Yesterday afternoon I moved the sheep to another paddock and took down the temporary fence. I had planned to just wait to shear because of the cold weather we were having, but it's warmed up and my husband suggested going ahead with it while their fleeces were clean. At 3pm I called the shearer and by 4:30pm he was here. All went well. A few sheep gave us trouble heading into the barn to be penned but all in all it went well. It'll be warm for the next week at least and if it gets cold, we'll just move them into the barn.
Their fleece was extremely clean- even the belly wool was clean.
This afternoon I started in on the fleeces-skirting and picking out what little vm I could find. Tomorrow I can start washing.
Once they are out of grass in their current paddock, my plan was to move them to a pasture and have them help graze down what our replacement heifers won't eat. Shearing now means I will have something vs waiting and having prickly things, possibly burrs and hay embedded in their wool. The staple length was good-nothing under 3 inches and one yearling had a 5 -inch staple length and that is just the growth since shearing this spring.
