The sweat rolls down the heads of the shearers by the time the first ewe is done. Then another sheep is pulled into position. Shear two hours, bent and sweating, take a 15 minute break and go back to the work. With a 150 pound white-faced Columbia ewe, the work is demanding. When the subject is a 200-pound Suffolk ewe, it's not only hard work, but hard work for which only a few have the strength and stamina.

A good experienced hand might shear 110-140 or so animals a day, perhaps one every three minutes. The world record in speed shearing was set in January, when one man sheared 963 sheep in eight hours-a hair less than 30 seconds to shear each critter. The sheep in competitions are less than half the size of Dusenberry's Suffolks.

Brent Roeder, who frequently works with Moore and is a research associate in MSU's Animal and Range Sciences department, said most owners don't care about speed.

"They want a good job," Roeder said, "and they don't want the sheep cut."

Cuts do occur, but less as a shearer gains experience. For most shearers, the work is a second job, so most use their vacations and holidays to shear.

Shearers are paid by the head, but when shearers talk about improving their speed, it has little to do with the money they make. It is more about doing their fair share of the work and doing better on the next sheep than on the one just completed.

"You build on each others' skill and energy," Schuldt says. "If the others on the crew are working really hard, you want to work just as hard. If you have paced yourself right, you'll be out of energy at five o'clock. You can look back at the barn and see the sheared sheep and what you have accomplished."

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