www.icelandicsheep.com
    Shearing Days Fall 2000
                                               
    

       Icelandic Sheep are sheared twice a year in order to harvest the best quality fleece. They are a natural shedding breed, and in February the rams start loosing the thel or undercoat. The outer coat or tog stays in place to protect them until their new coat grows in. The ewes don't shed until May or June, putting all of their energy  into their developing lambs. If not sheared in the early spring, the fleece will loosen and be rubbed off on fence and trees. Ancient shepherds selected for this trait before shears were invented, in order to harvest more fiber. Sheep were caught and the loose wool was plucked or 'rooed'. After the advent of shears commercial breeds were bred for year around fleece growth. 

    Icelandic sheep fleeces grow slowly during the summer but as fall approaches with cooler temperatures and shorter day length, the sheep grow their fleeces very fast. By late Oct or early Nov the fleeces are 8" to 10" or longer with a 4" to 5" thel or undercoat. Up until this time the sheep are grazing fall pastures and have not been fed hay. The fleeces are therefore clean and free of vegetative matter, a spinners dream. We shear at this time to get prime fleeces, We have this time slot reserved with our shearer Ralph McWilliams Ph# 406-232-2915 (Ralph is a full time shearer and shears over 10,000 sheep a year). Ralph usually gets a 2nd shearer in to help get the flock of 300+ done in 2 days. We provide, a sheltered place, extension cords, food, a support crew and holding pens. Charlie loads the chute, Emily worms and gives vaccinations and I sweep the shearing floor between sheep. Charlie's wife Jeannie caters the food and it is always the best part of shearing days ( home made beef stew, ham and cheese sandwiches, and several different kinds of cookies).  Dawn Ann and Corrine pick up the fleece, skirt, shake out the 2nd cuts, identify the sheep it came from on a card and individually bag each fleece. Rex prepares the shelters with hay and hay feeders, puts food on the table for the crew and cleans up  after lunch.  Rex also wanders around and photographs the events, chatting with the crew and in general getting in the way of everyone who is working.  

    It costs us about $1000 to shear these sheep, including paying the shearers, the help, and the food. Our shearer uses a 13 tooth comb to prevent cutting the sheep. Shearers say these sheep shear like butter in the fall and can shear 30 to 40 sheep before they need to change cutters. The sheep are not docile like commercial breeds of sheep however, and shearer's say they are "wound up tight" and can slip out of the shearer's hold if they get out of position. However the sheep are not mean like other breeds that will try to bite. I try and get helpers that are quiet and work the sheep gently. If the sheep are handled well they come onto the shearing floor fairly calm and don't struggle too much. This year we separated the colored sheep from the light or white ones and sheared them separately. This helped keep the fleeces from getting contaminated with the fibers from a different colored fleece. The sheared fleeces are stored in our barn. 

Now my winter work begins. I take fleeces one at a time and pick off all of the short fibers, vegetative matter and stained parts. The best XX% of the fleeces (grade A Fleeces) are bagged in clean clear plastic bags and sent to spinning customers. See page  Fleece . The grade B fleeces are sent to be made into yarn. See page Lopi Yarn . The grade C fleeces, skirtings and the best of the belly wool is sent for processing into felting batts. See page Felt. The short 2nd cuts and manure tags are put on the garden for mulch.

    The sheep are released as soon as they are sheared and wander down the road to their pastures. This reduces their stress level immediately. I provide tunnel hut shelters in the pastures, well bedded with hay and a full hay feeder placed in front of it. If it is rainy or windy the sheep can eat without going away from the shelter. The sheep will be a bit cold at first but toughen up with in a week. Their skin actually thickens quickly and helps to protect them from the cold. They will grow about 2" of fleece within a month. This is enough fleece to get them through a typical 30 below zero Montana winter with the help of the tunnel hut shelters. The sheep are hardy and I have never yet had any get sick or die from cold as long as they can get out of the rain, snow, wind and can fill their bellies with good quality hay. Their rumens give off heat so as long as they are filled with good hay they are able to stay warm.

In late March we again shear to take off the winter grown fleece that is heavily contaminated with hay. If we did not do this, the old fleece might cott or felt the tips of the new fleece. This would ruin the new fleece which will be harvested in the Fall and is the main clip. These are the photos from our recent Fall shearing. We dodged rain and heavy dew and could only shear 50 to 100 a day as we had to wait for the sheep to dry and the days were short. It took 4 days to get the flock done.

                                     The pickups showed up for the work!

       click on these thumbnails to enlarge

Charlie squeezes sheep into the chute	This one needed help to find the way into the chute	Charlie loading the drenching chute	Everything is under control in Charlie's domain	A load of white girls in chute
				1579 doesn't like the looks of it
	Emily with her syringe at ready	Emily giving a vaccination  in the arm pit.	Emily giving a dose of wormer
		The view is good.
Two shearers working.			Spotless shearing floor
It's a big job to keep the shearing floor clean		Ely looks over the new haircut.	Susan and lamb	The dogs take a break.
Dawn Ann picking up fleece	Skirting table	Shaking out 2nd cuts	Skirting	Skirting
Glad that is over	What happened?	Saddle back up close	Saddle back	Got Fleece?
Bad hair day!	Had to pee real Bad.	Ely and Ike	Ely	The tally counter
Ralph's new hand piece 'Goldie'	Ralph's tools and his felt shearing slippers	Lance's tools	shearing motor	Taking down the shearing motor
	bagging off fleece	300+ fleeces