Wool

Just a short post today. The past week was spent getting my taxes done; not a fun job. But now it is back to sheep and their wool!

My last post showed two videos of the shearing process. Beto was the main shearer in the videos. In just a couple of hours he had told me that he had sheared 150 sheep! So wonder he had the brace on, but then the floor of the shearing shed does get slippery with the lanolin. The wool is collected after each sheep is sheared and tossed on a platform next to the shearing shed. On this raised platform is a machine that will compact the wool into bags. Each bag weighs between 400 and 500 pounds! A sheep that has a black face will have wool that is black underneath and this wool is separated in the shearing shed. Most of these sheep are pulled aside and will be sheared at one time. Sometimes one will get through but the men running the sheep through the chute try to keep them separated. But sheep will be sheep and get away.

Here is the machine that will compact the wool.

Before the wool is put into the compacting machine, a bag is added and clamped into place, the sides raised and wool is slowly added. The above video shows what is happening with getting the bag in the machine before adding the wool. The machine does all the hard work that use to belong to the sheep ranchers children. In the past before the machine, the children would be put in the bag and the it was their job to stomp the wool down so more wool could be added. That must have been a fun but dirty job with the wool flying all around them and the dirt and lanolin that would be on the fleece!

The bag is continuously changed as it can not hold anymore. The bag may sit on the platform until the space is needed for the next full bag. It is then pushed onto the ground as was seen in the above video.

The four to five hundred pound wool bags.

The bags are then rolled by two men to a trailer.

How would you like to roll and push that wool bag weighing four to five hundred pounds up that ramp?

My next post will present information about what happens to the sheared sheep! Hope you enjoy.

The Shearers

Imagine having to spend most of your workday bent over a ewe or ram holding the animal between your legs or putting pressure with one foot on her stomach so you can spend three minutes shearing her. It is backbreaking work but the men that I met this morning had been doing the work for many years as they traveled the west going from one rancher’s flock to another to shear the wool, a renewable product! Shearing takes place mostly in February in Arizona, although it can be earlier or later depending on the schedule of the shearers. There are no shearing outfits in Arizona. However, that does not mean there are no shearers; these men and maybe women, shear small flocks near them. They are willing to shear these small flocks as they may have sheep of their own and need to stay near their homes. The shearers today came from California. They had already sheared sheep this week so their tents had been set up in the field as they had planned to shear in the same location for a few days. They will move their operation at least once before they will move onto another state and begin the process all over again.

When they arrive, the rancher and family along with his herders will have the fences set up to drive the sheep through a maze into the shearing pen. Some of the sheep are brought into the pens the night before to be the first to begin getting their wool cut. More sheep will be brought in by the herders throughout the day. The shearers will set up their electric shearers and about 9 a.m. will begin the process that lasts for about three hours with only short breaks to stand up tall stretching their backs, move the wool from the sheep they had just sheared and then, it is back to grabbing the next ewe or ram to shear. Rams are sheared but there was none this day while I was watching. Some of this was shown in pictures on yesterday’s post.

Sometimes a small sheep herder in the area will bring their sheep to be sheared as it is too expensive of an operation for them to have the shearers come to them.

There is some redundancy in the two videos. The last shows the line of the sheep as they wait for shearing and what happens as the shearers grab one of them. Both videos shows the activity that goes on within the shearing pen – the shearing, the grabbing of the wool and getting it out of the way for the next shearing job, and the men as they continuously work. Notice that the floor is a piece of plywood that can get slippery from the lanolin found in the wool.

Tomorrow we will look at what happens to all that wool that has been sheared. Each sheep gives 10 to 12 pounds of wool.

Arizona Sheep Shearing

The Auza sheep are being sheared this week and it will continue into the next few days. Over the weekend, I traveled to Casa Grande to catch up with the Auza family and the crew who would be shearing for them. I also needed my “fix” on seeing sheep as it had been since last May that I had been able to spend any time with the sheep, the herders and the Auza family. I will be posting the activities of Saturday over the next few days as there are lots of pictures and a few videos that capture the activity that occurs during the sheep shearing. I read on a Facebook page that sheep shearing is actually “spa day” for the sheep! In a way, I guess that is true as they get to shed their long wool coat for the hotter temperatures of the next few months before they are moved to greener pastures and cooler temperatures in the northern part of the state. By then they will have grown some of the wool back on.

The first two videos are as the sheep being brought to the shearing station which for a few days is located where a majority of the ewes having been grazing and caring for their young.

After the ewes and their babies are corralled, the workers begin to corral them into a tighter funnel.

The sheep are now moved into a narrow chute to begin the separation of moms from their babies.

*The worker watches for the babies to move them into another pen separate from the line for their moms.* He moves the gate to separate the ewes from their lamb.

*Just a sheep wondering what the hold up is!.*

The video tells you everything. The babies want their mommas!

Tomorrow I will post a video on the shearing from a man who has been in the business some twenty years.

Guest Writer Tony Lucas

Today, we have a guest who wrote a poem about his experiences with his father and the sheep. “Little Tony” was the name fondly given by the Thude family as his uncle was also called Tony. Tony’s father, Eliseo Lucas, was the herder for Gunnar Thude for many years. Lucas is an Arizona Livestock inspector today.

A SHEEPHERDER AT HEART

FROM THE TIME I COULD REMEMBER I STUCK NEAR MY FATHER, MANY TIMES IN THE WAY BUT TO HIM NEVER A BOTHER.

BEING FOREMAN OF A SHEEP OUTFIT HE MUCH ENJOYED, HE TAUGHT ME HARD WORK NEVER TO AVOID.

IN THE SPRING TRAIL NORTH MOVING CAMP TWICE A DAY, IN A MONTH AND A HALF COOL GREEN MEADOWS WILL BE YOUR PAY.

NEVER GRAZE IN THE SAME PLACE TOO LONG, THAT WAY THE LAND YOU WILL NEVER DO WRONG.

ALWAYS TALK TO THEM SO THEY KNOW WHEN YOU’RE NEAR, THE FLOCK WILL LEARN NOT THE HERDER TO FEAR.

WHEN TURNING THE BAND START AT THE REAR AND STAY WIDE, THAT WILL ENSURE THAT THEY STAY AT EACH OTHERS SIDE.

ALWAYS LISTENING AND WATCHING FOR YOUR HERD MARKS, BELLS, LEADERS, TRAILERS, AND ALL OF THE DARKS.

WHEN YOU HAVE A CUT AT FINDING SIGN BE THE BEST, THOSE STRAYS TRACK AND FOLLOW TILL THEY’RE BACK WITH THE REST.

WHEN YOU COME OFF THE MOUNTAIN AND YOU’RE NOT SHORT A ONE, THAT’S WHEN YOU KNOW THAT THE JOBS BEEN WELL DONE.

WHEN LAMBING HAVE A KEEN EYE AND KNOW YOUR EWES, STOPPING TO FIGURE OUT IS TIME YOU CAN’T LOSE.

AT FIRST LIGHT TILL NEAR DARK STAY IN THE FIELD, AT TAIL DOCKING YOU WILL SEE A GOOD LAMBERS YIELD.

MOTHER NATURE YOU CANNOT CONTROL, THINK AND WORK TO MINIMIZE HER TOLL.

ADDRESS THEIR NEEDS AND FEED THEM WELL, AT THE TIME OF SHIPPING BIG LAMBS YOU WILL SELL.

FOR MANY YEARS WE WORKED TOGETHER SIDE BY SIDE, WHATEVER WE DID WE DID IT WITH PRIDE.

WE WORKED AS ONE TO TALK WE NEEDED NOT, FOR WE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT EACH OTHER THOUGHT.

IT GOES UNSAID FIRST COMES THE FAMILY THEN THE SHEEP, WHAT YOU GIVE THEM IS WHAT YOU WILL REAP.

WONDERFUL CHILDREN AND A STRONG, LOVING WIFE, THAT’S THE BEST WE CAN STRIVE FOR IN LIFE.

THEY SAY MONEY AND POWER MAKE A MAN SMART, I SAY IT’S THE LOVE AND STRENGTH IN THAT SHEEPHERDERS HEART.

“IN LOVING MEMORY OF ALL THINGS I LEARNED FOR MY FATHER ELISEO LUCAS”