How to Shear 210 Alpacas & 1 Great Pyrenees in 2 Days

Journal Entry Week-18, 2022-03-28

First, get a boatload of volunteers to help with the annual 2-day shearing event at Cindy's Alpacas at Windy Hill ranch!  While the shearing crew set up two shearing stations in the barn, volunteers (a collection of alpaca owners, 4H Club kids & parents, regular ranch volunteers, friends, & family) were assigned to & prepared for their volunteer role/s.

Some of the prep was done before shearing day:

From upper left, Mat supplies are prepared, including cutting noodle sheets, stocking up on tape & bags to capture the shorn fleece, charts printed to record alpaca weight, fleece weight, & what shots/procedures each alpaca received. From lower left, syringes w vitamin A&D & immune boosters are loaded, bag labels for every alpaca are printed, & temporary herding fences are configured.

Then, alpacas are herded to the barn. Here are links to two videos showing Volunteers herding alpacas from their field & into the holding pen next to the barn before shearing began.

Alpacas waiting in the holding pens where volunteers put halters on each. Cindy, lower right, brushes excess hay off of one of the alpacas before shearing.

One-by-one, the alpacas are led from a holding pen to a mat in the barn.

The shearers pickup & gently lay each alpaca on one of the mats, quickly putting the ankle ties on all four legs before pulling them taut. The alpacas weight ranged from 110 - 200 pounds. The tireless shearers did this over 100 times each day!

Once securely on the mat, Nate gives each alpaca two shots, ears spray (for tics), & clips the nails & lower front teeth (not shown) as needed.

Each alpaca averages 10-15 minutes to shear. As such, there is a constant movement of alpacas being led to & from the barn & the mats, & from the mats to the weigh station.

At each mat, two to three volunteers laid down the noodle (for the blanket fleece) as shearing began. For the duration of each shearing, the volunteers pull the prime blanket fleece into the paper "noodle", then wrap, tape, & label it, packed the neck fleece into a smaller bag, & add both & the rest of the loose fleece into the larger bag. Once the shearing was done, one volunteer took the bag of fleece to the weighing station, while the other/s cleaned the mat in preparation for the next alpaca. Here’s a link an astonishingly large blanket sheared.

From upper left, Volunteers laying down a “noodle” (brown paper), another (yours truly) pulling an average size “blanket” fleece onto the noodle, and a third finishes loading the blanket, the neck, & the rest of the fiber into the alpaca’s fleece package (bag). Bottom two pics show unusually large blankets, which required multiple noodles!

Lynnette, an alpaca owner & shearing day volunteer weighed each alpaca & applied final tic spray dose to a sheared alpaca.

After each alpaca is weighed, he/she is led to a holding pen until all the field mates are sheared. Then they’re all herded back to their home field.

The Final Shearing

Zeke, the Great Pyrenees guard dog got the last shearing. He scampered into the cloak of darkness before I could get a good “after” pic of him.

The Crew

Here are the DAY-2 Crew of shearers, owners, & volunteers. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a group pic of the full DAY-1 Crew, though many were the same.

The professional shearers (from left) Rory, John, & Nate. These are three of the most physically energetic people I have ever met. They spend 3 months in the spring travelling the country shearing alpacas, and an occasional livestock guard dog! Outside of shearing season Rory is a freelance graphics designer, John trains for & competes in MMA Fighting competitions, & Nate is a freelance photojournalist (Nate's photo site). Follow John’s instagram @followmeimblind Here’s a link to the shearing website: www.shearingalpaca.com