There are no two ways about it while out and about shearing over the last few weeks the weather has been weird. We have seen 43C to single digits raining and most things in between.
The heat may be unpleasant, but it is the rain that causes us a major headache.
Be it alpacas, sheep, goats or any other fibre animal, we know of no shearer keen to place and electric handpiece into a wet animal. Or even if the stock are dry stand out in the rain/drizzle and shear. It is a simple case of basic electrical safety for everyone.
But it’s now stopped raining, and my animals are now drying out can you please shear them?
Damp animals still pose significant issues. If the animal is wet on the outside and dry at the skin yes it is possible to shear it however you must consider the following.
- Wet/damp animals are more challenging to secure; they can be very slippery, which increases the risk of injury to both handlers and stock.
- Wet/damp animals result in wet human handlers; this can have serious health consequences for them, including colds, pneumonia and some nasty skin issues associated with the wet fibre in contact with the skin. Downtime due to illness causes loss of income for the shearing team and a significant rescheduling effort inconveniencing many.
- Wet/damp animals not in the shed can churn up the ground making it slippery and increase risks of physical injury to animals and humans alike.
- Depending on species yarding wet animals in close proximity to each other can have adverse health effects for the animals.
- Wet/damp fleece will have little to no value. The sheared fleece must be adequately dried, or it will go mouldy in storage.
The bottom line is, out of respect to your shearing team, please do not ask your shearer to shear wet/damp animals.
So you have waited what seems like an eternity for your shearer to get out to you and shear and it looks like it is going to rain, so what can you do?
No shearing team is going to hold you responsible for the weather. You will, however, need a plan. There are few things more frustrating as a shearing team travelling for hours to find the animals in a nonshearable condition (wet) and having to turn around.
Most shearing teams schedules are very tight, so the opportunity to ‘just’ pop back tomorrow is usually unrealistic.
It is the shearings client responsibility to provide dry animals, so can you be creative? If you have only small numbers can you put them in floats, garages other sheds? Open fronted sheds with gates or panels to keep the stock in. Penning under a tree will not work, nor will hoping the stock stays in a paddock shelter if it is raining.
Always watch the weather forecast, if it looks like there is a hint of rain shut the animals away. Putting wet animals in a shed/shelter is almost always too late. The humidity builds up in the shed, and with little air movement, it takes forever to dry fleeced animals.
If its all gone horribly wrong and your alpaca/sheep/goats etc. are wet, or you know you are not going to be able to keep them dry in advance phone/text your shearer. Your shearing team should be able to assume you are all ready to go and not have to chase, remember a 730-830 start on a 3-hour drive means your shearing team may be on the road very early, you don’t necessarily want us phoning you before we leave to check your animals are dry!