A Glimpse of Shearing on a New Zealand Sheep and Beef Farm.
A Look at Shearing on a NZ Sheep and Beef Farm
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A few days ago at my neighbours, it was shearing time. I love going to watch the shearing because I spent many years on large sheep and beef farms and I miss the atmosphere.
I happened to be going there to visit so I asked if I could take some photos.
The shearers response was funny, thinking they might get famous.
They had 2500 ewes and 2000 lambs to shear over 4 days
Here is a brief look at shearing on a sheep and beef station.
Fun Fact
The world record for lamb shearing is held by Ivan Scott. He shore 744 lambs in 8 hours. That's 93 per hour and on average 1.5 lambs PER MINUTE. OMG that's amazing!!!!
Hard Work in the Shearing Shed
Taking the belly off.
Back Leg then Top Knot.
Going down the long side.
Other Back Leg and Nearly finished!
The Heat
It's the peak of summer here and the temperatures are reaching over 30 degrees. There isn't any air con in the sheds and with the tin roof the heat is stifling. The shearers find it very hot going. They have brought fans to help cool themselves down.
The Wool
The wool is sorted by the wool handlers into various grades. The belly goes in one pile and the edges of the fleece goes in another then the main body of wool gets packed in to wool fadges and gets baled.
Fleece wool.
Wool being packed in to the press to be baled. In the background you can see the completed bales.
Lambs
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They must feel quite relieved to get rid of the wool when it's summer time. Lambs do much better out of their wool. They gain weight much quicker.
Jade
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This is a typical Huntaway. Her job is to chase sheep. She barks to make them run away from her either on hills or paddocks but in this case she was used to move sheep around in the yards and to fill the shed with lambs.
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Lambs waiting in the yards for their turn to have their wool off
I thoroughly enjoyed my time visiting the shed and hope you enjoyed a glimpse of Shearing in New Zealand.
Please feel free to comment as all feedback is welcome.
Please Remember to Upvote - Resteems are Appreciated :)
Wow - do you remember that TV show where people used to race each other shearing?
Now I'm wondering if it is shore or sheared? - Gonna have to look that up.
How I envy you stinking hot in a shed!
You need some snow
I think I'll go and stand under the aircon for a while...
You and your bloody new air con - grrr makes me jealous!!! On the plus side today is cooler!
Naww Hi lamb!! haha It needs its coat off too
Great post Andrea! I've just joined Steemit after about a year of @sift666 badgering me to do so. Getting my ducks in a row to upload my intro post this week hopefully.
Shearing is a fascinating Iron Wo/man kinda thing- so cool!
Nice to meet you and welcome to steemit - I shall follow you! We can all help each other going forward :)
Have fun meeting new people!
You call that badgering? :)
amazing post steem frined.
i am inspire about him from your post.
thank you for your post.
Thank you :)
Oh, what a fun day you had watching the sheep shearing! I always think it must hurt to get that wool cut off but I know it doesn't. I bet the sheep and lambs are much cooler now!
Yes it really was great! Being amongst the hustle and bustle of it all :) So much cooler I'm sure.
This is a very interesting post. Thank you for sharing with us!
You're welcome! I had a fun day - Thank you for coming to visit :)
Cool, I visited a farm when I was a kid. My school had an exchange with a school in France, and the family I stayed with were farmers. They had about 20 cows, some pigs, geese and ducks right near the house that they used themselves, but their main thing was a chicken farm. They had HUGE barns with thousands of chickens running around inside. I've never smelled anything quite so putrid as when they took me inside the barn to collect dead birds. Some of them will peck the weaker ones to death - made the term "pecking order" really have meaning lol
Yip I hear ya - I have bred chickens myself for 20 plus years and they sure are awful mean. Even the baby chick kill each other very quickly. The smell is something you don't forget in a hurry especially in the heat.
That's a lot of sheep to shear! And hot work too. Great photos.
It really is a big job and it hurts my back just looking at them bent over all day. Thank you :)
Me to always enjoyed visiting farm houses.. It was interesting to see someone shearing.. Thanx for sharing
You're welcome - I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
That's a lot of sheep to shear. They look so different when there naked lol
Such a lot of work - yea you're right they go from babies to more adult looking lol
More wrinkly lol