Six minutes on that table and look what happens...

That's all it takes to shear an alpaca- walk it from the pen, lift it onto the table, tether back and front legs, stretch and secure as someone holds the head. Once settled, toe nails are cut and shearing begins . Shear one side then  roll the alpaca and shear the other. Check teeth, administer vaccination and wormer if appropriate then release. 

Meanwhile the useable part of the fleece, which is the majority, is taken from the shearing table and placed on the sorting table where three other people rapidly skirt and grade the fleece to its relative batch in less than six minutes.

6 min is all it takes to transform our stunningly beautiful 'teddy bears on legs' into ' Pink Panthers'. Now we must wait 3-6 months for the 'look' to return whilst enjoying the comedy of our Panther romping around inthe sun enjoying the freedom of their summer clothing.

Why do we leave the top knots on? Because it's cute- shave the topknot and  they look a bit like 'Old Nick'. You can't sell an alpaca with a shaved topknot!

Busy busy busy... From the crack of sparrows

We begin shearing yesterday afternoon having shredded up a number of alpacas overnight Tuesday for an early start. Unfortunately the weather was against us for most of the day. So as we can't shear wet alpacas we delayed starting until the afternoon. In between showers we had just enough dry to get through about 40 before rain stopped play. 

We were all up at the crack of sparrows this morning to find our shredded alpacas a bit damp to kick off straight away. We got them outside in the wind for an hour while we all tucked into bacon sarnies and Bobs your Uncle we got the table busy by 8.30am. The weather has been perfect today with bright sunlight and a gentle breeze to keep the alpacas dry. Finished about 7.30pm after a full on day. 'Twas ever thus! Dinner now then bed.  We shall all get up at the crack of sparrowfart and do it all again tomorrow.

Lest we forget...

It's the shearer who has the full on job. 

Our job is  support and service. We have to keep the alpacas coming too the shearer dry, relatively unstressed and without pause throughout the day so he/she can maintain a rythmn and get on with the job without drowning in fleece. 

Then we must get the shorn alpacas out away back to their paddocks where they can relax and adjust to the new temperature of their existence. 

Our second job which is also primary to TOFT is to get the fleece off the table and get it skirted, sorted and graded and into the appropriate bags in the six minutes before the next one arrives. 

 We find great bacon sandwiches for 2nd breakfast around 9 am, a great lunch at 1.30pm and cake and tea around four keeps the table humming until 7.30pm weather permitting.

The weather held good this year everyone performed professionally and with good humour, job was done and we all carry the experience as a memory until next year when we shall do the same again. All that is left now is the tidying up. The sorted and graded batches go off to the mill next week to be turned into TOFT luxury yarn. The rejected fleece will be picked up by the stuffing man, sheds swept and cleaned, hurdles returned to the paddocks and all will seem like it had never happened- except of course we have 200 pink panthers wandering around our paddocks until October when the re growth start to soften the look again.

'Twas ever thus...

All done and dusted - jobs done for 2015

That's it a huge thanks to everyone who helped and of course not forgetting B D Wheeler and his helper Benny, my son Grant for catering, and Whoopy Daisy for ferrying, sorting childminding and being a friend of all the world and my talented daughter Kerry Lord who now has the job of turning the best of what we have to offer into magnificent luxury yarn for the TOFT Alpaca Studio. Give it the old TOFT magic young lady. Thanks everyone for a very enjoyable shearing from a TOFT Alpacas. 

I am now off to see my mate Jules for a skinny Latte in the TOFT tea room.

TOFT Alpaca Studio team the stars of the show

Shearing has now been declared officially over for 2015. The weather held off Linda and Freya did a fantastic job of herding, walking and ferrying the TOFT herd, all 200 of them to the shearing shed and back again without any major incident. The stars of the shearing shed were the young ladies for the TOFT Alpaca Studio led by Emily( seen here in red all scrubbed and clean) Petra, Caroline and Liz. All new to the shearing they have been on a steep learning curve over the past three days. Undaunted they rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in learning the flick, sorting the fleece, packing, picking, brushing wiping and sweeping with good humour and commitment throughout.

 Thankyou ladies one and all from all at TOFT Alpacas- you will dine out on this experience for years to come!

Caroline working on her flick...

The reputation of a good roustabout is his or her ability to take the fleece from the table or floor and flick it onto the sorting table. Caroline joined us yesterday in the shearing shed to practice her flick and by the end of the day she looked born to the job. Day 3 today- 158 down 42 to go..

Archie gets the stand up treatment...

Exhibition stuff from Mr B D Wheeler yesterday as he took his portable shearing pack to TOFT's resident Llama Archie and sheared him standing up. He made it look easy and was given a round of applause by all the watchers on completion.

Shedded up in the dry...

Tomorrow mornings workload all,shedded in the dry ready for shearing in the morn to give us a good start whilst the rest of the herd dries. 80 down 120 to go. 

Perfecting the shower dance as we shuffle them in and out between the showers

Suns out, rains in, rains out, suns in... in between the alpacas perfect the shower dance as we try to keep them dry for shearing by trotting g the in and out of the sheds between showers. Hey ho. We now have 8o alpacas shedded up ready for the morn and roughly 120 out in the fields to dry for Thursday. 

Shed's all set and ready for the shearing...

A lot of hugging and puffing by all at TOFT yesterday as we hooked and hooked, swept and sorted all our hurdles and available sheds ready for the shearing. We begin tomorrow, Wednesday and hopefully finish 200 alpacas later on Saturday. Unfortunately the weather forecast doesn't look good so we needed to get all our available space clear yesterday to enable us to shed up at least 80 alpacas ready for tomorrow. We can't shear when wet so it's vital we get enough dry to get through tomorrow on the hope that the forecast is right and by Thursday the sun is out and all is dry. We shall see, all. I know this morning is  TOFT is ready and waiting for the shearer to arrive.

Who is this man?

Someone sneaked a picture of this strange man in our shearing shed in his 'greengrass' costume wearing his Fred Dibner. Those Papparizzi just don't care!

"Which bit is mine then?"

Alpaca shearing sequence

At Six minutes an alpaca a video is a long job and needs a special set up at this busy time. This sequence of photographs is the best I could do but at least it a wee glimpse of Alpaca Shearing Toft style. For all those who are still shearing on the floor I have to warn you the floor gets further away each year as you get older and the fleece job is a pleasure when you work on a table.

First the alpaca is led to the shearing table. Lifted by the shearer and his handler onto the table.

Our shearing table staff hold the head whilst the alpaca is made secure by tethering its legs and stretching gently. Toe nails are quickly clipped at the same time whilst there are three people on the job.

Once our Shearing table oppo passes the alpacas head back to the Shearers handler they concentrate on rough sorting the fleece around the shearer shoving all the extremely rough stuff off the legs and belly and any contaminated fibre into the 'waste' bin.

The alpaca shearer shears one side, the alpaca is turned and the shears the other. Six minutes -tops.

Then finally the blanket, the best part of the fleece is taken to the sorting table to be skirted and sorted for processing into luxury TOFT knotting yarn.

It takes about six minutes on average. 10 alpacas per hour weather permitting. For 200 alpacas it's a full hands on two days of ferrying in our gorgeous teddy bears and running out the Pink Panthers.

Working up the flick...

Here is Alison one of the Toft Studio interns working on her flick. The flick being how to get the alpaca fleece from the shearing board and onto the sorting table spread in a uniform manner with one flick of wrists and arms. Alison started shearing as a 5 out of 10 amateur and ended after 200 goes as a 9 out of 10 professional flicker. Another vital life skill added to her cv!

Shots from the Toft Alpaca Shearing Shed 2014

Hard work? Absolutely.  Fun?  

Ask the 'newbees' from the Toft Alpaca Studio who rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in like they'd been there all their lives. A big Toft thanks to Emma, Alison, Ellie, Lisa and Harriett for giving the grumpy old shearer plenty to distract him. Toft Alpaca Shearing Shed 2014.

Well that's done....

We finished shearing the last 12 alpacas before breakfast this morning and sent the shearer on his way having  sheared 193 alpacas since Monday. The weather was playing off and on throughout but thanks to the dedication of our herdswoman Linda and the Toft Team we never missed a beat. With the help of the 'newbees' from the Toft Studio Linda kept the herd moving towards the shearing shed as teddy bears and returning the to their paddocks as pink panthers.  Despite the weather we rattled through them with hardly any hesitation and only a handful were sheared slightly damp. All knackered today and the sun is out in all it glory- 'twas ever thus!

Alpaca contrast

A quick before and after of the Toft Alpaca Show team just to prove they really do look like the Pink Panther once they've been sheared.

Alpaca shearing: fighting teeth

When the three year old males come onto the shearing table we check their gums for fighting teeth. These grow in at around three years and are trimmed off at shearing. Archie the Llama was displaying a very fine set, having just reached his maturity. There are two in his top and one larger one below. If they are left they continue to grow and eventually enable the males to get a grip of each others ears legs and testicles and can cause damage. 

In the 16 years of breeding pedigree alpacas we have never had any of our males do any real damage to one another and we keep them all together. There again we religiously trim off any fighting teeth at shearing. 

Don't tell Archie but next week he gets 'trimmed' in another area entirely which may well have the additional side effect of turning him into a relative pussycat as his interest in females gradually recedes into a residual memory.

Alpaca shearing: 11 to go and Archie gets styled

What a week. Shearing delayed again yesterday due to bad weather. We finally kicked off about 12pm and coked right through until 8.30pm last night. At which point it was feed the dogs, Indian takeaway and bed.

The Toft team have been fantastic in this difficult week with Paul Beswick of Du Prem alpacas and our herds woman Linda did an amazing job of shuffling the dry alpacas to keep Mr Wheeler and his assistant John in dry alpacas.

Yesterday we had Claire from the Toft Alpaca Shop helping at the shearing table with Kerry and myself skirting and sorting at the sorting table. Needless to say Mrs B was clucking  around all day supervising, (what would we do without it) in between long absences whilst looking after young master Lord. My wonderful mother in law Myra did her best to keep the shed spotless and Doug, Kerry's other half , who was workings from home, did a sterling job of supplying the occasional teas coffees and biscuits to keep up morale.

We are all up at the crack of sparrows this morning to finish off the last 11 of the alpaca pets in order to get the shearer away to other alpaca owners for their turn at ' the shearing'. The sun is shining there's not a breath of wind. You would have no idea that we have just been through our most difficult shearing in the 15 years we have been shearing alpacas.

Except of course for the mess. The tent has died and has now seen its last shearing, the sorting lamps gave up the ghost, the ground is covered with muddy bits of fleece and the sorting table needs running repairs. 'Twas ever thus.

In between all the fun and games. Archie our Llama was restyled with a barrel cut. Apparently it is all the rage in the Llama world. It certainly gives young Archie a rakish air. Don't tell him he's losing his Crown Jewels in a couple of weeks time. Toft alpacas doesn't need a randy Llama on site at any time!!