Sheep Shearers

“We start in Wyoming in January, then we go to Utah, then we come up here to Idaho. it’s our first big set of sheep. 7000.” Cliff Hoofs of Fort Bridger, Wyoming follows sheep. He’s the owner of Hoofs sheep shearing company, he'll get face-to-face with over 100,000 sheep in the next three months. “Then we go from here to Utah again and we will shear approximately 40,000 down there and then we go back into Wyoming and we will shear another 22,000 in Wyoming. I have another shearing plant that has been up here since February 8, Bill Scheer approximately 55,000 on their shearing plant.” A 50 foot gooseneck trailer is the shearing plant. Up to seven men can shear sheep in the facility. Woolly sheep go in and clean sheared sheep come out. The wool is kicked out of the bottom of the trailer where it is graded and packaged for market. Amber Apoyapi of Australia is one of the two graders collecting the wool. “I just grabbed the wool and see what bin it needs to be put in. Sort all the bellies and tags out and just make sure everything is clean and tidy. That’s about it.” She determines what bin each fleece goes to. Coarse, medium or fine. She says American wool is similar to Australian wool. “American wool is similar to Australian wool whereas New Zealand wool is much much finer.” Hoofs says his shear crew is made up of guys from around the world. Each man will wrestle with over 100 sheep per day.