Sheep Industry News February 2025

Shearing Done Right

W ith nearly three million followers on YouTube, you’d be hard pressed to find a more influential advocate for shearing than the ladies at Texas based Right Choice Shearing. Add in hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and it’s easy to wonder if the two are shearers or influencers. The truth is, they’re both. “I can’t say that much in my career has ever been planned, and the same goes for social media,” says Katie McRose, who owns and operates Right Choice Shearing with her wife, Darian. “My start was on Facebook, with a modest page with 500 followers, mostly my clients. I would share articles that I had written on scientific papers regarding animal husbandry. I found most of these papers during my animal science senior seminar (at Texas A&M University), where I presented on the effects of shearing on sheep.” Educator might be a more appropriate description of Katie than influencer. Along the way, that education process crossed the line into entertainment, and the views poured in

by the thousands. “In 2021, physical and mental burnout were just start ing to set in. Our schedule was jam packed and it felt like every part of the job was just so stressful,” Katie recalls. “I leaned hard into my desire to educate and began posting Facebook videos of me shearing with write-ups explaining the animal’s behavior. This evolved into TikToks showcasing personalities and satisfying shearing sprinkled with factual knowledge that not only helped educate owners but began combating misinformation held by the general public. After realizing our impact on society’s opinion of shearing, we continued to expand across platforms and rather quickly became the largest agricultural YouTube page in the world.” The funny thing about that is that Katie wasn’t the best ambassador for shearing early in her career. YOUTHFUL NAIVETY Her original, self-taught shearing style wasn’t the tradi tional Australian method she’s since come to embrace and

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