Alpaca Shearing 3/22/08

This is a hard working crew of volunteers.

Even the breaks were work.

Finally the rest of lunch, at 4:00 PM

These pups are future herd protectors. Mom is teaching them to walk the perimeter of the farm.

Look close and you will see she is getting her shots

Shearing the blanket.

Rolling over to shear the rest of the blanket.

"Naked" ladies. Is that an "I'm ashamed" look?
One will not even look you in the eye.

Mary was the official record keeper. Recording weights before and after shearning

These are some of the pictures of the fun we had assisting in the shearing of 83 alpacas in 7+ hours at Fairhope Alpacas on Saturday 3/22/08. Mary kept the records of who (the alpacas are all named) weighed what before and after shearing.

Since she was seated close to the scales she had to be alert to spitting and kicking. A time or two she took refuge in the bathroom which was handily close by. Alpacas spit regurgitated stomach contents (cud) and it smells really really bad as well as being really nasty. And their kick is designed to discourage or cripple attacking animals, so beware.

I was the "rope man". I attached the ropes to the hind legs (dangerous end) while someone else did the front as two guys held (maybe) the animal still. Then I stretched the animal out to immobilize it for the safety of the shearer and the animal. At the proper time I had to release the tension to allow the shearer to shear the rest of the legs and then quickly re-tighten the ropes before the animal realized it was loose. After the shearer was finished, and the teeth had been ground and the toenails trimmed as needed, I released the animal and moved to the next animal. The first step could and did occur most often just before the shearer was finished with one animal, so I was constantly moving back and forth between the two shearing stations.

Needless to say Mary and I were both really tired, but happy and proud of the jobs we were able to do. Not bad for a couple with 143 years total experience between the two of us.

Mac McFatter

in warm sunny Mobile, AL