Alpacas remember experiences, and a herd that is chased, grabbed and surprised on shearing day will be harder to handle at every job for the rest of the year. Almost everything that makes shearing day calm happens before the shearer arrives: dry animals, sorted groups, a thought-out route from pen to mat, and helpers who already know their roles.
Fleece dry, animals sorted, in the week before
An alpaca must be shorn dry. Wet fleece clogs the gear, shears badly and cannot be bagged or stored without going mouldy, so if rain is forecast in the run-up, get the herd under cover or under a shelter in good time and keep them there until they are dry through the staple, not just on the surface. Use the same days to sort the herd into shearing order: groups by fleece colour, so white fleeces never get contaminated by dark fibres on the floor, and by age or quality if your fleeces are graded. Note any animal that is heavily pregnant, very old or unwell and talk to the shearer about where they fit in the order — or whether they should wait.
Move them close, early and quietly
Pen the animals near the shearing area the evening before or early on the morning, so nobody is mustering a field under time pressure. Alpacas move best as a group along a fence line, a lane or between hurdles and panels, following each other; chasing individuals round a field with waving arms teaches the whole herd that people mean panic. Keep herd groups that live together in the same holding pens — separation from companions is a bigger stressor than the shearing itself. Many shearers ask for animals to be kept off feed for a few hours before shearing, which keeps animals cleaner and more settled on the mat; confirm with your own shearer what they prefer and plan penning around it.
Lay out the stations before the first animal
Set the shearing floor or mat on a clean, swept surface — fleece picks up every scrap of hay, twine and dirt it touches — and keep a broom dedicated to sweeping the board between animals. Have your bags or bins ready and labelled in advance: one per animal if fleeces are kept separate, marked with the animal and the colour, so nobody is hunting for a marker pen with an armful of fleece. Agree the flow: who catches and delivers, who gathers and skirts the fleece, who bags and stacks. Fleece left lying on the board while people improvise is fleece getting walked on, and skirting — removing the coarse, dirty edges — is far easier done fresh than from a mixed bag later.
During shearing and straight after
Keep voices down and movements unhurried around the mat; the herd waiting in the pens is watching and listening, and a quiet first pen sets the tone for the rest. Check each animal as it comes off the mat for small skin nicks, which are common and usually minor — note any that look deeper and keep an eye on them. Newly shorn alpacas feel the weather, so if the temperature drops or rain arrives in the days after, they need real shelter and a little extra feed while they adjust; a shorn animal in a cold snap is genuinely vulnerable. Let the group reform quietly in a familiar paddock with hay waiting. Writing the day's roles and the order of pens into KinsLe's Care Teams beforehand means the catcher, the fleece hand and the bagger are working from one plan, not shouting questions across the shed.