One step forward, two steps sideways

[unicornduke]

I did some more shearing yesterday afternoon and it was a struggle. J had warned me that these sheep would be difficult to shear. I was expecting sheep that fought but it was more fleece quality issues. 

They were a herd of about 30 Icelandic sheep, which are dual coated breeds that need to be shorn twice a year. J had gone last week and gotten 7 of them done because he had to stop for the day, I was tied up at work too far to go that day. I took the afternoon off yesterday and we went up. 

About half the sheep had been shorn in fall of 2022 by the owners, which they realized they didn't want to do. So the other half had either missed fall 2022 shearing and some had missed spring of 2022 shearing. The wool was incredibly felted, full of manure, hay and dirt. It was so difficult to shear. I struggled a lot with it. 

There is a technique to getting that kind of matting off and by the fourth sheep, I had figured it out after J showed me and I had worked on it. But it required shearing the sheep in a different way than the normal shearing pattern because the shears literally couldn't get through the growth to start the shearing pattern even if I started with the shears against the skin, so I ended up working from the head down. It meant the sheep was sitting up much longer than ideal and of course, they started fighting me. Thankfully, they were pretty small sheep so I didn't let any go and I was able to pin them and keep going. 

We trim their feet too and idek what they're feeding them but their feet were absolute shit. Deformed, flaking, really weird. I did my best on those.

But dang. The owner wasn't bothered by how long it took and J just let me work through it. We didn't even finish them all, there was still six left when we called it quits. J is going to finish them up another day. I did four, it took me twice as long to do a sheep than last week and it was crap shearing. 

I guess I learned a lot. 

ETA: I did feel good after shearing, I didn't get chilled at all and my stomach was just fine. I think doing a little extra carbs right before helped a bunch. 

Comments

[graydon]

Yay, success!

Icelands are all a bit feral.

Surprised at their feet, though; they're supposed to be very hardy. Wonder if they've been getting some fluorine?

[unicornduke]

Not sure! My guess is a nutrition issue and I think they're entirely on pasture without any supplementary grain so that might be it. But either way, I actually don't have enough experience with sheep to say so shrugs

[oracne]

Go you learning more skills!

[unicornduke]

All I'm doing is learning haha, someday I'll maybe know something!

[cathyw]

the poor babies. having your wool felt on your back must be so uncomfortable.

(I wonder if stress from uncomfortably felted wool is contributing to the hoof problems?)

[unicornduke]

I'm guessing it's probably a nutrition issue but I don't know enough to say. I pointed it out and that's what matters.

[reedrover]

How was the parasite load (lice and mites)? If the owner doesn’t care enough to shear, I’m suspicious of everything else.

[unicornduke]

Nothing that I noticed, but I wasn't looking very hard. They were getting their annual dewormer and vaccinations after shearing. I think the lack of shearing wasn't for lack of trying, they tried to do it themselves and probably couldn't get a shearer by the time they realized how difficult it was and couldn't finish themselves. They're entirely pasture raised so might not be getting supplements if their forages aren't quite what they need which I'm guessing is part of the feet issue.

But right now, I don't know enough about sheep health to give advice, I've never actually had any and J does and he didn't give any advice when I was there. So either he told them what he thought last time or he knows they won't change their practices and didn't bother.