In the 1930s, Montana sheep numbers peaked at about 4 million but then declined for many years. Now, with the increased use of flocks of sheep to graze noxious weeds, the Montana sheep inventory seems to have stabilized at roughly 265,000 sheep and lambs in 2008. Sheep have become an essential tool in minimizing the invasion of noxious weeds onto wildlands, where herbicidal spraying is financially or physically impractical or socially unacceptable.

The institute itself was developed partially in response to that need to graze weeds, but also to increase the competitiveness of Montana's sheep industry, reduce lamb mortality and improve income through new wool and lamb marketing strategies. Commercial-scale flocks require sheep shearers, which led to the development of the shearing school at MSU. Held in March each year, the beginner shearing course includes wool handling and grading as well as shearing technique. The advanced course focuses more on helping students improve their technique and speed.

In Montana, shearing is done once a year, a month or so before the ewes lamb in late winter or early spring.

Shearers usually work in teams. The first step after arriving at the ranch is to set the stage, quite literally. The team puts plywood on the barn floor and sets up lights and electric power on stands to the side. They add a newly sharpened cutter to the shears then oil the shears and shearing motors.

The shearing floor vibrates with the rhythm of the work, electric shears provide a high-pitched sustaining tone, while the "baaaa" of sheep and "uuugh" of shearer are wind instruments and percussion combined.

Shearers dream about sheep and "the pattern," as Reid Redden calls it. A doctoral candidate in ruminant nutrition at MSU, Redden says he shears for both income and therapy. His doctoral work at MSU keeps him at a desk much of the day. After being physically active most of his life, he craves the physicality of shearing.

"Shearing is my exercise," Redden says. "I don't like to run. I get to go shear and meet people, good community-minded people, and that's good."

The pattern is both the way shearers position themselves and the animals and the route they follow as they guide the shears over the sheep's body. Usually the pattern or style is named for its geographic origin. For example, there is a Mexican style and a New Zealand style. Moore and fellow shearer and MSU Blaine County Extension Agent Mike Schuldt took time off in 2008 to go "down under" and train in New Zealand. They now teach that technique in the shearing schools.

Positioning and shearing the sheep seems to be a cross between swing dancing (one of Redden's hobbies) and wrestling. On a January day at Gerry Dusenberry's ranch southwest of Bozeman, the pattern calls for hauling 200-pound Suffolk sheep from the chute onto the cutting floor and bracing each animal between the legs of the shearer, who then guides the gliding shears around the belly, hind quarter, sides and back of the sheep, then flips it over and works the head and neck and down the other side. The mature ewes don't seem to mind, but the yearlings can struggle, which is tough on the bodies on both sides of the shears.

Return to regular view	Text-only              Email this article	Published: 4/27/2009