Shearing alpacas
Soft fleece rolling off the alpaca
By Linda Blake - Southern Alpacas Stud
"How do you shear alpacas?"
Alpacas are too big to tuck between your legs and shear like you do a sheep. Usually they are shorn lying down, either on the ground in the paddock, on a shearing table in the shearing shed or on the floor. Ideally you need a team of at least three people to shear alpacas - one to hold, one to shear, and one to collect the fleece as it rolls off.
It is possible to shear alpacas standing up. This requires a minimum of two people - one to hold the alpaca and one to shear the fleece, which then falls to the ground.
Alpacas are shorn once a year, and their soft luxurious fleece is usually called "fibre" to distinguish it from sheep wool, which has a different structure.
Using a cleaning tool to remove
vegetation from the fleece
Preparation for shearing starts with the alpacas being put in a clean paddock, which has no hay to roll in, or plant or tree seeds that can stick in their coats. Alpacas love rolling and dust-bathing, and their fleece picks up dust, dirt and vegetation matter. We use a wire fleece cleaner tool to brush down their fluffy sides. By brushing with sharp chopping motions, the electrostatic force created causes the vegetation matter to jump out.
We take a sample of the fibre for micron testing from the mid-side (the middle of the side of the alpaca) as this place represents their average micron. Fibre higher up on the body is finer and lower in micron, and fibre further down the body is stronger and higher in micron.
Our alpacas are sorted into groups by colour, as they come in white, fawn, brown, black and grey, and many shades in between. We shear one colour at a time to avoid colour contamination in the shorn fleeces.
Comparison of a shorn and fully-fleeced
alpaca of the same age
We shear on the floor of our shearing shed. The alpaca is up-ended and stretched out, and its feet are restrained, usually by ropes. The head of the alpaca is held by hand, and once stretched out like this the alpaca tends to stay still. Some do complain vocally, and some will spit. But then, wouldn't you?
Alpaca shearers use a normal electric shearing handpiece, but run it at a slower speed. Alpaca fleece is not as greasy as sheep's wool, and the handpiece can tend to heat up. A small amount of oil may be used to lubricate the handpiece. One side is shorn at a time. The alpaca is turned over to do the other side.
Alpacas shear between two and five kilograms of fleece annually, when their fibre staple is over 75 mm, which is long enough for processing.
The fleece is gathered up once it is shorn off. The main fleece, called the blanket, is the finest. The fleece from the neck is equally as fine, but often it is shorter, so it is collected separately. The fleece from the legs and the lower part of the alpaca is not as fine, and it is put in a separate bag. After shearing our shearing shed is full of bags of shorn fleece, waiting for classing and processing.
An alpaca surveys his shorn fleece
Shearing time offers an opportunity to clip toenails and do inoculations, while the alpaca is still restrained. Wait until the fleece is shorn off and picked up before doing this, so you do not get toenails into the fleece.
Once shorn, the alpaca is sat up, its head is pointed towards the freedom of the paddock, and it wastes no time getting up and walking away. Shorn alpacas look much taller and thinner with their coats off, and their necks look very long.
They feel the cold initially, as it takes about three days before their skin thickens up and protects them from the weather. After shearing, make sure your alpacas have shelter from the weather.
For more information...
Southern Alpacas Stud have an informative website including lots of educational articles to assist alpaca owners.
Diagram of fleece categories
About the author
Linda Blake is from the Southern Alpacas Stud, which runs over 200 alpacas on a lifestyle block in West Melton, on the outskirts of Christchurch. Linda enjoys the challenge of keeping alpacas (and llamas) healthy, and their owners happy. She shares her knowledge through writing articles, tutoring practical camelid courses, facilitating web courses, and working with camelids and their owners.
