In preparation for our first shear (we'll be hiring a shearer), what do we need in terms of basic equipment. 20 or so animals, and we are absolute novices.  
 
I'm thinking of things like fleece bags and a broom, but do we need to get a fleece skirting table, etc ?  
 
Please tell me your methods  
 
And can anyone recoomend a good book or DVD on shearing ?  
 
Thanks in Advance,  
Amanda

Hi Amanda
 
Your shearer will probably bring a lot of things with him/her - might be worth asking beforehand. For example, we've worked with shearers who use a floor mat and some brought their own but we had one as well. Some use a table. Check if they are going to do 5 in 1 injections for you and if they bring it or you need to supply it.
 
If you can get hold of a fleece table it may make life easier for skirting but not essential. A decent sized ordinary table will do for a quick skirt, though the dirt and second cuts won't be able to fall through. It will partly depend on your shearer's methods though. We've come across shearers who let you pick up the fleece and others who just pick it up and thrust it at you as they go along. Some will be happy for you or one of your helpers to do the rough skirting while they are shearing, moving around them (think safety here) and others won't let you near until they're finished each one. If you have plenty of helpers or the shearer's not going too quickly you might be able to put each fleece on the skirting table and do it. If you're low on helpers and the shearer works quickly you might not get time to do much skirting on the table.
 
Some people do toenails at shearing, so need clippers at hand. If you do, make sure the clippings don't contaminate your fleece.
 
Things I find useful are some towels to clean up spit and urine - these will make a real mess of the fleece and affected bits will usually need to be thrown away as they'll be too damp to store. I have a set of old house towels that I keep for this and clean them for each year. They arealso useful for putting over the animal's muzzle during shearing if they're spitting a lot - shearers are less grumpy if not getting covered in spit. Some people use old socks for this - I don't as I think the lack of airflow is more scary for the alpaca but that's just my preference.
 
Also rags for cleaning up oil drips from the shears - the blades need to be oiled quite a bit and all the drips and smears of oil can get in your fleece, make a general mess and be dangerous if the surface is slippery.
 
We use big old feed bags for collecting up rubbish and non-usable fleece.
 
Sample bags for fleece samples to be sent of for testing, if you're doing that. A container for collecting fleece samples in.
 
I make up identification labels for these before hand, with the animal's name and ID. It can be hard to identify some animals quickly when they're lying down so I always get the ID so we can check off against the ear tag. I also prepare labels for the fleece bags beforehand, again with name and ID, and they get popped in straight away.
 
I collect supermarket plastic bags during the year and use these for non-saddle parts of fleece that I'm keeping (neck, tops of legs), though this will change for us with bigger fleeces now and also supermarkets charging for the bags.
 
Drinks for shearer and helpers, and snacks if not actual meals. Clean towels, soap and water for shearer and helpers to wash.
 
A notepad and pen for any notes you want to make about the animal's, e.g., if any lice are found, body condition, ear tags missing
 
Superglue or something to treat cuts, in case. You might want animal suitable fly repellant as well, if there are flies where you are and one of the alpacas gets a cut.
 
This isn't equipment but think about the worst case scenario with weather for shearing - if it's wet the day before or on the day, where can you keep them dry? If the fleeces are damp, where can you dry them before storage? After shearing, how will you keep them warm and dry or cool, depending on the weather? We are more likely to have cold, wet weather so would keep them in yards after shearing so they're close together for warmth and have plenty of hay for them to eat. Which reminds me, many shearers prefer the animals not to have food or water (apart from if it's really hot - animal welfare) for a few hours before shearing so they don't make a lot of mess while being shorn if they do urinate and don't have so much in their gut to spit. You'll need to look at this in relation to the timing of your shearer arriving.
 
Just what I can think of for now - I must start getting my shearing things ready again soon too. I'm sure others will have more ideas and think of things I've forgotten.
 
Good luck with it.
Helen
 

Hang on: I read the advice with much interest: all logistical considerations have been taken care of but I think that there are a couple of other things worthwhile mentioning.
 
It's absolutely awful.  If you haven't seen The Exorcist then make sure you do in order that you have a preview of the day's worst moments.  Green, screaming, writhing, wrestling, kicking, head spinning nightmare - that's what I remember of the first occasion I was ever exposed to this horrid affair.  When I approached a friend's shed to help for the first time, they were already underway.  It wasn't machinery that I heard as I came closer - it was the alpaca being shorn.  Ear piercing.
 
Other than that the procedure that you should play out in your mind in order to plan effectively involves:
 
Having the alpacas confined to a pen in which they'll be easily caught one at a time.  Our shearer did not do this.  That involved, principally, two of us (three is best).  Then the alpaca is led (? - try dragged) to the shearing spot and must be thrown over.  This meant grabbing their legs from over the top of their back and lifting and tipping them onto your thighs before lowering them to the ground (we used the ground).  They are then tied by each foot to a rope contraption that is effectively a medieval rack.  They are winched tight and then the easy part begins....shearing.  Again, remember, many of them scream.  It's awful.  They're not always so bad, apparently, but on that first day that ever I saw this low point of alpaca keeping, half of them chose to.  Oh yes, and when they spit, again, just like Linda Blair, they twist their heads around (close enough to 360 degrees) and aim precisely for you.
 
All other details are taken care of by the other posts.    
 
Good luck.
 
Philip.

Love Philip's post and this is how it felt to me the first few years but has got better as years have gone by and our creatures are quieter and more trusting. We always have them in and awaiting the shearer the night before in a large run next to the shearing shed.
 
     Janet, do not agree with the  socks, feel they cannot breathe and very clostrophobic. Prefer towels and now have a lot collected over the years for mouths and wees.  
 
Heroides does the toenail clipping and uses ordinary pruners, finds these much better than those specially for the job which we did buy.      Joy

Good idea, Amanda. I did this when we started out and it was very helfpul. I still find it interesting to help at others' shearing days and always learn more good ideas from what other people do.
 
I think one of the important things about shearing day is to be as well-prepared as possible. Very often people are running around on the morning of shearing still collecting things together and organising. I remember reading somewhere a typical expression on shearing day was "Oh s**t! the shearer's here already!!!!!". If you can minimise last minute jobs the shearing team can be more calm and this transfers through to the animals. The more stressed and worried we are, and the more we rush about making noise, the more they think this is going to be a really bad thing and get worked up about it. If we have a sense that everything is under control and we are able to move around quietly and calmly, they will be happier too.
 
I can't say I've got it perfect but every year I'm working on it.
 
cheers
Helen