Sheep Farm Husbandry - Preparation for Shearing

Shearing preparation, sheep, facilities, yards, woolshed and plant, pressing, branding, documentation

By Dr Clive Dalton

How to keep shearers and wool handlers happy

• Shearers and wool handlers have never had a great image, and despite the best efforts of their Union and what used to be the NZ Wool Board that championed shearer training and welfare, they are still struggling for full recognition of their skills.
  
• This is now more serious as young people are loathe to enter the industry and can find much easier ways to make a living in other occupations.
• So if you want your sheep shorn, here’s a few suggestion to get your shearers and wool handlers to want to come back next time you need them.
  

Ronney ewes waiting to be second shorn

Preparing for shearing
The key to a trouble-free shearing is good preparation and the thing you must avoid at all costs is to hold the shearers up as you are depriving them of their income and they don’t like that. Here’s a series of check lists for the various parts of the operation.

Yards and shed

• Check all gates are swinging freely and not dragging on the ground.
• All gate and door catches should be working and be reliable.
• Repair all broken rails and broken gratings to prevent broken legs.
• If you have drafted sheep before shearing, tie the gates up with extra twine, especially over night to avoid mix-ups.
  

Woolshed

Shearing plant

• All machines in good working order – greased and oiled.
• Electrical wiring on motors and flexes are safe.
• Have spare guts and other parts available plus the appropriate tools.
  

Grinder

• New emery paper on the grinder.
• Spare paper and glue available.
• Water containers to soak off old emery paper.
• Pendulums hanging in place and adjusted to the right length.
• Plenty of light above the grinder to see what you are doing.
  

Shearing board

• Well ventilated with no drafts.
• Piece of soft pine in place to “finish” combs (saves ripping the studs).
• Floor washed clean and dry.
• Knock in all sticking-up nails.
• Repair all splintered boards.
• Return-spring on catching pen and straps to prevent over-wide opening.
• Working and full oil cans on each stand.
• Bulk supply of correct oil available.
• Wash trays, screwdrivers and brushes all there.
• Wool brooms, sweepers or boards all present along with spares.
  

Lighting

• Leave some lights on in the shed overnight to prevent panic among sheep.
• Replace all blown bulbs with correct wattage to provide good light.
• Windows and skylights cleaned.
• Check no direct sun gets on the shearing board – have a means of blinding off any offending windows.
  

Wool room

• Have the correct recommended lighting above the wool table. Check with your shearing contractor.
• Plenty of wool packs available.
• Correct branding gear available – stencils, ink and brushes.
• Wool press in good working order and safe to use.
• Plenty of space for pressed bales.
• Bale hooks present plus spares.
• Bale trolley for large shed.
• Needles and twine always available and kept in same place.
• Brooms or boards present to keep the place tidy.
• A clearly visible blackboard to show pen tallies and for other shed notes.
  

Tally book

• A new tally book with a new sharp (soft lead) pencil tied to it.
• A spare book and pencil.
  

Washing facilities

• Ensure there is plenty of clean potable water available.
• Check the water heater works.
• Clean the sinks and make sure each one has a plug.
• Clean the showers and check they are working. Place non-slip mats in them.
• Clean the toilet and make sure there are plenty of rolls of paper – soft paper!
• Provide plenty of towels – paper ones are best, and have a rubbish bin for the used ones.
• Have liquid soap in a dispenser rather than a dirty block that gets lost.
• Keep all the ablutions facilities clean during shearing.
  

First aid

• Have a large, clearly-marked first aid box up on the wall.
• Check all the basic materials are present and keep checking them during shearing.
• Have a bottle of disinfectant ready mixed and clearly marked in a prominent place.
• Have a trained designated person to be the first point of contact in case of accident.
• Always have a mobile phone handy with key phone numbers recorded.
  

Sheep

Daggy sheep are a health & safety risk to shearers.
Dag all sheep before the shearers arrive

• Minimise the stress on all sheep to be shorn.
• Dag all sheep before shearing.
• Draft by breed and wool length.
• Treat all flyblown sheep before shearing.
• Draft off any sick or injured sheep to be shorn at the end (by negotiation with the shearers).
• Don’t hold sheep in the catching pen overnight as it will be too slippy for the shearers.
• Do not offer damp sheep for shearing. The wool will mould on pressing and the shearers will get boils.
• Have good feed and shelter for all sheep after shearing.
  

Emptying out sheep
Farmers have always been aware of the need to empty out sheep before shearing to avoid pen stain of wool, but recently this need has been reinforced by OSH guidelines to reduce the risk of handling injuries to shearers, less risk of tripping on slippery floors, and reduced chance of shearers contracting Leptospirosis from urine spray. The recommendations are shown in the table below.



Key points from the table

• Exceeding the maximum times with pregnant ewes may trigger metabolic diseases.
• Where practical, lambs should stay with their mothers until they enter the woolshed for shearing and their separation kept to a minimum.
• Special care is needed when handling pregnant hoggets. Exceeding their maximum could easily trigger metabolic diseases.
• Exceeding the times for lambs could trigger diseases too.
  

Wool preparation

• Have a clear plan on how you want the wool prepared before shearing and give clear instructions to the shed hands.
• If you are not sure about certain aspects, seek the advice of the wool handlers, many of whom now have had formal training.
  

Fleece weighing

• Make sure the scales are working and recording accurate data.
• Check they are in a good position for working and are securely positioned.
• Have extra trays or boxes for the wool on the scales.
• Have plenty tags, tickets and pencils if needed for manual recording.
• Read the sheep’s tag when it causes least disturbance to the shearer so they don’t have to stop.
• This is the advantage of having the brass tag in the left ear so you read the tag when the belly is being shorn and the ear is sticking out behind the shearer’s left arm.

General

• Have you given the contractor or non-contract shearers plenty of notice?
• Will there be plenty of shed hands all with clearly allocated jobs.
• Is the food organised? Diet advice has changed over recent years. Shearers are athletes and need energy foods and not protein. So they don’t need to be fed on endless mutton – they need carbohydrates. Check with Meat & Wool NZ for details of diets.
• Have plenty of clearly marked rubbish bins in visible places.
• Have some coat hooks for clothing.
• Shearers gear is valuable and they often get it stolen so provide some metal lockers for their spare gear.
• As a final check, get someone to go around to test everything is working.
• And if the pet lamb has to be shorn, make sure it’s collar is removed – and have a biscuit ready as a reward for its indignity!
  

Wool bales
Because wool bales are not opened and emptied after packing in the farm woolshed until they reach the mill, it’s very important that the job is done properly.


Preparation
Here are the important points:

• For a single lot or line of wool, use all synthetic packs. Jute packs are now history.
• Recycled packs. If they are used make sure that:
• They don’t show any old brands.
• All rips and tears must be repaired.
• Must not have any unraveled or burst seams, raw edges or loose threads.
• Must not be repaired with patches.
• Must not have any base or seam repairs.
• Must have a sound clean or new cap of the same fibre type as the pack.
• Must have a sewn-on label identifying the rehandling company and date of rehandling.
• Must only be repaired/rehandled by a company prepared to meet the standards of the code of practice for packaging wool.
  

Before pressing
Before starting to press wool, check the press and the equipment needed – packs, clips, permanent marker pens, bale/tally book, newspaper and pen.

• Check the work plan with the farmer or person supervising the shearing.
• Ensure the pressing work area is tidy and free from contamination.
• Load the pack into the press.
• Enter the agreed description of the new bale to be pressed into the bale book.
• Press the wool.
• Close the bale, brand the bale according to the bale book description and tick off as done.
• Remove the bale and store in a place to avoid congestion and need for minimal movement.
• Repeat pressing process for each bale.
  

Pressing

• Press bales to near their maximum weight.
• 200kg is the recommended maximum.
  
• Overweight bales have to be repacked at the grower’s expense.
  
• The minimum bale weight is 100kg.
  

Common faults with pressing
With the downturn in wool profits, there’s always a temptation to cut corners, or only be able to hire staff without the necessary experience. So wool merchants are having to put out information to keep up wool pressing standards. Here are their current concerns:

1. Poor clipping technique. All clips must go straight across. Clips must be at least 25mm (one inch) from the seam edge. Poorly inserted clips can twist and protrude being a danger to handlers.
2. Poor overlap of the flaps. All flaps must have at least 50mm (three finger widths) overlap. This ensures the wool is not contaminated and flaps get caught during handling.
3. Bales not evenly pressed. Ensure that bales are pressed evenly so they stand up straight. Unevenly pressed bales can make truck loads unstable. Place wool evenly in the bale before pressing.
4. Data on the specification form not matching the bales received. Always check off each bale pressed with the bale book with a tick. A major problem is many bales with the same number. Have a good process and stick to it.
   

Branding

• Brand each bale before it leaves the press to avoid errors.
• Brand with the correct information and using the approved ink.
• Complete the tally book before the bale leaves the press.
• Do not use black shoe polish as it fades rapidly.
• Do not use aerosols as they go through the pack and stain the wool under the brand.
• Only use black for branding as the shipper uses red ink.
• The brands placed on the cap and side of the bale differs in the North and South Island of New Zealand, so check with your wool merchant or Stock company.
• A lot of subsequent information has to be added to the cap and you need to leave at least two-thirds of it clear for shipping brands. Wool brokers prefer the shipping brands on the top of the bale next to the farm brand (and not on the base).
• Put the farm brand on the top left corner of the cap, and if the farm has a long name it can extend along the top. In this position there is less chance of it being rubbed off by abrasion between bales during transport.
• Lettering: Height should be 50-75mm with 50mm preferred. Letters should be of adequate thickness. Use a stencil with uniform strokes.
• If wool is not correctly described it will not be offered for sale and will incur a cost to the grower.
  

Documentation
Bale tally book

This is the final part of the process so you have to get it right if you want to avoid problems and delays in payment. Make sure that:

• All bales are branded.
• No numbers are duplicated.
• All descriptions are correct.
• Separate lines are clearly marked.
• All bale fastening is sound.
  

Written specifications
To allow brokers to handle your wool quickly and correctly, your written specifications must be with the wool merchant when the wool arrives. Each load of wool that leaves the farm needs a specification and it must indicate whether lines are complete or not. Here are some important points to check:

• Keep a duplicate specification.
• Check that the number of bales stated agrees with those specified. Let bale numbers run through for the season and don’t start each consignment off at number 1.
• Ensure that your written brand (on the specification) agrees with what is on the bales.
• Make sure the name and address are correct.
• Give an accurate description of the bales.
• Make sure that in the bale numbers there are no duplications or deletions.
• Record the total bales in each line and write the selling instructions clearly as well as the method of disposal.
• Note that in failing to give clear instructions, the company will use its discretion in handling the wool.
• Make sure you indicate clearly whether this is the complete clip, or only part of it with more to come.
• Any specific instructions or comments need to be clearly stated e.g. at which sale you want the wool sold at.
• If the wool is consigned by a farming company, make sure the full and correct company name is given so correspondence will go to the correct place.
• Wools from different farms in a company may be very different but may be are consigned as one line. Make sure the specifications recognise this.
• Make sure the specification is signed by the person responsible for the clip. Check that the phone number for urgent contact is correct.
  

Abbreviations used on wool bales
Here is a list of abbreviations required by the wool trade to avoid confusion.

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Sheep Farm Husbandry - Wool types and Handling

Sheep, husbandry, wool, marketing, preparation, hand spinning wools, when to shear

By Dr Clive Dalton

In the old days, depending on how much (or how little) preparation was preparation done on the farm, wool went as greasy wool to a “wool merchant” with massive woolstores. Here staff and "wool classers" unpacked the bales, and classed the fleece wool into similar lines before it was repacked and offered for sale by auction.

The exception was in the larger clips where the wool was classed and sorted at the time of shearing in the woolshed on the farm. So if wool growers offered poorly-prepared wool for sale, the wool merchant’s staff sorted it out - at a charge.

When the lines of wool were valued prior to auction, the bales were laid out in rows in the week before the sale. Buyers dug deep into a sample of opened bales with their hands and pulled the wool out to make sure they saw a good representative sample. All these opened bales then had to be repacked by the staff immediately after the sale. It was a very costly business and things had to change. Here's a brief summary of what happens today:

Wool's journey to market
The first big change was driven by wool importing countries not wanting New Zealand grease and dirt with their purchase, as with freight being charged on a weight basis it cost more to transport greasy wool.

• There was also increasing concern over the effluent from the wool scours polluting the waterways of the destination country, as well as a bonus of New Zealand weed seeds.
  
• So now about 90% of our exported coarser wools are scoured after being sold and before being shipped.
  

Wool from small flocks

• The wool is generally put into "fadges" (often by the shearer).
  
• Everything goes in except the dags and it is either given to the shearer to pay the costs, or is taken to a wool merchant who pays the grower on greasy weight - usually the lowest possible price commensurate with the lowest value wool in the mix!
• The wool merchant sorts it along with wool from other sources and bales it for direct sale to a buyer or through the auction system described below.
  

Wool from large flocks

• The wool is shorn and prepared (to whatever standard) in the farm woolshed, pressed into bales and branded with the farm brand and the wool's specification (see later).
• It may be purchased in the shed by a wool merchant who will take a hand-grab sample from a number of bales to be sent to a wool measurement laboratory for testing. The grower may then be offered a price based on the test results and this is often seen as the easiest option for the farmer these days.
• If the farmer sends the wool through a stock and station agent, the wool is transported to their wool broker's store where a number of actions are taken in preparation for sale.
• On arrival each bale of a straight type of wool is compressed and four sharpened tubes are forced into it from the top to draw out a "core sample" under pressure. This sample results in short pieces of cut fibres.
• The core samples are used to measure yield, fibre diameter, fibre curvature, colour and sometimes core bulk.
• Then the bale is turned over and a hole cut in the side from which a mechanical grab draws a sample producing full-length staples.
• This grab sample is used to check the wool type against the documented specifications sent in with the wool. It measures staple length and in the case of fine wools, staple strength.
• The grab samples from the line are then sent to the wool selling centre (currently Napier and Christchurch), put together into a box for display along with the testing certificate for the buyers to inspect and value before the auction sale.
• After it is sold, most of the wool is transported to a wool scour where it is blended with other wools to meet the purchaser's specifications and is then scoured.
• Wool due for export is pressed into high-density bales, wrapped and bound with steel straps to reduce its volume for shipping in a container.
  

Implications of preparation on the sale of wool
Here are some important points to remember when deciding how much work to put into preparation of your clip:

• Do nothing and your wool will be valued according to its lowest common denominator!
• Core sampling and grab sampling are very accurate and will expose anything you have tried to hide in the bale.
• Disasters can happen by negligence in the woolshed resulting in damage to modem high-speed combing machines. This results in claims back on wool exporters who set their prices accordingly.
• Only wool should go into a wool bale. You need systems to make sure nothing else does (see later).
• Things that have been found in wool bales are amazing - from shearers' moccasins, parts of hand pieces, black singlets, towels, steel needles, grinder plates, sand paper, baler twine, wire, sheep skins and cigarette butts. Metal detectors will only find some of these.
• Synthetic fibres from baler twine are an exceptionally serious contaminant.
• Valuable fine wool Merino clips should be packed in nylon packs to minimise contamination from polypropylene packs.
  

Wool preparation (all flocks)
Here are some important principles to consider before you decide how much work to put into wool preparation. Decide how far you want to go based on experience from previous sale returns. Little will have changed since then.

• The main return comes from “body wool” which is the wool from the main body of the sheep, minus the "oddments" (wool that is not body wool) which may well lose you money in a sale.
• The oddments include necks and backs, bellies, bulky pieces, very short pieces (called locks or lox), and stains. The debate is mainly over how many of these items you take out to meet the final very important objective of "putting like with like and taking out what does not match".
• Necks and backs are taken out if they contain seeds and bits of hay. Bellies and pieces are taken out because they are greasy and the wool is usually yellow.
  

Action plan

• Make a good job of preparing the woolshed (see later).
• Sheep should not have been treated for external parasites for at least 60 days for strong ols, 90 days for mid-micron wool, and 120 days for fine wools.
• Make sure sheep are dry before shearing - never shear sheep where you can feel the slightest sensation of dampness or coldness from the wool.
• Dag all sheep before shearing and do a proper job removing all dirty wool.
• Shear sheep of different breeds and wool types separately.
• Don't put wool of different types in the same pressed bale unless it is going to be resorted by the merchant or broker. Separate different types with a sheet of newspaper.
• If sheep vary in staple length, draft them into lines of similar staple length and shear them separately.
• Separate the belly wool which is short and greasy. Bellies from rams and wethers will also be urine stained so remove them. This is very important as the stain cannot be scoured out and has no value.
• Separate yellow-stained wool from white wool.
• Keep all cotted (matted) fleeces separate.
• Remove any wool that has raddle (coloured) marks on it. Any raddle used should be approved as "scourable" where the dye can be washed out. Even so, it’s not worth sending it away these days. Use it as garden mulch!
• Remove any wool stained by dung (pen stain) caused by penning sheep too tight before they have emptied out, and where dung could not escape from their holding area.
• Remove short greasy pieces around the edges of the fleece unless the fleece is yellow.
• Shear lambs separately.
• Extra care is needed with lambs' wool. Take out all discoloured or dirty wool.
• Keep all pigmented (black, grey and brown) wool well away from white wool as this can be a serious contaminant with high penalties.
• Wool bales must be clearly and correctly branded (see later).
  

For small flocks

• For small flocks shorn outside, shear on a board (e.g. an old door) or tarpaulin to keep grass and rubbish out of the wool.
• Take out dags, urine stains, and bacterial stains and raddle marks.
• If you put different wool types (e.g. from different breeds) in the same fadge, then separate the layers with sheets of newspaper to help the wool merchant when resorting it.

When to shear?
There are many options and combinations to choose from so the answer to this question is often confusing. Here are some key points:

• Ideally with today's high-speed computerised processing machinery, wool should be 75-125mm long before shearing, so let this be your main guide in deciding when to shear. Finer wool can be shorter than coarser wool.
• The most common shearing regime was (and still is) to shear the whole flock once-a-year, usually in late spring/early summer before it gets too hot. Fleece wool shorn once a year is called "full wool".
• Wool grows faster and is coarser during the summer than during the winter.
• Leaving a long fleece on sheep during the summer results in it turning yellow and becoming cotted or matted.
• Breeds with long coarse fleeces such as the Romney, Border Leicester, English Leicester and Lincoln are best shorn twice a year in spring and autumn.
• Winter shearing is still common but shearing at this time has a poor image with the public who are concerned about its animal welfare implications.
• To meet these concerns winter shearing should be done with cover combs to leave more wool on the sheep than with conventional combs. Shelter and good feed must be provided immediately after shearing.
• Shearing lambs at weaning at 4 months old helps to prevent flystrike, and is done for this reason more than intending to make money from the wool.
• Shearing when there is adequate green feed available to the sheep (high in energy and protein) can result in increased body and wool growth, whereas shearing when feed is short or mature and dry (low energy and protein), can result in decreased body and wool growth.
• Key point: Shear as early as possible in the season to coincide with the time when the wool fibre is at its finest, and before yellow discolouration develops.
  

Wool for hand spinning

• When first choosing wool for hand spinning, it can be alarming to find the large variation between sheep of the so-called same breed, and equally enormous variation within the fleece from a single sheep.
  
• This variation is seen in staple length, coarseness of the fibres over the body, the extent of entanglement between fibres, crimp and the all-important “feel” of the wool as well as the extent of discolouration (mainly water stain yellow).
  
• Some of these qualities still exist after the wool has been spun into yarn so greatly affects its end use. So the two extremes would be coarse wools for rugs and fine wools for baby wear.

The table below shows a broad classification of what the main wool types can be used for:



The main things to look for
When choosing a fleece for spinning, or selecting sheep to produce one, then look for:

• Good long staples – the longer the better.
• Clearly-defined staples making the fleece “free-opening”.
• Sound wool free of break (tenderness). Test this by pulling on each end of the staple and if it’s tender you will feel it break. If you keep pulling you’ll end up with two short staples!
• Free from cotting.
• Good colour – especially free of yellow water stain. Other possible stains are pink tips on the staples or bands of green, brown, apricot, purple and blue. Only the blue is readily scourable. Faecal green stains should also be avoided.
• Free of vegetable matter.
  

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.