A24-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 15, 1995
SHEEP SHEARING NOTES
The 8 th session of the Lancaster County Sheep
and Wool Grower’s Association’s Sheep Shear
ing School was conducted recently at the Rod
Nissley flock near Campbelltown.
There were 12 enthusiastic students who com
pleted the training shearing 68 head of white
face ewes. Since the Sheep Shearing school
began, 141 shepherds have been trained in the art
of sheep shearing in this Penn State Cooperative
Extension program.
Since taking the shearing course there have
been five individuals who have collectively
sheared more than 7,500 sheep (2,500 in 1994).
One of these individuals reported an income of
more than $9,000.
The sheep shearing school was started in 1987
to address the need for more skilled shearers in
southeast Pennsylvania. We now have a list of
shearers available to small flock owners to com
plete this spring time chore. If you need a shear
er, call (717) 394-6851.
Along with leaching shearing techniques at
the school, students are also briefed in wool pre
paration. It is often suggested that wool offered
for sale in the United States brings less money
per pound than foreign wool, largely due to
improper or insufficient preparation. In addition
to the obvious practices of proper shearing, skirt
ing, grading, and packaging, proper preparation
also necessitates the inclusion of year-round
management practices that minimize fleece
contamination.
Fleece contamination either is acquired from
the environment or occurs naturally. Natural
contaminants are of less consequence than
acquired contaminates such as vegetable matter.
It is inevitable that under pasture grazing con
ditions the fleece is very likely to pick up all sorts
of vegetable material. This material can range
from the many hooked burrs and seeds through'
the long awned grass seeds to leaves and other
similar plant debris. The importance placed by
the wool trade on these materials varies a great
deal, but basically it depends on how difficult it is
to remove the burrs and/or seeds, the potential
processing ability of wool and the kind of fabric
which is to be manufactured.
Ideally, it would be in the best interest of the
sheep producer to eliminate from the pasture or
range these grasses and weed species that cause a
contamination problem. Since this practice
would be impractical in many areas, a more rea
listic approach i$ to graze infested pastures
before the seeds mature. Lastly, as most burr and
seed contamination is found on the neck and low
er parts of the fleece, skirting of the contaminated
portion of the fleece is recommended.
Beef Quality Assurance
It is well known throughout the beef industry
that consumers are demanding a safe, whole
some product from producers, packers, and
retailers. At any level within the industry, there is
an obligation from people involved to increase
their awareness of food safety issues and to prac
tice proper procedures related to beef quality
assurance. For example, all cattle producers
should know by now that there are proper loca
tions for injecting animal health products into
cattle to reduce lesions, blemishes, and scar
tissue in valuable meat cuts.
At a recent Beef Quality Assur
ance training in Southeast Penn
sylvania, a pre/post test procedure proved to be
an excellent tool to evaluate knowledge gained
and attitudes changed as a result of the workshop.
Improvement in test scores on the post test
ranged from 5 percent to 40 percent with the
class showing a group improvement of 20 per
cent. Of greater significance were the results of
three questions regarding proper injection and
implanting sites. The class improved their know
ledge of these important issues by a whopping 55
percent! My feeling is that this change alone
made the QA training very worthwhile for the
producers who attended and the cattle industry as
well.
WEST CHESTER (Chester Sheep shearing by Pete Brumer
Co.) —Mark your calendar for the of Lancaster and working dog
annual Sheep and Wool Day event ' demonstrations by R.C. Gilbert of
at Springton Manor Farm on Wayne will be ongoing through-
Saturday, April 22, from 10 a.m.-3 out the day. In all, 23 Dorsett
p.m. sheep will be sheared while visi-
This free educational special tors get an up close look at the
event focuses on the role of sheep process, as well as an opportunity
in the farming community with to “card” or clean some of the raw
demonstrations of sheep shearing wool. Border collies and Austra
and animal care as well as sheep han shepherd dogs will be used in
herding by working dogs. the herding demonstrations, where
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DUANE HOBBS
717-569-4398
STEVE FERRARA
814-353-9146
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Sheep
And Wool Day Set
specially trained dogs guide a
small flock of sheep through a
course in the farm’s pasture.
Draft horse teams will be at
Springton to demonstrate plowing
and planting using traditional
fanning techniques, led by Link
Longstaff of Lancaster. Corn
planted during Sheep and Wool
Day will be harvested at the park’s
fall event, Family Day in late
September.
ffiPDB
Printed in U.S.A.