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Weaning?s finished ? phew! (Brag alert!)


Tassie
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My trainer and I finished weaning the last of her lambs yesterday ? tagged (my trainer) and vaccinated (me) about 150 lambs (nowhere near as cute as Andrea?s BC lambs ? just plain white Merinos). We?ve had such a busy couple of weeks, weaning, and crutching ? pushing about 2000 sheep and lambs through the shearing shed in 2 days for the 2 shearers, so it was nice to be able to take our time tidying up.

 

We finished up about 5.30. on a lovely summer evening ? then my trainer took her bike and one of her dogs to move a few ewes who?d got boxed up with the wrong mob up through one 140 acre paddock to where they belonged. This left me and Kirra to take the 150 lambs through to the Lucerne paddock which is their new home, and show them where the water trough is. They behaved quite well once we?d pulled them off the fence where their mommas were. Then we took the 150 or so mommas back through into their paddock, and ?drove? (a bit approximately) them about three-quarters of a mile or so up a hill onto a part of their paddock where they were well away from their lambs. This was a new job for Kirra ? usually when we?re moving stock we have to fetch them, since she?s not really used to driving/droving yet. She did a pretty good job, although towards the end, she was getting rather tired ? and actually left her sheep to go roll in a (fortunately) long dead lamb. But she did get back to work then, and it was no biggie because the ewes were just feeding at that stage.

 

A very satisfied and happy little Border Collie and her rather novice handler enjoyed the walk back down the hill in the balmy summer evening, enjoying the view, and the feeling of a job well done.

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What a job! I'm almost embarrased to talk about my, um, twenty-some ewes and thirty or so lambs. Not that I'll let that stop me. :rolleyes:

 

I keep forgetting to pick up the camera mom was going to loan me until me birthday when the surprise I picked out for myself will arrive. :D I decided on the Canon S1-IS by the way - we'll see whether the money is actually there next month. :D

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I?m just so very lucky to have the opportunity to work on my trainer?s farm. And I should say, neither of us has close family here apart form the dogs, so we have a lot more time. It must be nice to have a small flock, although more traumatic if things go wrong, I should think. I?ve got to say the cuteness factor of the lambs had well worn off by the time we finished crutching. Those lambs did not want to go into the shearing shed, didn?t like the metal grating on the floor, or the sunlight and shadow patterns, and then didn?t want to go down the let-out race! We did a lot of picking up and putting in place, and pushing butts! Mind you, some of the ewes were pretty uncooperative in the shed ? and they know better! In fact, of all the sheep, the 30 rams, with their huge great curved Merino horns, were the most cooperative ? they just walked very politely through the holding pens, into the catching pens, and then down the race to go out ? thank goodness.

 

You must be looking forward to your new camera. My trainer has a fairly super-duper camera, and she?s taken to carrying it with her wherever she goes on the farm ? has it in her bag on the bike or in the truck. She was taking photos when we were up on the hill with the sheep yesterday evening ? but I haven?t seen them yet.

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Yes, the shearers are amazing. It?s a 2 stand shed, and we had an extra penner-up and me working the pens in the holding shed. The shearers were crutching everyone - including the still wrinkly lambs - and wigging the 800 or so grown sheep that they hadn?t wigged for the trial in January, so they certainly earn their money. They work an 8 hour day, in 4 lots of 2 hours, starting at 7.30 am. It?s certainly fast and furious, and it?s quite hard for the shed-hands trying to make sure the shearers don?t run out of sheep in their catching pens, since they are paid by the head.

 

My trainer shears in September ready for lambing in October/early November, (that?s late spring for us) and crutches a couple of weeks before shearing. This helps to keep the fleeces cleaner. The crutching now is mainly to assist in preventing/managing fly strike. The sheep were all jetted for fly in November, but the effectiveness of that is just about wearing off now, especially for the ewes. (My trainer doesn?t mules her sheep.)

 

The superfine end of the wool market, while not great, isn?t too bad. My trainer sold her entire clip at the sale a couple weeks ago, most of it above appraisal. It?s a fiddly business, as the buyers are really picky about having the wool as clean as possible, and they want superfine wool (below about 17.5 microns) but with high tensile strength.

 

I am having such a great time learning all this stuff, as well as learning stock work with my little dog. A whole new career for retirement!

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Barb,

I'd like to hear more about the set-up, how the sheep get to the shearers, who does what. We use a pretty rough and ready system, since we only have 50 sheep, but I'd like to make improvements some day. At the moment, we just put them in an inside area in the barn and pass them one at a time through a gate to the shearer, who is set up in the foyer, so to speak. So, one person inside, one with the shearer to vaccinate while he shears, one person to bag the wool and drag the bags off for later disposal.

What does everyone else do?

A.

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Ha, ha, you'll have to come see when we do it this fall. Unless we shear all over like we did this year. I liked that a lot and may do it again.

 

Anyway, crutching is shearing back from the butt, under the tail, and down under the belly to expose and clean the udder and peritoneal area in preparation for lambing. In Australia, it's also done as a maintenance thing to keep the area fly-free. They have an aggressive fly that thrives in the fine, moist wool in that area and basically eats the sheep alive. Some farmers actually cut back the skin when they are lambs, which grows back wool-free, but this practice (mulesing) is falling out of favor (thankfully).

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Sorry guys - this is a very long reply - but feel free to skip it!

 

Yes, Becca ? our February crutching is primarily for fly strike prevention and management. The other part of fly management on my trainer's farm is running the sheep through a jetting race which sprays the relevant areas of the sheep with a chemical which theoretically prevents fly from setting up house. As this wears off, we find some fly at this time of year, and each sheep has to be treated by clipping and sprinkling with fly-strike powder which kills the maggots - lots of fun, but totally necessary. Since we're seeing a bit of fly now, we'r going to jet all the sheep again over the next week or so, to try to minimise problems for the rest of the summer. My trainer gets criticised by some others for not mulesing, but it's not only the butts which can attract fly - and in any case, mulesing is set to be phased out here in another 5 years - so my trainer feels she's ahead of the game.

 

The August/September crutching is pre-shearing. By crutching first, and getting rid of most of the dags then, the shed can be kept much cleaner when the fleeces come off, and the clean quality of the superfine fleeces that the buyers value can be enhanced. (Cleanliness of the wool is of such value that some of the big superfine producers chasing the really big dollar will actually coat their sheep ? and some even keep them shedded.)

 

My trainer?s Merino sheep are wigged at the same time they are crutched in summer, Laura. Wigging means shearing around the face and forehead ? to prevent the sheep from becoming wool-blind. If they?re wool-blind, apart from being much more difficult to move anywhere, they can have trouble feeding, and staying safe in their paddock. (The wether and ewe hoggets/2-tooths that my trainer used for her trial at the end of January were wigged before the trial, so that they could be worked more readily and predictably.)

 

Andrea, we?re very lucky in that my trainer has built a big new shearing shed and holding shed all in one, with a wall dividing the two parts. In the wall, there is a pair of swing doors behind each of the 2 shearing stands for shearers to catch their sheep from their own catching pen. The shearing stands are a permanent set-up, with the machines and the slings (to protect the shearers? backs) always there. The shearers just have to provide their own combs. Once the sheep is finished with, it is bundled back into the holding shed through a smaller swinging door, into a let-out pen. So along the ?front? of the holding shed there is a let-out pen, and a catching pen with a forcing pen behind it for each shearer. Behind those is a laneway, where the let-out sheep can go out into a race leading to the outside. At shearing time they are backlined (treated to prevent lice) in that race. The laneway can be closed off by swing gates leading into the forcing pen from a sequence of four interconnected holding pens. The sheep come into the shed through a big sliding doorway from a forcing yard, fed from a holding yard, and a laneway leading from the main yard system. There are also a couple of other holding pens at the side of the shed, and another area where more sheep can be kept more or less under cover. At shearing time, the aim is to have about 2 days worth of dry sheep. It?s quite the juggling act ? as is moving sheep through the shed, so that the shearers are kept supplied with sheep, the let-out pens are emptied when necessary, and different mobs of sheep are kept separate (sorting out a ?box-up? is time-consuming!) So ideally, there are 2 or 3 shed hands working the holding shed in our size operation ? and there?ll be at least one person moving stock to try to make sure that everyone arrives in the correct order, and gets back to their own paddock.

 

Once the shearer has finished shearing a sheep, the roustabout (kind of gopher) will take the fleece and throw it onto the wool classing table ? a huge waist high table with narrow pointed wooden slats. The daggy bits (skirtings) are pulled off, and then it?s the wool classer?s job to decide on which bin the wool should go into ? depending on quality, tensile strength etc. There are 5 bins/compartments set up in our shed. Periodically, when enough fleeces of a particular quality have built up, the roustabout will pile them into a big wool pack set up in a big hydraulic wool press. The packs used to be calico, now something stronger. Then the bale is compressed, sewn up and is ready to be transported to a holding area. The bales weigh a bit over 100 kilograms, I think

 

In a superfine wool operation, the wool classer is tremendously important. Buyers like to be able to get a number of bales of even quality wool. And it is important that the best wool, which will command the premium price, is identified and kept in a separate bale.

 

I found it fascinating to learn that no wool is wasted. Even the bits and pieces ? crutchings, skirtings, wigs etc. go into a separate pack, and are sold separately.

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Not too long for me. I get the concept in principle but would love to see a drawing. Do these gates swing only one way? Is there only one sheep in the holding area or does the shearer have to get out of his sling to go over and grab one out of a group in there? Does he push the finished sheep through himself or does someone do it for him?

I think you also mentioned a trial at the end of January. Was it a three sheep trial or Kelpie style? Tell me more girl.

Andrea

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Thanks guys.

 

Andrea ? depending on the size of the sheep, the catching pen will hold about 8 sheep. (It?s bad form for the shed hands to let the pen get empty ? there should always be at least 2 sheep in the catching pen, so as a shed hand, you always have to keep checking back to see how the numbers are going!) The forcing pens hold about 35 sheep each, and the four holding pens in the shed hold about 60 or so each ? depends on how long they?re going to be in there. For holding overnight, the pens would be less full, but for short times, we cram them pretty full.

 

The shearer?s sling hangs off a movable bar up high ? think the way a car wash hose swings over the car. This means he can push through the saloon doors into the catching pen to grab a sheep without getting out of the sling. He grabs the sheep by the front legs, tips it on its butt, and pulls it through onto the shearing boards. When he?s finished, he bundles it back onto its feet and through the let-out pen door in one movement. Catching pen doors are full height, and swing both ways ? let-out doors are just a bit over sheep height, and swing back into the holding shed.

 

I?ll try my hand at a drawing of the shed over the weekend. Most of the gates are sliding, but gates at the laneway swing. At least a couple of them will open right back into the laneway, allowing you to juggle numbers in the forcing pens, to balance up numbers so that at the end of a mob, the 2 shearers will finish about the same time.

 

The trial at the end of January was a 3 sheep trial ? mostly Border Collies, but some Kelpies. Very short outrun ? only about 200 metres. The 3 sheep trial would be very limiting for you guys ? it?s got a lot of precise (think pernickety) rules about how the handler moves from obstacle to obstacle, and the path the sheep take there. The obstacles are a gap (about 2 feet, between two 6 foot panels; the race ? small Y into about an 18? ? 2 ft race ? about 12? long; the bridge ? small wings ? 7? wide, narrowing to about 3? ramp leading up onto a bridge about 9? long ? about 18? off the ground; and finally a pen ? 6? x 9?, with a 3? opening ? no gate. For each obstacle the handler is about 2 - 2.5 metres off to the side of the left hand panel, and is not supposed to move. Points are lost for excessive hand/body movements, and the only stick allowed is up to 18?, and should not be used to affect stock.

 

Kirra has had a good couple of days ? helping to load wether lambs onto the truck to go to the saleyards yesterday ? agility was a help here, since she had no problems working the lambs up the ramp onto the top level of the truck ? just like a giant dogwalk really! Today she had some more yard work, as we pushed the 300 or so ewe lambs into the yards and through the jetting race, to jet them with the fly-strike preventative. Of course, they didn?t want to go through the race any more than they wanted to go into the shearing shed last week. We needed a Kelpie, Andrea, to get over their backs. Though the real problem came with them turning round in the actual race, and that was too close to the jetting solution to be safe for a dog.

 

Laura ? you?ll only need this big of a set-up if you have the sort of 800 acres/1600 adult sheep operation my trainer has. Mind you, here, that?s quite a small set-up. We saw a shearing shed about a half hour away that is a 12 stand shed (i.e. 12 shearers operating at once), with a huge holding shed, and undercover area for 5000 sheep ? in a giant sort of plastic greenhouse!

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Hey Barb,

Thanks for the info. Do post a drawing of the shearing shed if you can.

I've heard about this trial format from other people who have been to Australia. Sandy Beaton was over here to judge last year and was telling me about it. Apparently, his daughter lives in Australia, so he's been over a few times. (Running a Kelpie is usually quite a conversation starter!)

The latter part of the trial sounds quite similar to an AHBA or CKC (all breed) trial at the lower levels. I guess in our terms it would be characterised as an 'assisted drive.' Would this portion of the trial be in a smaller fenced area, like an arena? One thing that bothers me about the format is the opportunity for the handler to do most of the work of getting the sheep through the obstacles, using the fenceline to hold one side, so your comments on deductions for handler involvement are quite interesting.

Andrea

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