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We thought we had seen it all until we had a request to shear
two animals that hadn't been shorn for a while. Time had got away
and at my first glance at them down a paddock and without my
glasses on, I could see these animals were a tad over fleeced.
After shearing all of our usual farms starting in October
this year we finally got around to the two very over fleeced
animals.
At 8.00am on a Sat Morning and first glance up close when we
picked them up we couldn't believe our eyes, these animals were
amazing, the fleece which had long been matted hung down almost to
the ground, it was so heavy they were walking strangely, and in
amongst the matting were sticks, bugs and a newly acquired
decoration, a strand of barb wire which was around one animals neck
and thankfully easily removed.
These animals had been halter trained and were a delight to
handle, which was a godsend so getting them loaded to take
home was easy and arriving at our place they were both excited to
see some very skinny Alpacas - you can see one our in the
background but the two new arrives stuck together like
glue.
We thought we might jump in and get them both done and then have
a rest, so we started on the first the black one - he got the short
straw. Getting him down was easy after we were told he was a
tad stroppy we were prepared but both he and his mate were
wonderful just lay there through the whole ordeal without so much
as a murmur, with only Alan working on the sheering and me holding
them.
After this years effort of about 200 Alpacas Alan just did
not know where to start. The fleece was one big dreadlock which had
already felted into approximately 1 1/2'' thickness, and it was so
heavy. He finally chose an entrance and started and little by
little as the fibre had matted to the skin we found we had to push
the weight of the fleece up - as the weight of it was pulling
the skin and I'm afraid the black alpaca did receive a nick on his
buttock due to exactly that. We finally had half a body done and he
was looking great, unbelievably these animals were so clean
underneath. With the six years worth of dirt we went
through six combs and cutters and a new pair of scissors and a pair
of Italian Hand shears, but it was worth it to see these animals
shorn.
We had to remove some of the fleece before he was turned over. I
had already given up trying to stay clean and there was nothing
else to do but sit in it, but I did find that it was great for
kneeling on He was almost done, we found we had to keep
stopping for rests so we did his nails, inoculations, then
his top knot then his tail -oh that tail- it was matted to the rest
of the hair so I'm afraid he has a very thin one now but enough to
keep the fly s away. Then he was done and what a difference, we
found he was very shaky when he stood up and took a while to walk
properly without all of that weight and he went outside where his
mate was waiting but his friend did not recognize him so they
were not close now.
We had a short break before the next one which we found to
be still quite fine in micron, which felted even better, but
a little easier to get off this time and by now we had learnt that
we had to lift up the fleece with every movement of the shears
actually pushing it up so that it didn't pull the skill away.
Soon we had finished and he looked gorgeous, nails, teeth
checked, tail, top knot, and inoculation done again in breaks and
we notice the barn was getting a little overcrowded with fleece.
One fleece took 2 1/4 garbage bags and the other 2 bags
that's stuffing it in and it seemed to be mountains of it.
Finally both were finished and the brown boy could go outside to
his mate. They just totally, ignored each other for a while
not knowing who they were but I have to say that was the most
exciting shearing we have ever done - to see what these guy look
like underneath all of that fleece.
THE BROWN ALPACA'S
FLEECE WEIGHED 14.8KL AND THE BLACK ALPACA'S FLEECE WEIGHED
11.8KL
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