You have to keep the sheep's skin taut to keep from nicking its hide. Moore added more words of advice. "Wear tennis shoes, because you have to be agile to manage the sheep. Cowboy boots are not recommended… Bend at the waist, or your back won't last a whole sheep." Moore also suggested that suspenders or overalls are handy equipment for those wishing to preserve their modesty as they are bent over, shearing. "People like to come and watch you shear, and some people find that offensive," Moore explained, without a trace of humor in his voice. "And bring lots of water. This is back-breaking labor."
The rest of the afternoon and the next three days were spent in hands-on shearing. Moore and Schuldt provided an overview of wool grading, which determines the end use and ultimately the price that the wool will bring, and showed the class how to select and maintain shearing equipment. "Half of your success is in caring for your equipment," said Schuldt. "Dull or out of adjustment equipment makes for a really long day."
Of the four women and ten men in the class, each had their own reason to show up. Most were producers with flocks of between 10 and 200 head. Some had downscaled from larger operations; others had recently begun raising sheep to bring in a little extra cash or help control weeds. Smaller operations like these are on the increase, said Kott.
Ben Maestas of Clyde Park is an artisan who markets his traditional woven rugs and tapestries on the Internet. He said that his small flock of Navaho Churro sheep need to be sheared twice a year and it’s hard for him to coordinate with a shearing crew. Sandy Mathis, who raises registered Shetlands for the hand-spinning market, attended the class for similar reasons. “Shearers don’t really like to do small flocks,” she said, “It’s more like they do it as a favor.”
Harry Anderson, a Belgrade rancher, wants to shear his 35 certified organic sheep. Another student said he was forced to start shearing his own flock when the man who had always sheared for him died last year.
Ryan Lewis, a high school sophomore from Reed Point attended the school at the urging of his dad. Lewis, a 4-H'er who is head and shoulders into the business of learning sheep production, was there to learn shearing and maybe come home with the skills to make a little extra money. It can be done, attests Brad Moore. Moore, who now teaches Ag Ed in Big Timber, sheared enough sheep to put himself through college. A 1993 MSU graduate in Agriculture Education, he figured that he made about $12,000 one spring, shearing every day from December 26 through Easter.
Even students like Annabel Lombard, of Fromberg, who originally said that she wasn't planning to shear her flock herself, got plenty of experience. By 10 am on January 23, the passerby might have guessed she was planning to hit the professional circuit. With a big ewe placidly balanced on its left hip, she shaved its inner thigh like she knew exactly what she was doing. "That was an A+ sheep," she agreed, "the one before that was a B, and the ones yesterday were Fs."
LaRae Sales of Manhattan looked on it more as an adventure: "Last year I got my motorcycle license, this year I'm learning to shear sheep. Next year I don’t know what I'm going to do!"
Just a little off the top: more about shearing that you may not have known
If not now, when?
With snow still on the horizon, it may seem unfair to deprive a sheep of its hard-earned parka, but February is the traditional beginning of shearing season. Rodney Kott, MSU Extension sheep specialist, explained that shearing is timed to make sure the wool is off before lambing time. Shearing makes the lambing process cleaner, sheared ewes require less space in lambing sheds, and they are more likely to seek shelter -- which improves their offspring's chance of survival. Lambing itself is timed to make the best use of the high nutrient value of spring grass, which in turn boosts survival rates in lambs.
The price of a haircut:
The price of a haircut, if you're a sheep, runs about $1.75. Not bad, if you only have a handful of ewes. The tricky part is finding someone who knows how to do it.
What about the wool?
Many smaller producers pool together their wool in order to amass the 40,000 lbs. of a particular grade needed to maximize selling price and freight efficiency. The pooled wool sells for around 45 cents a pound (or, if you figure for about 9-1/2 lbs. of wool each, about $4 per sheep). One class participant kidded that with the size of his flock, his wool check barely covers the cost of driving to town to spend it. None the less, shearing needs to be done, to prevent health problems like wool blindness (caused by frozen wool scraping the sheep's eyes). Wool production in Montana accounts for about 20 percent of the income from sheep.
What's it like to shear a sheep? "It's like giving a haircut to some little kid with hair all over them who really doesn’t want it to happen," says Zech Browning, a sophomore in Range Science at MSU who took the shearing class. "After about a half hour, you can see they're getting kind of antsy… I would be, too."
Skirting the issue As wool mills have become more particular about minimum quantities and specific grades of wool that they will purchase, sorting the wool is a make-or-break business. A skirting table is used to sort the shorter pieces in a fleece (from legs and heads, for instance) from the long, uniform wool on the main body. Short bits fall through spaces between rollers in the skirting table, to be sold, at a lower price, as felting quality wool. The skirted fleece is carefully folded and stored with other high-grade wool. If any short wool is found in a load of high-grade wool, the price of the entire shipment falls to the lowest common denominator.
Print quality versions (400K) of the following photos can be downloaded at the URL listed.
Low res (40K) are at the same URL, with filename followed by "sm" (e.g. www.montana.edu/wwwpb/ag/shearedsm.jpg)
download at: www.montana.edu/wwwpb/ag/sheared.jpg
Caption: Ewes are left to reflect on their shearing school experience in a paddock while their unsheared buddies wait their turn.
download at: www.montana.edu/wwwpb/ag/lewis.jpg
Caption: High school sophomore Ryan Lewis learns the business of shearing, hands on.
download at: www.montana.edu/wwwpb/ag/maestas.jpg
Caption: Ben Maestas removes wool from the back legs as Brad Moore looks on.
download at: www.montana.edu/wwwpb/ag/moore.jpg
Caption: Judith Basin County Extension agent Jim Moore explains a point.
download at: www.montana.edu/wwwpb/ag/schuldt.jpg
Caption: Blaine County Extension agent Mike Schuldt gives a quick demonstration of skirting.
Or, to request photos of a class participant from your area not listed here, email mgoodman@montana.edu.
Contact: Mike Schuldt (406)357-3200; Jim Moore (406)566-2277; Rodney Kott (406)994-3415
|
|
|
Email this article
