how to find local shearers? and does anyone milk their sheep?

[ohiogoatgirl]

i am a member of the local spinning and weaving guild and i know several people in it have sheep or alpacas but i havent asked any of them who they use to shear theirs. wondered how everyone here found their shearer and how they liked them.

and i am very curious about milking sheep. still in my research phase and begin saving up.
i have goats and have handmilked them for years. i wouldnt think that milking a few sheep would be much more trouble.
i have found almost nothing about sheep milking though.

but if i do try it i am most dumbfounded on what kind of stand i will need. my goat milk stand is homemade. all i can find on sheep milking isnt much and its all based on huge sheep dairies. so of course nothing on what kind of stand i would need.

i am thinkin now that if i do try it, will be a once a day milking. like seperate at night and milk in the morning then put the lambs back with the ewes. and i'm not expecting to get alot, it would just be a fun thing. like a "just because it'll be a cool conversation starter and i want to do it" thing haha

 

[Roving Jacobs]

I didn't like the one shearer who was willing to travel all the way out to my place for a dozen sheep and 3 goats so I learned to do it myself. He did a fine job with the sheep aside from being kind of slow and sloppy but he totally shredded my poor angoras. I learned through a class put on by the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association and it's really not that tricky once you get the hang of it. Finding good shearers can be a challenge because so few people do it anymore but the best way is through word of mouth. Talk to anyone you meet that has sheep, talk to the people at feed stores, contact local extension agents or large animal vets, anyone who is involved with sheep will probably know someone who does shearing. Also be aware that most people just want the wool off and don't use it for hand spinning so many shearers aren't that careful to avoid second cuts. Be sure to explain exactly how you want the fleece sorted. I do mine the total wrong way for traditional shearing but it works well for preserving nice fleeces. If I'm keeping my cormos blanketed all year I'm not letting some yahoo mangle them at shearing!

I've only ever milked sheep for colostrum to freeze but it's not super hard. They don't tend to have teats like a dairy goat so it can be hard on your hands and if they aren't used to it they are awfully jumpy but otherwise once you've hand milked one thing they're all pretty similar. I think a regular goat stand would be just fine. I used a dairy stand like the one Fias Co Farm has plans for to do my hoof trimming and things on both my sheep and the goats and I haven't had a problem with it.