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James

Sheep Shearing Time Again!!

Well, the time is here. It's our harvest again!

We start shearing tomorrow   We've got 26 Lincoln Longwools to shear, and they're big, heavy sheep. Shearing one of these is bloody hard compared to a small, normal sheep.

I'm looking forwards to a bad back  
Cowboy

Pics! Better yet, a vid.    
Wallace

Good luck mate

Yeah a vid would be great  
Stitch1615

Make my sweater a 2XL please.
Hey,,,no hurry about it. It's 90 freakin degrees right now.
James

We managed to get 15 of the 26 done today - though I didn't rush (ie had a nice long break and cup of tea between each sheep) and the bloke who was shearing with me had to go at dinner because he's still suffering from a bad back. People don't know how hard it is to shear a Lincoln until they've tried it - it's absolutely different to shearing a normal sheep! I did 8 of the 15 and my mate did 7 - we wasn't in a rush at all and just wanted to take it steady. It was sweltering anyway!

We've got the other lot to do tomorrow night, the shears are still all set up   I hope you can get a feel of this from the pictures. It's such a tradition in Lincolnshire, and these sheep basically built the county. One of these fleeces used to be near enough literally worth its weight in gold!
James

























Les

James, what do you do with the fleeces once you have sheared the sheep?
James

I've sold 10 privately to a lass I went to school with and who is setting up a wool business, sometimes some other people want them for spinning etc aswell. I have two entered into the Lincolnshire Show. The majority go to the BWMB (British Wool Marketing Board) though to be processed and sold.  
Dean W

Good pictures, James.  Good luck with the wool at the fair, too!
Cowboy

Thanks, James, for the pictures. You have a nice farm. Brick barns, built to last for generations.

Those are certainly some wooly sheep, and big. I'll bet you are tired.
scorpion2nz

while it is great to see you shear your own sheep But  do you not have dedicated wool shed over there .
If the wool is so valuable why shear in a pen with straw and all sorts of crap around .
Over here we have a  Wool shed which is only used for shearing and crutching etc
it has grating for the sheep to stand on and a tongue and groove floor to shear on so no foreign fiber can contaminate the wool
James

We normally shear outside, but we had to bring them in quickly because it was about to chuck it down! It was a case of get a bit of straw in the fleece which can be picked out by the winder or let them all get soaked so we couldn't shear a single one. We chose the former...
scorpion2nz

I can see your dilemma stuck between a rock and a hard place

do Wool Sheds as we have them here exist over there or not ?
James

Naa, I don't know of any mate, but that's not to say they aren't about. I know over here the sheep industry's nowhere near as big in NZ nowadays!
scorpion2nz

was working in our shed today as we pre lamb crutched the reject mob of 30 ewes and crutched the hoggets  (175)
just leaves the shearers to pre lamb crutch the main ewes 500 odd
MrDuck

No wonder you had to wipe your brow after that wrestling match. Alien insists I ask if you have some open day on your ranch so he can come and pet your your animals?
Devobowman

James, very nostalgic pics, especially the towel down, I put myself through university 40 years ago working as a 'rousy' in a shearing gang...it's me (c1970) on the broom on the left looking like I could do with some attention from the shears myself...
Dave
Stitch1615

James wrote:
We normally shear outside, but we had to bring them in quickly because it was about to chuck it down! It was a case of get a bit of straw in the fleece which can be picked out by the winder or let them all get soaked so we couldn't shear a single one. We chose the former...


I don't know that you'd have to sit on me like that to give me a hair cut.
I can hear it now. "Ok James, you can cut it but must you hold me chin so tight".
Stoker

James, those are certainly some beautiful animals you have there, and yes that shearing looks more than a mite hard on your back. Just wondering if you could put an old bathtub up on a table, and put the woolies into that, so that you could contain them, still roll them around easily and shear them standing upright? Seems like it could work ... at least to someone who really doesn't know!?!?    
scorpion2nz

Stoker wrote:
James, those are certainly some beautiful animals you have there, and yes that shearing looks more than a mite hard on your back. Just wondering if you could put an old bathtub up on a table, and put the woolies into that, so that you could contain them, still roll them around easily and shear them standing upright? Seems like it could work ... at least to someone who really doesn't know!?!?    


     
as you say you don't know anything about sheep .

if you get a sheep on their  back anywhere but flat  the chances of moving it are about as remote me meeting aliens tomorrow
Stoker

scorpion2nz wrote:
Stoker wrote:
James, those are certainly some beautiful animals you have there, and yes that shearing looks more than a mite hard on your back. Just wondering if you could put an old bathtub up on a table, and put the woolies into that, so that you could contain them, still roll them around easily and shear them standing upright? Seems like it could work ... at least to someone who really doesn't know!?!?    


     
as you say you don't know anything about sheep .

if you get a sheep on their  back anywhere but flat  the chances of moving it are about as remote me meeting aliens tomorrow


I live in a town in Kaliphony (California) and I meet numbers of aliens everyday!!!    
Klaus Lutz

Marvelous photos.

Thank you very much James.

I like sheep very much but I am not good in handling animals. It had been a great desire for me to pet a sheep but I had to accept that sheep do not want to be pet by me.  

Last year I visited a special zoo. There one can find old breeds of livestock, most of them in danger of distiction. There I tried to dupe the sheep and it worked. During feeding it with the left hand I was able to pet it with the right hand.

The zoo is recommended if you are in northern Germany or in Denmark (Jutland). I adopted an animal on the spot (a ferret) and I think I will adopt another one (a sheep) in addition.

http://www.arche-warder.de/
Sorry there is no English translation available

Klaus
Swift Fox

Does look like hard work, how is the Barley coming along James?
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