Saturday, May 3, 2014
2014 Spring Shearing
Little Caesar getting his first trim.
May 3rd was shearing day at Rolling Rock Ranch Alpacas and just in time before an early hot spell.
This was our first in person experience with shearing. I had been doing a lot of research online, watching educational videos about alpaca shearing. So I generally knew what to expect. But of course nothing beats hands on experience.
We hired Jim and Cathe Bodie from Summer Solstice Alpacas to do shearing for us. Jim specializes in shearing suri alpacas, so we felt really good about our animals being in good hands. You could tell Jim and Cathe really care about the welfare of each alpaca. It was a pleasure getting to work with them and we really appreciated their patience with us and willingness to educate us all along the way.
Of course we had a few surprises, but most of the day went as planned. We had been warned, on shearing day you find out who the real spitters and shriekers are. I guess we got luck and started the day shearing Immortal Beloved who ended up being the queen of spitters. The rest of the girls were mostly calm. And then there was Rocky, you would have thought we were killing him. He screamed and shrieked the entire time. Not what we were expecting! LOL
All the alpacas were done and it was our grumpy guard llama's turn for shearing. I don't think any of us were looking forward to shearing him and we were pretty well prepared to just be happy with a barrel cut. We tied him to a pole because he was too large to lay down and use the alpaca shearing gear. So we prepped to shear him standing up. No spitting. No Kicking. No Screaming. Not even any twitching around. Jim was able to completely shear Papa ear to toe. Who would have thought Papa, the drama llama would be a perfect gentleman standing calmly for shearing!
Thanks again Jim and Cathe from all the gang here at Rolling Rock Ranch! Now to go play with some beautiful fiber!
-Rob
AWH Torbio's Rock'N Roll (Rocky)
Look at all that fiber ready for procesing!
Caesar's before and after mug shot. Look at all that grey underneath!
Caesar's lovely Rose Grey locks