Shearing and Sorting That Dreaded Time Of Year

Our first year of shearing was quite and ordeal, we found a fellow that hand shears sheep and he offered to help us shear our alpacas for some fiber, sound like a good trade, well yes it was, but alpacas don't stand/sit still like a sheep does when you put them on their butt. Two grown men trying to hold an alpaca still in order to shear them, it was quite an ordeal. Alpacas, like llamas do not particularly like being pinned and sheared, very few are ok with this ordeal and we found males are generally the most difficult, not because they are larger, but because they are more inclined to protect their legs and bellies when fighting for dominance of the herd. We do have a few females that are quite aggressive when we shear them also. The hand shearing went over ok not as well as we envisioned, but ok. Our alpacas were sheared and looked like they were put through a blender. Unfortunately, we did not take pictures of the finished product for you to have a good laugh at how an alpaca looks when put through a blender. The alpacas lower legs & bellies were not completely sheared this year either.

For the following year, we decided to get electric shears. The alpacas looked better, a nice clean shave but we had a very difficult time once again with their lower legs and their bellies. They are very protective of these areas. Jamie decided we would tie them up. This meant tying their lead to a post in the barn on the floor and tying their front legs together and their back legs together and finishing their bellies and lower legs while they are hog tied on the floor. This works amazing and we are now able to shear our alpacas off completely. We find that for most of our alpacas we can shear their necks, blanket, and upper leg without complete restraint, i.e.. we need only tie their lead to a post in the barn. Then for the finale (bellies and lower legs) we hog tie them. Works good, but that first year I got a big surprise. while our male stud was restrained, we obviously did not have his lead tied tight enough, he lifted his head and bit the back of my calf, damn that hurt, what was worse, is we had visitors at the farm to see how easy shearing can be, how appropriate he would do such a thing. He left me with a bruise that was 6 inches long and 3 inches wide. Skin was not broken. Who says alpacas do not bite and cannot hurt. Huh.

Last year we thought we would do what is recommended by several farms, we built a shearing table. We looked at samples on the web and Jamie went ahead and built one. Well getting the yearlings on the shearing table, no sweat, easily done. Then it was time for the adults, as soon as the belly strap touched their belly, they cushed (sat down), remember these guys do not like their bellies touched. They are very sensitive there. Now trying to lift and strap a 100 - 150 lb alpaca to a shearing table is an awful lot of work. The two of us could not do it. So back we went to hog tying them. It seems to work best. We will be converting our shearing table to a farm sign this year.

We now also go and shear other peoples alpacas and llamas and may well be doing seminars on shearing this year, now that we feel we have found the best way to shear these camelids. When shearing be sure to weigh each alpacas shear weight and take 25 grams to be shipped for histogram testing, this helps in the future for selling your alpacas.