Sheep Farming
After having met some very happy shepherds down in the Falkland Islands, I was curious to learn more about sheep farming. Sheep shearing perhaps the most famous part of the sheep production process and is a massive part of the culture in the Falklands: with over 500,000 sheep, “gangs” are brought in during shearing season to get the job done. A culture has grown around the centuries old job with unique terms such as “smoko” and “rousie”, and has even the source of divisive disagreements in Australia. Once you start watching sheep shearing videos on YouTube/Instatok you will find them strangely relaxing as there is a pattern that is repeated each time, however as I found, the job itself anything but relaxing (especially for a beginner).
Upon my return to New York I signed up for a shearing school in Minnesota to see what it was all about and as I found, sheep shearing is very tough but very enjoyable: like wrestling a 200lb suitcase with a 38C body temperature. You get hot, cut, sticky and covered in lanolin but it’s a skill that comes with practice. You also have to stretch your hamstrings much further than normal: you’re bending over the sheep to reach the bottom sides and effectively have to reach far beyond putting your palms on the ground. So great flexibility, patience and a strong core and back is required. I managed to shear 15 over the course (tally as of July 2024: 21), getting better each time. Top shearers can do 300 in a day. From there, I only had more questions about “the sheep biz”.
Fortunately I (re)discovered a great program that runs globally called WWOOF (yes, pronounced woof like a dog) that facilitates connecting volunteers and organic(-ish) farmers: in exchange for room and board you help out on the farms. Through this program and shearing school I ended up helping out across 3 very different projects in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oregon.
I won’t go into laborious detail on each of the experiences but I learned a tonne from each as they all took radically different approaches to making a business from sheep. I also took away a lot of different handy skills that I learned “on the job” (or should I say “on hoof”?) including how to dock tails, address foot rot and flystrike, “drench” and band. The only thing I feel like I have missed out on is the famous lambing season since I only joined in the fun in late Spring. Apart from sheep, I was also able to drive some tractors, do some drilling and work with my own sheepdogs. Farming is very much like software engineering: endless troubleshooting, but with a bit more sweat.
Finally, as an aside, the WWOF program is really awesome, I met some great volunteers and made some good friends through it: if you are looking for a productive way to spend your holiday time and do some fulfilling volunteering then definitely check out WWOOF. They have opportunities across the US and internationally, including Latin America and NZ. The hosts have all been great and super accommodating; a comment actually that applies to all farmers, not just hosts.
Ed
Eugene, Oregon, June 2024