as the foundation alpaca assesment course was cancelled today I took the opportunity to do down to bozedown to help with their shearing. Sadly some snarl up around Ayelsbury meant i didn't get there until 10.00 and it rained in the afternoon so they abandonned shearing but I had a great time whilst I was there and learnt loads.
I worked with MaryJo on the fleece skirting tables. They had two people shearing with another person to hold the head for each and one to collect the fleece for both and someone sweeping and tidying up. It was all very smoothly run. each fleece was carried across to the sorting tables (two halves of a table tennis table!) on large sheets of plywood and carefully decanted so that maryJo and I could 'skirt' the fleece - i.e. take off any coarser fleece around the edge. The fleeces were only the main blanket with the leg and neck fleeces seperated out beforehand.
For each fleece MaryJo would assess the micron and put it in the appropriate bag. The best fleeces she kept seperate in named bags ready for showing. By the end of the morning I was beginning to be able to assess what micron each fleece was and tell the better fleeces - the very dense ones, from the lesser fleeces. However, if I went to it cold I'm not sure I'd manage. MaryJo has vast quantities of experience and I'm just starting so I suppose I should be patient.
We had plenty of chance to chat so I asked loads of questions - some of the ones which I've wondered for a while but feel stupid asking - are younger studs better than old as alpaca quality is increasing (her answer no as studs are 1 in 100 anyway, but females are steadily improving so there younger ones may be better) - how long can you carry on mating female alpacas (her answer - keep mating and if she has no problems with the birth try her again.) She advised me to look at the show winners fleeces when they come out of the ring to learn what good fleece looks like which i'll certainly do. I also learnt just what to remove from a show fleece and also how best to rpepare fleeces for processing.
Around 2 pm we stopped for some lunch and I was able to chat to Joy Whitehead who is retiring to Switzerland in 4 weeks time. She'll be missed by the alpaca community as she has been breeding alpacas for a long time and has a huge amount of experience.