There’s as many arms and legs involved in shearing an alpaca as a sheep.
But the task would still have many sheep shearers fleeced.
Not so for Rod Doig of Glenellen who has mastered both skills.
Mr Doig runs Mungarra Alpacas with his wife Rhonda on their 20ha property.
Each year he shears his own alpacas and a growing number of others
that are brought to the property for their annual beauty treatment in October.
The Doigs invited Country Mail along to see how the shearing is done.
Mr Doig is the first to admit he couldn’t do the job without his wife.
Together they tether the animal — in this instance the large, male four-year-old Chyka — by ropes on its feet.
The animal is then stretched out, soothed by Mrs Doig’s touch.
“It’s good to have animals halter trained,” he said.
A lot of the alpacas they shear for other people are clients and have grown up on the property where they were hand-reared by Mrs Doig and are used to being handled by humans.
Once the animal is calmed the electric handpiece is fired up, ready for the shearing.
Mr Doig explained that the combs were similar to those used to shear sheep but required regular oiling during the process.
“There’s a little bit of grease in the better quality fleeces,” he said.
“And they roll about a lot so you get dirt in there too.”
He begins by taking the “saddle” or large mid sections off the alpaca.
He said for some smaller animals the shearing could be done in one smooth movement, but they prefered to separate the premier fleece of the animal.
It’s a careful, timely but tried and tested method by which the couple progress through the shearing.
Together they roll the alpaca over so the other half can be shorn, keeping the animal as calm and comfortable as possible.
Mr Doig said in bigger sheds a shearer could shear 100 head a day — but they had to have a lot of helpers.
The couple do it all themselves,
in a shed hand-built by Mr Doig, originally as a sheep shearing facility.
It’s a physically demanding task but one they don’t mind.
“My back’s still not too bad for a young fellow,” Mr Doig said.
However he does lament there aren’t too many people interested in the job.
“A lot of young fellows won’t take on alpaca shearing,” he said.
The Doigs haven’t always farmed alpacas.
Mr Doig learnt the art of shearing on sheep. They ran a sheep and crop operation at Osborne before moving to Glenellen 34 years ago.
In 1993 the couple got their first alpacas and have been breeding them since 1997.
“My dad taught me to shear sheep,” Mr Doig said.
His father ran two shearing plants so there was always plenty of opportunities for hands-on learning.
He recalled dragging sheep about shearing sheds when he was younger than 10.
He took on more responsibilities as he got older.
Back then he could never have imagined what he’d learn about alpacas.
The cold snap earlier this month has caused a little extra concern this shearing season as the animals can be vunerable to the cold after their fleece is removed.
They have to time it so it’s not too late either, as the animals can get sunburnt.
The Doigs had close to 100 huacaya alpacas but recently scaled back to about 80.
“We’re concentrating on breeding nice fine animals with good conformation,” Mr Doig said.
To do this they have five or six males of their own and transport female alpacas across the country for joining with top sires.
The end product is a beautiful fine fleece.
Each year they send 25kg to 35kg of their best saddles to Bendigo to be made into knitting yarn.
Mrs Doig said that 25kg of fleece, returned about 22kg of knitting yarn.
“There’s not much waste,” she said.
In the past two years she’s turned to knitting and weaving the white, faun and light brown wool into garments — her scarves are particularly popular.
Between tending to the animals, including week-old llama Banjo, and all the knitting and weaving, the Doigs are a very busy couple.
“There’s not enough days in the week,” Mr Doig said, but you get the feeling they wouldn’t have it any other way.
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