SanGer-La Shearing

Learn by doing. Before we bought our first alpacas we stopped by other farms during their shearing to see what was involved. We thought "yes, we can do this!" We knew that shearing was one thing that we wanted to do ourselves. So we learned from others and have been shearing our own and a few others ever since. We have always opened our shearing day to friends and family to see how it's done, with a big thanks to all that "get to close" and help out. What follows is a break down of how shearing is at SanGer-La. While it may seam like a lot of people are needed, we can shear with only 3 people.

Wranglers
Round up the alpacas
Blow off and pick off debris
2 to hold 1 to use leaf blower
Weigh them Take a before picture
Take them to the table
Take an after picture
Weigh them again
Take back to pasture

Table hands
2 to pick up and tilt alpaca into table
2 to strap legs
1 to hold head then connect to table when it's flat
Same people to take alpaca off table

Shearing
1 shearer
2 to hold alpaca down and work with the shearer
2 to bag, 1 for prime also needs a sample. 1 for seconds
1 for toenails
1 for topknot and tails

Bag runner
Take fleece bags, prime and seconds of each alpaca to weigh station, write down weights on bag and paper for each alpaca. Take bags to the upstairs of the barn, place the prime on the top of the sorting table, and the seconds under, and open the top of the bag to let it breathe.

Teeth
Many to hold alpaca down
1 to hold rope in mouth
1 to work on teeth

Nurse
Clean wound area, antiseptic, and super glue