Tuesday 20 December 2011

Sheep Shearing

19 December 2011

'Baa baa bass' white sheep and the barking dog had waken me up early in the morning. Onuku Farm Hostel no longer has a working farm and as I knew almost all the sheep were put far from the hostel. I wondered where the noise came from. I woke up and walked to the shed. I was surprised to see herd of sheep. Soon I found out that they were from the Akaroa town, would be sheared in the shed here. 


I am someone who is terribly afraid of injection. I saw their fear, their worry from their face and body. I felt their emotion while they were waiting for their turn, as if I was waiting for my injection. 


Each of them was tagged with different color label on one of their ears. The special design of the wooden fence with a little door allowed the farmer to put the same category of sheep into the same area. It worked in this way. The sheep came in one row, one after another. The farmer stood near the door. The sheep with blue label were place on the right section and so the door were opened to allow them to move in. Otherwise, the door was closed so that they could only move straight forward into another section. They ran pretty fast. Sharp eyes to identify the label and quick hands to open/close the door were mandatory. 

pic: They were waiting painfully for their turn in the shed

Machine shears were used to remove the woollen fleece near their buttock, for the hygiene purpose. Sometimes, they struggled and got injured by the shears. 


The shed was full of stinking fleece by now. The day ended with the cleaning.

vid: Here is a video of the shearing process

No comments: