With 30 sheep to shear this year I hired a professional to come down from Grand Rapids. He finished in just under two hours. That's 15 sheep an hour! It took me longer to sort and skirt the fleece than it took to shear off the sheep! I'm lucky if I can handle shearing 5-8 sheep a day so I'm glad there was a budget to hire the help this year.
These are the results - notice all the different color shades from our mixed-breed flock. I sorted into three separate mixed-color lots. Two lots will go to the mill to be cleaned and carded so I can hand spin them into yarn. One lot of finer quality will become garments and another will be used for rug yarns. The third batch went into the compost pile (yes, wool is biodegradable).
