What a wonderful day it must be for a sheep when the shearers hit town!! The weather has varied quite a bit this week but generally its been warm, too warm to carry a fleece of wool on your back!!
The shearers are James Wilson on the right who farms with his Dad Kevin next door to us and the chap on the left is Brad Rogers all the way from sunny New Zealand. Brad has just spent two months shearing in Italy and is now here for the rest of the summer shearing before going home later in the year to start the shearing season there. Its hard work but they obviously like it! I think it pays well!. James has been to NZ for the last 3 winters shearing too.
I very much dislike this job and will find any excuse not to be involved. I used to wrap and pack all the wool for Chris but now my excuse is Im too busy, or Im waiting for guests to arrive , too old, too tired etc etc. Just anything really!!!
Brad and James make it all look so easy and can shear about 40 sheep an hour each, the wool comes off in a complete fleece and then its rolled up and packed into a large bag called a wool sheet. Chris does this now and it makes him move abit just trying to keep up with the shearers, especially if theres a third man with them which there often is !! But then he is considerably, dare I say it, older than them!!
Once the shearing is finished all the bags will be taken to the Wool Board depot in Bradford to be sorted and graded.
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