Sheep Industry News March 2024

Shearers Balance Competing Interests D espite popular opinion amongst some producers, shearers aren’t trying to make your life more difficult. Maybe it seems that way sometimes, but the truth is “I think there’s still that belief with some producers that shearers have a bad attitude or are just out to inconvenience people. And that’s really not what’s going on. I’m just having to balance the needs of hundreds of people and thousands of animals to put together a cohesive schedule so that I can make money and get everyone’s animals done at the right time. There’s a lot of nuance that goes into that.”

that like sheep producers they are just trying to balance the needs of their customers with the best interests of their busi nesses. And when they’ve meticulously planned everything to do just that, it snows. Or rains. Or a producer’s flock starts lambing early. And it’s back to the drawing board. “On my schedule, I plan in three to five days a month that we’re going to get weather,” said Wyoming-based shearer Cliff Hoopes, whose three crews will shear nearly 200,000 sheep in the first half of 2024. “We just have to plan for it ahead of time. I’ve got some producers who have sheds, so if I’m within a week of them, then we’ll go to their place while the other producers are waiting for the storm to pass. “We get weathered out sometimes, but it’s just a bit here and there. I try to keep a real close eye on it. In Wyoming, it could be 60 degrees one day and -40 the next. And wind is a big is sue for us. We try to use the semis to block it so that the wool doesn’t go everywhere. It’s a big issue with all three of my crews. There are days when it’s windy enough that we just have to stop working.” From the first of the year through the middle of June,

While Hoopes works some “smaller” jobs where he’s only there for a day, his schedule tends to include multiple days at the same job site. Chamelin shears in multiple locations within the same day on a regular basis. “Scheduling everything is absolutely the toughest part for us,” Chamelin said. “We tend to travel in a three-hour radius of home and always want to make sure we can do two to three days in an area when we travel. I’m always arm wrestling with people, you know trying to move some people up and some people back to make the schedule work for everyone. There’s always this push-and-pull, back-and-forth going on.” Working with smaller – and in some cases, newer producers – offers additional challenges for shearers. “If you talk with any shearer, they can tell you about produc See SHEARING on Page 12

shearers are constantly on the go. They might get a month or so off in the middle of the summer and then it’s right back to shearing. Fall shearing usually includes trips to the feedlots, or to produc ers who have embraced out of season breeding schedules. “We’re all shearing a lot of sheep in the fall these days,” Hoopes said. “It’s good though. It makes things a little easier than having everyone want to shear at the same time.” While Hoopes tends to work with large producers in the West, the issues he faces aren’t unique. Shearing within a three-hour radius of her home in Maryland, Emily Chamelin battles snow and rain just the same.

10 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org