ilultham

It's been a while since sheep have featured on the blog and I should say that these aren't mine!    Some smallholder friends were struggling to get anyone to shear their sheep. The trouble is they only have 5 pet sheep. I lent them some hand sheers but I think a mixture of worry and lack of experience put them off.  Rather than ask them if they wanted a hand I just told them I was coming to get the job started. I'm no expert, I've only ever had to hand clip a whole sheep when maggots have been involved! But it's better to get that fleece off than leave it on in the summer time (fly strike becomes a very real risk). I think part of the trouble was getting the sheep rolled over, Simon isn't a big guy and this are some seriously heavy (fat) sheep.  Rolling sheep over isn't really about strength, technique wins out in the end - but often you need brute  strength to control the ewe while you learn it.  At the end of the day it's not the nicest of jobs and I d...