Normally we shear in early-mid May. I was not ready due to the move and the weather can be questionable in May, so I had been wanting to push it to later date anyway.
Therefore in looking at my calendar, we chose Saturday, June 18th. But with things already scheduled for the two weekends prior, I needed to get the barn and supplies ready by the end of May.
At our last place, preparing for Shearing Day was a matter of just ensuring our hay stores were out of the way and hooking the rig up to the already established points.
Here, at the new place, I had to choose and set up a new location.
After scouting about, I figured one of the stalls would work best. We have power and places to tie off. However, stalls being stalls, I'm concerned it will be a bit narrow for a large crew. We will also need more shade in the morning.
The good news is that our new place makes it much easier to corral the herd for shearing, so I didn't need a lot of extra hands, or to take a break from shearing to help catch animals. I penned them in the night before, then we let them into the pasture after each was shorn.
I sorted my tools and sent a supply of combs, cutters, and shears out for sharpening.
I created the check sheets, labeled the fleece bags, and ensured the rig would work in the selected location. I also set out my folding table to ensure we have the traffic flow figured out.
The previous owner left a large amount of horse manure behind. Much of it was frozen to the ground by the time I was able to get to it last fall. So barn prep included mucking for horses that I am not responsible for, ground leveling, and placing stall mats for padding.
I am happy to report that our first shearing day at our new farm was successful! We identified a few kinks that should be relatively simple to remedy before next year.
As always, we couldn't do this work without the help of a few great friends. I'm grateful to them.
The alpaca always look so funny after shearing, LOL! Glad everything went smoothly. Have fun skirting :D
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