Help me choose Shearers, ASAP!

[aggieterpkatie]

No offense meant here, but it probably stressed her out a little because it may have taken you longer as a beginner. Many heavy bred (like, a month to a few weeks away from lambing) get their whole bodies sheared, and they do just fine. It probably wouldn't stress her out if you did shear her standing up. It's up to you though whether you do more or not. Most likely they won't need any assistance and they'll lamb just fine on their own.

 

[SheepGirl]

Just a note:

When sheep start panting (and they are being sheared NZ style) you NEED to get them up standing ASAP. We have had this issue the past two years with a couple of sheep out of a Babydoll ram we brought in for 2009 lambs. They start panting and within a couple minutes they're dead (we've had three sheep die while being sheared--all out of this sire). We don't know what happens (and it's happened with two different shearers) but when you get them up standing, they are shaking and have trouble balancing. We keep them in the shearing pen, get another sheep sheared, and then we shear them and they are usually okay. We've saved four sheep (again, out of this sire) by having them stand up.

One of the shearers we use says she thinks it's a genetic problem...she sees the problem a lot in the Dorset flocks she shears.

My neighbor has had sheep for over 70 years. And just in 2010 was the first time he's had that happen - ever.


I don't think this was your issue since you didn't mention it (other than the panting), but I think this is valuable information to anyone shearing sheep.

 

[secuono]

She wasn't panting like a dog, I guess just breathing hard with her head low is a better description. She kept struggling and fighting me, the other didn't care what I did. I kept stopping and waiting for her to settle, so that's the main reason it took awhile with her. That played a big part in her stress. I had her laying on her side to trim her feet, since she wouldn't stand still and shaved her mostly while laying, too. The other who was calm I trimmed her feet like a horse, sat her to shave her underside. She was fine once I let her friend out and they went around the barn to meet up with the ram.