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| Waiting in the catch pen |
For the past three years we were part of a large shearing process that involved three to four farms. The shearer would show up around eight in the morning and off to the races we would go. It was a major project involving as many as twenty-three to twenty-eight animals and required a host of people to wrangle alpacas and get them to the shearer, people to bag the fleece after it had been sheared, people to correctly label the bags for the owners with the alpacas name and whether it was a first or blanket cut, second cut or third cut, people to keep the shearing area clean of the previous animals fiber, people to help the shearer with securing the animals and people to return the shorn alpacas back to the pasture. The shearer would generally take a break around ten AM and the whole process was usually finished by lunch time. Then we would all sit down to potluck and have lunch. The farm that hosted the shearing would advertise the shearing day and open the farm to the public to watch the shearing. Sometimes the farmers would set up spinning wheels and looms to show the people what became of the fleece once it was sheared. It was kind of a country fair atmosphere and while tiring it was a lot of fun.
This year with our alpacas on our own farm it was a much smaller operation. The whole process began in the middle of December last year. Jane Christie with Thistledown Alpacas is the shearing organizer and in mid December she sent out an email to all the area farms asking that we indicate whether we would be participating and if so providing her with some information so she could begin to work up the schedule. We had a new shearer this year by the name of Luke Loffhagen. Luke learned to shear growing up on his fathers sheep ranch. The shearer establishes a few ground rules and the one we thought might impact us was the requirement for ten alpacas before he would consider putting you on the schedule for an individual shearing visit. With only nine animals we weren't sure we would qualify. And without any way to transport them to another site it would have become expensive to rent a truck and horse trailer. It all worked out as Luke agreed to a nine animal stop because we were close to the freeway. Never thought living close to the freeway was a plus but in this instance it turned out to be.
The shearing was scheduled for mid April so I began to talk with friends about coming out to the farm to help shear. I probably talked with five or six folks who all agreed that they would love to come and help out. I didn't think we would need that many people but you never know how many will actually show up. As it was we had one helper that morning but it turned out that was all we needed. We had the boys and girls rounded up in the catch pens and were ready for Luke when he showed up a bit early at 7:45 AM. He and his helper unloaded their equipment while Andy and I spread out a tarp for them to work on. I took charge of catching delivering and returning the alpacas to the pens while Andrea and our good friend and the world's greatest mechanic John Needham from Needham Enterprises took care of bagging and cleaning. The new baby cria Joy wasn't sure about the whole process but took her shearing as quiet as a mouse while the older girls Missy and Flo, who have been sheared at least ten times, both bawled like a banshee on Halloween.
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| Batter up and one on deck |
We collected the blanket (first cut) and second cuts this year and left the third cuts for waste. The blanket is the best fiber and comes off the back and sides of the alpaca. The second cuts are typically the flanks, neck and upper legs. The balance is trim from the face and lower legs.
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| Preparing the take down |
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| Taking the blanket |
The blanket is the best fleece and is used for fine garments like shawls, scarves, hats and other clothing items. The seconds are generally used for items like mittens, socks, batting and they can be made into yarn. If you keep your thirds you can use them for felting to make items like soap balls, shoe insoles, and other felting products. One alpaca farm is trying to turn their thirds into felt fine enough to use on regular hats. They have actually been working with the design folks at Stetson to develop a felt fine enough to be molded into bowlers, derbies and cowboy hats. There are several mills round the country that accept alpaca fiber and then there is always the AFCNA or Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America. This is a fiber cooperative exclusively for alpaca farmers. They can process your fleece and also, as a member, you are eligible to purchase finished product at wholesale prices to sell at your farm store or at events you attend such as farmers markets and fairs.
Well that's all for this post. Hope your days are full of sunshine.
Livin' the dream at Autumn Ridge Alpacas,
