Feelin' a bit sheepish...

[Baymule]

That I don't know. @Ridgetop got any answers?

 

[Ridgetop]

Sheep pick up dirt and debris in their wool because of the lanolin and grease.. Even the "hair" breeds like Dorpers carry some wool. The dirt is hat dulls the blades. You can usually shear 3-4 sheep before having to change and sharpen blades. It depends on the amount of dirt. The amount of dirt in the fleece depends on your surroundings. Do you mostly have brush and weeds that bury themselves in the wool or do you have dirt and sand that will work in and lodge fine grit against the skin.

BUT it sounds like your blades are not getting dull so much as getting sticky from the lanolin. You need to buy clipper blade wash. It is available in most feed stores. You also need to get some Kool Lube. Both these products are available from Oster although there are other brand names that supply them as well.

The easiest way to shear sheep is in a stanchion with a sheep head.. This will allow you to have 2 hands free to shear while the sheep is confined in the head lock. You can also wash the blades etc. without having to keep hold of the sheep. I highly recommend either buying one or setting up some sort of head hold for shearing. Yu can buy the head holds separately and build your own stand. Some head holds will bolt on to pipe fencing and can be stored easily when not in use. Using a raised stand makes it easier because you don't have to bend over. Bending over to shear the way I used to is no longer an option for me if I want to be able to walk the next day!

So here are some instruction on shearing more easily. Don't try to do all the sheep at once. Spread it out several days over week or so. Assemble all your stuff - blade wash, Kool Lube, antiseptic spray or cream on, flat pan for the blade wash, hand shears if desired, etc. Nothing worse than having to run inside to find your equipment and having to leave sheep in the stand, or worse, having to catch it again.

First, make sure that your blades are properly loaded in the clipper head. (I often have trouble getting them done so the run smoothly and have to have DS1 or DS2 check them over for me. ) Once loaded, run them and listen for any sounds that indicate the blades are hanging up or not running smoothly.

Second, spray the blades with Kool Lube before even putting them onto the sheep and listen to see if they run smoother. You will repeat this procedure through the shearing process since the blades will heat up from the friction causing the sheep to flinch away as the hot blades touch the skin.

Third, get a shallow dish. I use disposable pie pans. Pour about 1/2-1" of Blade Wash into the pan. You will be putting the blades in the solution and running the clipper to remove the oil and grease that builds up on the blades as you shear. Do this procedure as you shear whenever the blades feel like they are starting to gum up.

Fourth, shear from back to front. If your sheep are shedding out anywhere, that is a good place to start. Make sure that you hold the clipper horizontally to the body. The large shearing blades can easily cut through skin, flesh and even bone. The blades should always be horizontal to the body of the sheep.

Fifth, as you shear, fold the cut fleece away from the clipper blades so you can see where you are cutting. If you are saving the fleece to spin, you want to try to keep it in one piece although that is not necessary. Since your sheep are Dorper/Texel the wool probably won't be worth saving so don't worry about that.

Sixth, on Hair breeds, there is usually little or no wool on the bellies. Dorpers only carry wool about 2/3s down their body. Some carry more, but most have very little under their bellies. This is a plus for you since you don't have to flip them and shear. Not only do you not have to wrestle with holding a sheep on its butt one handed while you hold the heavy clipper with the other (this takes a lot of practice as does flipping the sheep) but an even bigger plus since shearing around teats and penises can be difficult for beginners. One wrong move or jump by the sheep and you can take off a teat or injure the penis. No more brood ewe or stud ram.

Seventh, keep cleaning your blades in the blade wash as they start to bind up. Keep spraying the Kool Lube on the blades during the shearing process. These 2 actions make lot of difference in the work of shearing.

Eighth, your final step is to keep a spray bottle of antiseptic spray handy in case you nick the skin. After shearing the sheep check it all over for any blood spots. If you find any abscesses don't freak out! Sheep that carry any wool during the year will often get abscesses caused by foxtails, shearing nicks, etc. These are usually just minor irritational abscessses. Drain them and use antiseptic.

Ninth:

Don't worry about getting a super smooth cut at first. You are learning how to shear and can go back over the job if you need to with a finer blade. The job you do depends how close you want to shear, if you will be spinning the wool, and of course how practiced you are.

 

[Ridgetop]

OOPS! That posted too soon. The little square metal bits on the sides are to hold U-shaped side bars to keep the animal in place on the stanchion. You move them around for access from each side. I sold mine when i sold the other stanchion. I need to get another sit for trimming hooves and shearing if I decide to go to the Reno show.

Here is a picture of a portable metal stanchion with a sheep head. This is useful for both shearing and hoof trimming. The head and post can be bought as a bolt on single post and head from vendors.

What Baymule said abut washing the sheep is true. But that is mainly for doing a slick shear for shows. Then you would shear off the heavy wool, wash with dish detergent to cut the grease, and slick shear with a finer toothed blade. Since this is usually done for show animals that are lambs or yearlings, they often are not carrying much fleece and you only have to wash and slick shear.

I hope this helps you.

 

[Beekissed]

Sheep pick up dirt and debris in their wool because of the lanolin and grease.. Even the "hair" breeds like Dorpers carry some wool. The dirt is hat dulls the blades. You can usually shear 3-4 sheep before having to change and sharpen blades. It depends on the amount of dirt. The amount of dirt in the fleece depends on your surroundings. Do you mostly have brush and weeds that bury themselves in the wool or do you have dirt and sand that will work in and lodge fine grit against the skin.

BUT it sounds like your blades are not getting dull so much as getting sticky from the lanolin. You need to buy clipper blade wash. It is available in most feed stores. You also need to get some Kool Lube. Both these products are available from Oster although there are other brand names that supply them as well.

The easiest way to shear sheep is in a stanchion with a sheep head.. This will allow you to have 2 hands free to shear while the sheep is confined in the head lock. You can also wash the blades etc. without having to keep hold of the sheep. I highly recommend either buying one or setting up some sort of head hold for shearing. Yu can buy the head holds separately and build your own stand. Some head holds will bolt on to pipe fencing and can be stored easily when not in use. Using a raised stand makes it easier because you don't have to bend over. Bending over to shear the way I used to is no longer an option for me if I want to be able to walk the next day!

View attachment 85701



So here are some instruction on shearing more easily. Don't try to do all the sheep at once. Spread it out several days over week or so. Assemble all your stuff - blade wash, Kool Lube, antiseptic spray or cream on, flat pan for the blade wash, hand shears if desired, etc. Nothing worse than having to run inside to find your equipment and having to leave sheep in the stand, or worse, having to catch it again.

First, make sure that your blades are properly loaded in the clipper head. (I often have trouble getting them done so the run smoothly and have to have DS1 or DS2 check them over for me. ) Once loaded, run them and listen for any sounds that indicate the blades are hanging up or not running smoothly.

Second, spray the blades with Kool Lube before even putting them onto the sheep and listen to see if they run smoother. You will repeat this procedure through the shearing process since the blades will heat up from the friction causing the sheep to flinch away as the hot blades touch the skin.

Third, get a shallow dish. I use disposable pie pans. Pour about 1/2-1" of Blade Wash into the pan. You will be putting the blades in the solution and running the clipper to remove the oil and grease that builds up on the blades as you shear. Do this procedure as you shear whenever the blades feel like they are starting to gum up.

Fourth, shear from back to front. If your sheep are shedding out anywhere, that is a good place to start. Make sure that you hold the clipper horizontally to the body. The large shearing blades can easily cut through skin, flesh and even bone. The blades should always be horizontal to the body of the sheep.

Fifth, as you shear, fold the cut fleece away from the clipper blades so you can see where you are cutting. If you are saving the fleece to spin, you want to try to keep it in one piece although that is not necessary. Since your sheep are Dorper/Texel the wool probably won't be worth saving so don't worry about that.

Sixth, on Hair breeds, there is usually little or no wool on the bellies. Dorpers only carry wool about 2/3s down their body. Some carry more, but most have very little under their bellies. This is a plus for you since you don't have to flip them and shear. Not only do you not have to wrestle with holding a sheep on its butt one handed while you hold the heavy clipper with the other (this takes a lot of practice as does flipping the sheep) but an even bigger plus since shearing around teats and penises can be difficult for beginners. One wrong move or jump by the sheep and you can take off a teat or injure the penis. No more brood ewe or stud ram.

Seventh, keep cleaning your blades in the blade wash as they start to bind up. Keep spraying the Kool Lube on the blades during the shearing process. These 2 actions make lot of difference in the work of shearing.

Eighth, your final step is to keep a spray bottle of antiseptic spray handy in case you nick the skin. After shearing the sheep check it all over for any blood spots. If you find any abscesses don't freak out! Sheep that carry any wool during the year will often get abscesses caused by foxtails, shearing nicks, etc. These are usually just minor irritational abscessses. Drain them and use antiseptic.

Ninth:

Don't worry about getting a super smooth cut at first. You are learning how to shear and can go back over the job if you need to with a finer blade. The job you do depends how close you want to shear, if you will be spinning the wool, and of course how practiced you are.

WOWZA!!!! YES, that helps! Will have to get that stuff on hand...we were dipping the blades in hot water with degreaser in it, then spraying with WD40 for the lube.

THANK YOU!!!!! Eli wanted to pick up one of those stanchions we saw for sale the other day, but I can just see my sheep throwing their bodies off that raised floor and hanging from their heads, choking themselves to death and us trying to pick their big, fat bodies up enough to release them from the head hold. And they will...we have some that will hang themselves, choking until their eyes roll back, rather than stand tied to anything let alone trying to wrestle them up onto a platform, THEN tying them up. Not used to being handled at all, as they are pastured at all times, so they will buck like wild horses, throw themselves onto their backs and roll and otherwise try to free themselves from any kind of restraint. If we put them in a regular stanchion, they collapse to the ground and thrash around, choking themselves with the stanchion.

We make a vow not to keep heavy blunt instruments or guns nearby, as we will definitely beat or shoot a sheep to death during these histrionics if we have any kind of weapon in our hands.

The pasturing is the problem with doing just one at a time...we have one place to do them and they are in a managed intensive pasture rotation, which means they move to new pasture every 4-10 days and aren't near the handling facilities at all.

Eli's going to sharpen the blades, get more blades and we'll definitely get the Kool Lube and degreaser, though I doubt either can be found around here...will order online. At the end of this month we'll be running them through the pens again to sort out the ram and put the ewe lamb and wethers back in with the flock...we'll try to have everything more ready before then so we can finally shear these sheep....there are only four that need it and two of them have partial shears where we buzzed the back, but couldn't cut anymore due to the blades hanging up and not cutting any longer.



Their fleeces are VERY dirty on the surface, but not near the body where the blades are cutting...very clean there, with buttery yellow lanolin in the clean, white wool/hair.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

In the sorting pens is there a chute area where you could block one in to try to shear at least part of it?

 

[Ridgetop]

You can train them to stand still by putting them in a halter (inside pen) nd tying them up tight to a post. Then let them fight the halter rope on their own till they realize they can't move away. Get the stanchion and get the optional side rails too. Then they can't fling themselves off so easily since the side rails will keep them from falling off to one side. Once they lose their footing a couple times and feel themselves dangling in space they will tend to freeze in place on the stand. I need new side rails for mine. My sheep are not tame either.

 

[Baymule]

We make a vow not to keep heavy blunt instruments or guns nearby, as we will definitely beat or shoot a sheep to death during these histrionics if we have any kind of weapon in our hands.

 

[Ridgetop]

Sheep can drive you to violence faster than any other living creature. Except perhaps DH. I try not to keep blunt or sharp instruments too near him either. But mostly I love him.

 

[Beekissed]

In the sorting pens is there a chute area where you could block one in to try to shear at least part of it?

There is....we need to work on it to make it more narrow and also provide a place to clip the sheep's head up so they can't back away or put their heads down. We also need to drop the sides down lower. More tweakage needed at this time but we'll get there.

 

[Beekissed]

You can train them to stand still by putting them in a halter (inside pen) nd tying them up tight to a post. Then let them fight the halter rope on their own till they realize they can't move away. Get the stanchion and get the optional side rails too. Then they can't fling themselves off so easily since the side rails will keep them from falling off to one side. Once they lose their footing a couple times and feel themselves dangling in space they will tend to freeze in place on the stand. I need new side rails for mine. My sheep are not tame either.

We'll look for one or Eli will build us one...he's got a welder now, so he needs the practice!