Shearing Contractors

The approach of the shearing season may fill many farmers with dread, especially those who have a history of bad experiences with shearing contractors. Sometimes you won’t even find an affordable shearer who can provide services to small and hobby farmers, so your small flock is pretty much left unattended. When you know where to look and plan well ahead of the shearing season, you should have no such problems.

There are two ways in which shearers do their job. It can be done with the sheep laid down, starting with one side and then rolling it over to the other side. It can also be done with the sheep standing. Be prepared to get your hands dirty, though, as both ways will require an extra set of hands to hold the sheep in place. Shearing time is actually the only time you are allowed to keep your animals hungry for a couple of hours to avoid giving the shearer a hard time handling heavy animals. Other requirements are for the animals to be dry and kept in a confined space.

The shearing process can greatly increase the risk of disease transfer in animals. The shearers prevent it through a number of ways: they change into clean overalls and disinfect their equipment before going to a new farm. An alcohol based disinfectant is a friend of the shearer, used by most to spray their clippers. However, all these efforts will be in vain if you fail to keep your animals safe and healthy.

Good shearing contractors can shear all breeds of sheep, including Merino, Dorset, Leister Longwool, Hampshire, Romney, Suffolk, Gulf Coast, Cheviot, Border Leister, Scottish Blackface, Shetland, Cotswold, Babyface Southdown and Finnsheep. This also includes the mix breeds. They will usually provide their services any time although the best shearing time is before the shows start and before lambing season.