By Judi Smith
From the Summer 2000 issue
Kiwi makes it look easy. All that bending must be hard on the back. The lamas sure feel better after a good clip though.
Stretched alpaca — Kiwi Bishop and Ken Lavell shearing an alpaca. They stretch them flat out by tying the legs and this makes it much easier to shear.
The benefits of shearing are well known now. The animals are healthier in the summer, fewer heat related abortions, fewer health problems caused by the heat and the crias have a clear view of that lunch bar. Males too are more potent, heat can and will effect the viability of semen. So, with all this to look forward to, more folks are having their lamas sheared.
The most obvious advantage of shearing is that lovely soft fibre. Spinners and weavers have found a local supply of lamas fibre and they love it.
The importance of good preparation before shearing can be seen on the sorting table as the fleece is laid out to remove any dirt, debris and lesser quality fibre. If an animal has been cleaned before shearing, this manual cleaning process is a lot less work. Grass and hay can and do get deep into that fibre and will make a fleece worth a lot less. After all, the cost of processing and the spinning are worth spending a while cleaning the fibre before it finds it way to the mills. Nothing worse then a prickly piece of grass or hay hiding in the garment, you know, the piece you can never find when you take it off to look for the annoying little poking material.
In the photo above, Anne MacDonald is sorting the fleeces, getting rid of the bad bits and putting the best fibre safely in plastic bags.
From the look of the batch of fibre coming off the local animals, we should see some lovely slim, trim, beauties out in the local pastures this summer.
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