In a chat last week I happened to mention that we're in the middle of shearing. (For those who don't know, I live in rural Australia and our farm produces, amongst other things, wool.) So, I promised to post some pictures to my blog. Here they are, along with a brief explanation.
This is the BEFORE shot, of some young ewes (girls) pictured wearing their 12-month growth of wool. They're shorn just once a year. These sheep are Merinos, which produce the best wool. Every other breed are mere pretenders! This year we have about 1600 to shear, and that's a week's work for 3 shearers and 3 shedhands (rouseabouts) and 1 woolclasser / presser.
The sheep being shorn:
Imagine working all day with your back bent like this.
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be shearers...
Rouseabout picks up the fleece and throws it onto a large table where it is skirted (crappy bits removed!) and classed by quality.
All wool is not created equal but you want each bale to contain the same kind of wool.
A press (left) compresses the fleeces into bales like these (right) which have been stacked on the back of our truck. Each bale contains around 30 fleeces. They're transported to Sydney and sold by auction. Most is exported. China is one of the biggest buyers of our wool.
And there it is, the skinny on shearing.
Questions, anyone?
posted by Bronwyn Jameson @ 10:30 AM
