Share

Shearing - the long and short of it

Telling our story volunteer Howard Roddie decided he needed a haircut and thought he might get one for free. So, he headed off to the final Hebridean sheep shearing day of the season but he got more than he bargained for and no free haircut - read on to find out more...

All our Sheep are shorn

As soon as I arrived at Low Carr farm for the final shearing of the season, Beth Wood our Conservation Grazing Assistant Officer, already had a role planned for me. She explained I was to join Alicia Knitter, our Volunteer Conservation Grazing Trainee in a pen full of our beautiful Hebridean ewes and lambs. Alicia then showed me how to separate the ewes from the lambs. Not so easy. We had to catch the lambs and gently remove them from the pen so that only the ewes went into the shearing queue.

The lambs are still too young to be sheared. When I say “lambs”, I don’t mean the tiny things you see in spring. These things are strong, fast and keen on headbutting you. You have to catch them from behind - to get a good grip and to ensure the welfare of both sheep and handler. You soon get the idea…

Cauliflower the lamb - Howard Roddie

'Cauliflower' - A distinctive lamb with a little flash of white wool. All of this year's lambs' names begin with C. We also have Coronation, Charles, Camilla…. - Howard Roddie

A sheep called 'no ear' Low Carr Farm - Howard Roddie

The ewe affectionately known as 'One-Ear' - Howard Roddie

Beth showed us how to roll the fleeces and bag them ready for delivery to the wool board. As I’ve found, when you’re dealing with a large number of sheep one of the most important things is to have a simple process and stick to it. So ours went something like this:-

  • Get all your sheep together in a pen
  • Funnel them into the shearing queue
  • Shear the front sheep
  • Release the shorn sheep
  • Roll the fleece

How simple is that? Well… I haven't mentioned that sheep find new ways to escape all the time, but I will later. Neither have I mentioned that once in the queue, they manage to turn the wrong way round and have to be turned to point in the right direction. Certain individuals are particularly troublesome. The ewe known as “One-Ear”, for instance, has to be the last in the queue. She’s no problem in the queue, but she always wants the headline slot like she’s at Glastonbury or something. She is also the only sheep who actually poses for pictures. Oh, and she really only has one ear - she was born that way...

Voluntary Trainee Alicia Rolling a fleece - Howard Roddie

Conservation Grazing Voluntary Trainee Alicia, about to roll a fleece - Howard Roddie

Anna Hall Sheep Shearing - Howard Roddie

The music is on...and Anna begins to shear - Howard Roddie

Now let me tell you about the shearing… This is an incredibly specialised and seasonal task so we hire Anna Hall, a professional Sheep Shearer. She is nearing the end of the season having sheared 6,000 sheep so far this year - not just ours! She determines the rhythm of the process. We work literally to her beat. She turns on the music and shears.

She turns off the music and we stop. She holds the sheep with her legs and uses both hands to shear. It’s a real privilege to see the skill involved. Some of the sheep are very co-operative and others just do not want to be there.  One clever trick Anna has is to put a sheep at the front of the queue in a pen on its own. This sheep acts as the leader so all the others will follow it into the queue. It’s also reassuring for the sheep being sheared.

By the time you read this Anna will have competed at the Yorkshire show shearing competitions. She’s through to the Young Farmers national final!

The head of the shearing queue - Howard Roddie

The head of the queue - this sheep acts as a leader in a pen on its own which is reassuring for the sheep being sheared - Howard Roddie

 

Conservation Grazing Voluntary Trainee Alicia - Howard Roddie

Alicia, keeping a ewe in place for handover to Dave and not regretting leaving her desk job one bit - Howard Roddie

Alicia Knitter is our Conservation Grazing Trainee. She left a promising career in graphic design to complete a YWT Traineeship and her aim is to eventually work in conservation grazing. Her enthusiasm is infectious and at this point, we were taking a different approach to separating the ewes that involved keeping the lambs in the rear pen and moving the ewes into the holding pen for shearing.

Once we’d finished with the ewes, it was my job to herd the sheep back to the small field. We don’t have sheepdogs for this. The lambs were mostly easy - there was only one way to go. The ewes, although roaming around a much larger area weren’t bad either. However, once one goes, the others follow in a haphazard fashion- as always there was an escapee who took more herding than the rest of them put together.

Low Carr Farm - Howard Roddie

The flock that I helped to sort - Howard Roddie

Our simple process was to prove a real blessing later in the morning when Beth was called out to Cali Heath - a good half hour drive away - to deal with some escaped sheep (we suspect they had been spooked by a dog off-lead). We were able to carry on with Anna shearing and the three volunteers (Alicia, Dave and myself) carrying on with our tasks. Without the volunteers and the natural teamwork that volunteers excel at, we may have had to stop or slow down the shearing.

But, it wasn’t just volunteer teamwork that got us through this, it was also planning. Charlotte Dring, our Conservation Grazing Manager had been at the farm very early to set up the yard and herd the first flock to the pens ready for shearing. I’m sure she wasn’t alone in this. This allowed her to nip out for a meeting (and also to attend to the errant flock at Cali Heath). Not only that, but she and Alicia had already vaccinated the lambs the previous week, meaning we didn't have to deal with the vaccination and recording process.

Beth and Charlotte returned, about 2 hours later having rescued the Cali heath flock from a friendly and helpful neighbour. By then we’d finished with the ewes and had herded the next flock from their field to the pens. Alicia masterminded this potentially troublesome transfer by becoming the lead sheep and carrying a bucket of food. This time, there were no escapees.

2023 Shearing Low Carr Farm - Howard Roddie

This year's wool from Low Carr Farm - Howard Roddie

We were now ready for stage 2. All of these sheep needed to be doused with CLiK. This is a treatment for flystrike as Charlotte explains - 

"We use the CLiK treatment on the sheep as a prevention for flystrike which is where flies take their opportune moments to nest into the sheep's wool/skin and lay eggs – eventually turning to maggots this can cause a huge amount of damage to the sheep’s skin, muscles and ultimately can cause death if the sheep is not treated accordingly. Hence why we shear them, then apply this preventative solution. It is the only treatment we use in these circumstances and is extremely important for ensuring the health of the flock is protected from this horrible condition."

This becomes an extra stage in the process that needs 2 people to douse the sheared sheep and record the ear tag number. Beth and Charlotte were kept busy with this. Luckily we didn’t have any extra interruptions as we’d have been severely stretched with this extra task.

By the way, I didn’t get my haircut… Like the sheep it was all or nothing, so I agreed to give it a miss!

Low Carr Farm Sheep Shearing Team - Howards Roddie

The sheep shearing dream team of Low Carr Farm 2023 - Howard Roddie

If you've enjoyed reading this and want to give it a go, why not consider volunteering your time to help look after our conservation grazing stock? We're currently on the look out for baaaaarilliant new volunteers to join our Livestock Checker Volunteers at Low Carr Farm, click here to find out more and apply. 

Related blog posts