Wrangle him into a corner and get a halter on...
Then manhandle him to the shearing table...
A strap goes across the middle of the alpaca to hold him down whilst the table flips through 90 degrees.
Then the legs get tied and secured...
Stretched out and ready to go!
I give them a pedicure whilst the shearers get to work. I also give them an injection of vaccine after the clip.
The shearing starts with the legs, neck and belly being done. This part of the clip could be used for felting, but ours is sold for roof insulation. The buyer takes it, chops it and sprays into roof spaces. It has better insulation properties than sheeps wool and he gets a premium for alpaca...
The "blanket" comes off the middle of the animal and is the best fibre. This will go to a specialist mill for washing, carding and spinning onto cones.
This is Harry's first full shear. He had a light clip 12 months ago to stop the ends of the fibres twisting and making a kind of alpaca dreadlock and picking up burrs and rubbish. The fibre is about 100-120mm long.
Once half the alpaca is done, they are flipped over and the other half can be clipped.
It looks tough on the alpaca, but they are pretty relaxed and it is over fairly quickly. They are surprisingly skinny under all that fleece...
A trendy haircut...
and show off for the camera...
A quick tidy up of the tail and nether regions...
Before the teeth are checked and filed as neccessary...
The strap goes across the middle again whilst the legs are released...
before the table is flipped and Harry gets to rejoin his mates.
So that is it - until next year...
So - a few of the others:
Baron-before
And after - he seems quite proud of his new look!
Julia - has great Peruvian blood lines
She took to a halter quite well
Wasn't so keen on going to the table
But once it was over and she was back with her cria Caramel all was well with the world.
Merlot is the Matriarch of all. All 9 except Baron are daughters or grandchildren
Happy, well adjusted cria.
All the while, Mack patrolled the perimeter and made sure everything happened as it was supposed to.
