Shearing When You Have No Shed

When we first arrived at our new property we had no shearing shed, but we had sheep who needed shearing before we went on a holiday to the USA for 2 months. What a dilemma. We were terribly embarassed by our lack of a shed and suitable place to shear our sheep, but needed to find some generous soul who would feel sorry for us and our sheep and help us out of our bind. We phoned around and finally found a shearer willing to do the job, on the dirt under a tree. What a wonderful man, we thought,and expected some old retiree to come strolling along with an esky full of stubbies and a few yarns to tell.  Turns out we were not correct in our assumptions! The shearer who rolled up to our yards was, in fact, a world champion shearer who travels around the world entering shearing competitions- and doing very well in them too. He ran his own shearing team, worked all week,  and we realised the extent of his kindness to us when he said he was shearing for us on his only day off all week! He did an absolutely fantastic job- almost no nicks or cuts on our beautiful sheep- and we were able to go overseas knowing our sheep would be less likely to get flystrike while we were away. His wife did the wool classing for us and we got nearly $ 2000 from the wool which was a nice addition to the holiday funds! Two very lovely people who were only too happy to help us out in our moment of need.

Setting up the sling and shearing head from a pine post in the ground

Sheep waiting to be shorn

Setting up the floor boards

Wool bags tied to the fence

Worming the first sheep to come through the race

Into the shearing

Finished product- no nicks or cuts on her, and she looks happy. That's because the shearer is a world champion, and she knows it!

Girls inspecting their old coats

The old 'Noo' had to be shorn in the paddock with hand shears, because he was too obnoxious to go in the yards

Backlining the 'Noo' for lice

End of the day and all is well in the sheep yards