Ledyard Students Get Lesson in Shearing

Rick Trojanoski has been shearing sheep for 35 years. His partner, Jeremiah Squier, has been doing the same for 20 years. Together they opened Twist of Fate Spinnery six years ago in Portland. About a year later, they started shearing Alpacas as well as sheep.

On Tuesday this week, Trojanoski and Squier gave their first demonstration to Ledyard High School students on the finer points of clipping sheep and alpacas.

The shearers came to the school so that Agri-Science teacher Devon O’Keefe’s students could watch and learn about the process. 

The demonstration took place as Ledyard High prepares for the State FFA Convention on Saturday, May 21. Senior Nikole Joseph, an FFA member and the Ledyard Chapter’s reporter, says the students have started setting up for the event already.

Three male alpacas had come to Ledyard High School this semester forJoseph’s senior project. “Another student actually took them as her senior project and didn’t like them, so I took them on,” Joseph said.

Since then, Joseph has worked on training and handling the alpacas. She worked to train one that was not used to being led. She has also tried to teach these herd animals to leave the group willingly and to break their kicking habit.

“It’s interesting working with something new,” she said. “I learned some interesting ways to catch them, and basically just the handling is different.”

But today the alpacas were due for shearing. Three females came to be shorn as well.

Trojanoski and Squier put mats on the floor of the high school’s barn. Then they took one animal at a time. The alpaca’s hind feet were bound with a rope attached to one wall. Its front feet were tied with another rope, which ran to the opposite wall, and it was stretched out on the mats, lying on its side.

Then, with Trojanoski holding its head to keep the animal still, Squier began shearing with an electric clipper. The students hovered nearby, ready to help. Some scooped the alpaca’s hair into leaf bags. Others waited with brooms to clean the floor when each animal was finished.

Before untying the alpacas, Squier and Trojanoski also checked the animals’ teeth and hooves. Hooves sometimes need to be trimmed. The pair also explained to the students that an alpaca’s teeth sometimes grow too long and need to be ground down. Males also have 3 sharp fighting teeth, which should be kept trimmed.

When the alpacas were all shorn, the team started on the five sheep staying at the school.  Squier and Trojanoski each took a sheep, flipped it onto its rump, and started shearing. It took both men only about five minutes to shave a sheep. For the last animal, Trojanoski explained the process to the kids while Squier worked.

When the sheep were finished, the shearers answered students’ questions.

Joseph will be at the Saturday's FFA convention all day, helping visitors find their way around, and looks forward to it. “I’ve been to conventions at other schools, and they actually made it exciting, so hopefully we can do the same,” she said.