For the Love of Farming
For the Love of Farming
The Shearing Life with Phoebe Smith
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In our first episode of Season 3, we are brought into the fast, physical, deeply skilled world of professional sheep shearing. We sit down with Phoebe Smith, the only woman in Oregon shearing full‑time at a commercial scale. I arrived curious and left humbled, grateful to be invited in.
Shearing is essential to Oregon agriculture, yet often invisible. Phoebe opens that world, sharing what it takes to shear for both fiber and meat producers, what she’s learned from shearing across the U.S. and abroad, and how she found not just a trade, but a calling.
She traces her path into the work, the passion that keeps her on the road, and the realities of a profession that demands athletic strength, technical precision, and grit. It was a joy to learn from her and to place her voice and work within Oregon’s broader farming story. I am in awe of her fierce dedication, for the remarkable skill she brings to this work, all delivered with a humility that makes her even more extraordinary.
Welcome to season three of For the Love of Farming. I'm your host, Tegan Moran, and this is a production of Oregon State University Extension Service, the Small Farms Program. Today's episode brings us into a world most people never get to see up close. The fast, physical, deeply skilled world of professional sheep shearing. We're joined by Phoebe Smith, the only woman in the state working full-time as a commercial shearer. When I sat down with Phoebe, I arrived with curiosity, and I left humbled by how much I'd never truly understood, even with sheep of my own, and grateful to have been invited into her story. Shearing is an essential part of Oregon agriculture, yet the work is often invisible to those outside the barn. Phoebe opens that door, sharing what it takes to shear for both the fiber and meat sectors and what she's learned from immersing herself in shearing culture across the United States and abroad. Behind the hand piece, she found not just a trade, but a calling. In this conversation, Phoebe traces her path into shearing, the passion that keeps her on the road each season, and the realities of a profession that demands athletic strength and technical precision. She offers a window into the global shearing community, the rhythms of Oregon's shearing circuit, and what it means to be a woman in a field still dominated by men. It was a joy to learn from Phoebe's expertise and to situate her work within the broader farming story of Oregon. I'm deeply grateful for her generosity, her insight, and the fire and humor and fun in which she brings to this craft. This episode was recorded in November of 2025. So to get us started, can you just introduce yourself and tell the listeners what it is you do?
SPEAKER_02My name is Phoebe Smith. I grew up in Monroe, Oregon, and I am the fifth girl out of five daughters in my family. And I am 24 years old and I share sheep for a living.
SPEAKER_00Sheep share in the valley. Yes, and we are so grateful for that. So, Phoebe, how did you come into sheep shearing?
SPEAKER_02I helped on a sheep farm when I was 16. It was one of the first times I was kind of exposed to helping on a sheep farm. And it was actually for the shearers. I would push sheep and press a little bit of wool just for one particular farmer in this valley. And then went off to college, COVID hit, and college stopped. And I had always had an interest in shearing. So it was sheep. So I started working the summer before COVID started on the same sheep farm. And so I had a connection with those shearers already. And I found a shearing school in Roseburg that was just like a weekend. You could pay a hundred bucks and go learn how to shear some sheep. So a friend of mine and I went up there just for fun and did it. And then a couple months later, the guy that I had been acquainted with prior from the sheep farm I worked on. Long story short, we had connections. We both grew up in the same town, kind of knew each other. Um, he ended up calling me. He lives on the southern coast of Oregon. And he called me and said, Hey, we lost a guy. If you want to learn how to shear, I'll teach you. So that was my intro into being able to learn how to shear.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay. So we're gonna dive in a little bit more to that process. Okay. But first I want to go back to something I heard, which was sheep interest to you in general. That was sort of a first attract and was just sheep. And so what was your initial exposure to sheep? And what do you enjoy about them?
SPEAKER_02I grew up on a small farm. We had more so pets than commercial livestock, and we always had sheep growing up. My mom would actually take us girls when we were younger during lambing season. We would go down to our local sheep farmer and he would have bummer lambs. So we would go down. I remember being five, six, and mom would take us and we'd go pick a bummer lamb of our choice, and we would bottle feed it and raise it. And then it was also a way we made a little bit of money. So seven months old, we would turn around, and that same farmer would buy it back from us. So we basically just did him a favor of raising them, and then it was like fun for us, and then we'd make a little money selling it back. I did that since I was a little kid. I've always been around them. The commercial scene really interested me uh when I was able to start being a part of that. Cheaper, just they're a gentle animal. Very like soft spoken, maybe sounds strange, but they're like, they're not a loud animal. They're they have a gentle demeanor, they're just really easy to handle. And I think those characteristics in them make them fun to work with. I think they're so cute. So just working with them is enjoyable because of their demeanor.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. And so you had that introduction from a young age and exposure to working with them, and then sharing seems like an opportunity to do more. Yeah. And so you had this initial training and then an opportunity to actually go help with a crew and get some hands-on experience. What did that look like? Can you recall your first month in the job? What were you doing? And what was that learning process like for you?
SPEAKER_02I did the shearing school in kind of the first part of May. That was the first time I ever touched a sheep in terms of learning how to handle it while shearing. This would have been end of July, beginning of August. So a couple months later. I go down to this commercial farm. Uh, they have a shearing floor in their barn. We can get to that later, but that's not a super common thing in America. It actually really helped my process of learning and having that shearing floor available. And then the guy that taught me shearing is a learned skill. So just going to a school for a weekend, it you learned a little bit about it, but you weren't by any means ready to just shear a sheep. What that first month looked like was just shearing every day. The only way you can get better is shear more sheep because there isn't anything else like it. So you can't go and replicate something else to learn. You have to just shear a live sheep. So him and his wife run about 4,000 head of use. And so their shearing season for their farm is a couple weeks long. And so we went down. There was one other guy shearing with us, so three of us. And basically, they just would walk me through every day. They would watch me shear when I was making mistakes. They would come over and walk me through those mistakes. And so, yeah, that first month was just trying to have a sheep in front of me every day and having a full day and having them there to just walk me through the pattern over and over and over to just get more efficient at it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_00And were you being paid for this learning experience? So that's great. So they invited you, working on the crew, and they were mentoring you and helping you. And what was one of the most challenging aspects of initially learning how to handle sheep? So I have sheep. You know, you come in to I still struggle to do the beautiful thing that you do when you just seem to hold on to them, tilt their head, and they just gracefully fall into your lap. So, you know, what was it like when you were first trying to learn that handling of them before you even get to the sharing part?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, it actually helped me working on the sheep farm before I even thought about shearing. Just being around them, learning how they work and act, touching them every day. So I had an idea of how they are when you handle them. So that actually really helped me going in. And we can touch on it later too, but I've since taught people how to shear. And that is one of the biggest things I teach starting is just learning how to handle them because that is such a big part of shearing them. You have to make them feel comfortable. I was really fortunate to have that experience with sheep before shearing. So it kind of expedited my knowledge of being able to handle them moving into the shearing. But the shearing floor I talked about, the way that it's set up, when the sheep run in, it's a calming, they build it in a manner where the sheep are running in, it's very low stress facility. So they run in, you have an individual pen, you have kind of a saloon style door, it swings, and you go in and the sheep, they are they're kind of backed into it. And that's the easiest way to grab them is from behind. So you reach out and grab their chin and you grab them from behind. So they are already set up that way in that shearing floor. So in your, we call it a catch pen, the small pen by your door. So because they're already lined up like that, uh, their flight zone is uh eliminated, and you can just reach in and grab their chin. And the floor, there's actually a difference, a height difference from the pen to the floor. So your floor is a little bit shorter, and so when you tip them out, they come down onto your floor. So it just makes the whole experience a lot more efficient. Damn when you're trying to run around a barn and catch them. So yeah, that's why I say that the shearing floor made a world of difference for me to learn that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, to be able to do that. Yeah. And you said that these types of shearing floors are rare in the in the US. Could understand this particular place had 4,000 sheep, right? Is that what you said? So they are probably being very thoughtful about the efficiency and it was worthwhile investing in the infrastructure. But do you want to talk a little bit more about what other kinds of conditions you see in the US and term, you know, or why you think that's rare in the US? And then also, why do you know it's different other places?
SPEAKER_02It actually didn't used to be rare.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02So 50 years ago, there were shearing floors all over the US because that many more people ran flocks of sheep and bigger flocks of sheep. And so we actually do come across shearing floors still to this day, but they're really old and kind of dilapidated. So we do still shear in some, and they're really cool to see. It's kind of like history of the sheep industry in America. Yeah, because the sheep numbers have gone down and those large bands of sheep are not around as much anymore. People just aren't, they did not continue to build them. And then we I primarily shear out of a shearing trailer. So we have a mobile trailer, which is more efficient for us in terms of being on the road traveling, now that there's not the number of sheep there used to be, we have to cover a lot more ground to go and shear them because they don't come to us. So the trailer is a lot more efficient for us now. So people didn't keep building those shearing floors because we kind of brought the trailers in.
SPEAKER_00Can you please describe what the mobile shearing trailers are like, what they look like and how they're used?
SPEAKER_02You can't just go buy one, so they are hand-built. Most people buy like a flatbed trailer and build them up. They all look different across the board. So the ones overseas actually look a lot different to ours. We here in America are kind of our shearing trailers are actually kind of the only style around specific to how we shear in America, which is kind of cool. So just like overseas, they have the really cool shearing floors. We've got our cool shearing trailers. They're just the one I shear out of. Uh, there's different styles, but the one I shear out of is is kind of a closed trailer. So it's actually kind of like a transformer. You pull up on the job and it just looks like a fifth wheel. You open boards up on the side and they open up what we call a turnout door, which is when the sheep are done being sheared. There's a little ramp that folds down and a little door that swings, and that's what they run out of when we're all done. On the other side, there's boards that fold down and stay up off the ground, and that's where the wool comes out. So when we're done shearing, we kick the wool out, and there's somebody that grades it and puts it in a wool press on the other side. But that board helps them to kind of hold it there and look it over. On that same side as the wool boards, we've got some windows, so we have some air ventilation. And then in our particular trailer, we have what's called a race, and it comes up into the trailer. There's a chute that goes onto the ground to the pen wherever the sheep are. It goes up into the trailer and it makes the sheep go single file into that trailer. So we have a better hold on them. We don't have to chase them around and stress them out, they just run up in there. We have what we call a lead sheep, it gets tied in the front, and that makes all the other sheep want to run in when they see it. So that keeps the flow going. And then in our individual stands, we have it's like a slidey door. It's it's a part of the chute. It makes the side of the chute. But when you you step your foot on the bottom ledge, and when you step, it rolls down, and you can grab the sheep and just flip it onto the ground right in front of you, and your shearing machine hangs right there. So you don't have to drag the sheep, you know, far. They just kind of flap out and you're in position to start shearing them.
SPEAKER_00And there's three of you in the crew. So what are each of you doing? Are do you have like three shearing stations inside of it? So the three of you are actually just getting them in there, shearing, moving them on. Yep.
SPEAKER_02So the farmers provide a person that pushes sheep. That's their duty. Most of the time they produce, provide have a person that is pressing the wool for us. Some once in a while we'll bring someone with us. But uh, yeah, they're kind of required to provide help for us in that those terms. It is not our job to go out and chase sheep. So they have to have them in, they have to have them ready, and they have to have people that are going to bring them to us. Yep. So then that just leaves us to set up our machines. That is what we're there to do, is show the sheep. So in my particular trailer, there is three stands. We actually have a fourth stand that we can add. So if we bring somebody on to help us with a job, we do have a fourth spot. But there are shearing trailers that have 10 stands. There's I've shown out of ones that have had seven, six. So it's just whoever that contractor is and how many people they have working for them. There's shearing trailers that are open, so they don't have any cover at all. It's just the race, and there's probably a little canopy for some shade. And then there's just a big door in the back that kind of closes, and and it actually helps the sheep's demeanor when we're kind of all closed in, keeps the wind from coming in, and especially on cold days, it's really nice, and it just kind of calms them down. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, thank you for sharing that. Tell me more about your international shearing experience.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so New Zealand is where I went. New Zealand, Australia, and the UK have a lot of shears. There's a lot of shears all over the place. You've there's wherever the sheep are. So there's a lot of shears. I've worked with people from China, Mongolia, France, um, even South Africa. So all over the world, there's sheep and there's shears, but New Zealand and Australia were really influential in the shearing pattern and just the way they handle the sheep, the way that they farm the livestock. And so, in terms of like expediting the technology of shearing, I guess, they have been the ones to do that. Uh, this is a whole nother world in terms of the US. Our shearing industry is still really old fashioned.
SPEAKER_00What does that mean, old-fashioned?
SPEAKER_02Just oh man. So overseas, you a shearing job is looked upon as a very professional position. So you are a professional sheep shearer. You will you work with a contractor who contracts you out for your jobs. You get bank statements when you work over there. You would have a work visa for me. This is my experience going over. You have a work visa, and you would get bank statements that told you how many sheep you shore on what farm and how much money you made that day. And you get it once a week. And so it's just like super organized, but it's really professional. It's kind of like two different worlds. You've got the shed shearing, which is just it's an industrial job basically. You're shearing the tens of thousands of sheep that are across those countries for health purposes, for wool. And then you have a show industry. So there's a show sharing. And these uh people in New Zealand and Australia, they are able to make a full income and a retirement off of shearing. The show industry is kind of like the Olympics. You can you can get as good as you can get and you can compete for world records. You can do world records for speed shearing, you can do world records for shed shearing. And so there's these opportunities to make money other than just going and simply shearing a sheep at a barn. Um, whereas in the US, we do have a few shearing shows, um, but they are once a year. You have to travel to, I've gone to South Dakota for a show, so they are not close. Uh I guess I'm backtracking a little bit. The show scene for shearing in those countries is a lot like the rodeo scene we have. It's a circuit. You compete, you get to the top 15, and they actually have what they call the golden shears like the world, and that is like the ultimate. You go compete there, and if you won, you can claim number one. So, and they have shows every weekend. You can go, you just you can get better at it. You have the experience there. We don't have that. Our shearing commercially is our biggest scene here. Um, and it's a lot of people that it's a job you don't need education for. You can just step into it and you can make good money fast if you travel. You can just step in and learn from somebody. So you don't need all the schooling and the things that we need for, you know, a lot of jobs here in America. And so yeah, it's just it's just a really different scene over here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it sounds like you can draw parallels to just kind of farming in general, right? Like in the it in other places where it's still really highly regarded and respected and integrated into the community. And it sounds like, you know, overseas, yeah, the experience of just, you know, really deep respect and celebration for the art and the skill. And here in the US, I think there are those, you know, those of us, for example, who use your services that deeply appreciate and respect it with the general public, or maybe the whole scene just doesn't have any concept of how this fits into the food and fiber industry, how it fits into our community overall. And so yeah. And so with that, can you share what it is you're doing now and what your life as a shearer looks like today?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I shear mostly commercially. So I have a crew, there's three of us that shear. We will go to we share most of the William Valley here for the commercial farmers, and then we do travel to Idaho a little bit, we travel to Washington a little bit, and then eastern Oregon. And so that's kind of the We cover my crew. We do come together with another crew that has four. So on really big jobs, there's seven of us. On the other side of that, a few of us shear fiber jobs. So back up a little bit, we have a contractor that basically hires us to come and fill a spot in the shearing trailer. He makes a little bit more because he owns the trailer and he schedules all the jobs, finds all the jobs for us. And so then we show up and just shear. By shearing the smaller fiber jobs, I can go do those myself. So then that makes me my own contractor. So it's kind of cool that we can do both scenes. And so right now I have a collection of small fiber jobs that I do. And then I have probably three quarters of my work is commercial, and then the other quarter is the fiber jobs. I shear full-time. So to be able to do that, you have to follow the seasons of shearing. So I, for the last four years, have traveled to follow those seasons. So for example, uh we have a spring season, which would be kind of the larger West states. So Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana. That's about three months. And then starting here in the Lameth Valley after the rain ends, we start in about the end of May, beginning of June. And we can shear here, we shear the southern coast of Oregon, and then we shear a little bit of eastern Oregon until about September, October. And then normally the season here would end. But I, the last two years, well, this will be my third season coming up. I have traveled to New Zealand because it is the start of their shearing season. So a lot of commercial shearers will travel overseas to compensate for the winter work that we don't have over here.
SPEAKER_00And you're and I heard you mention that you can get a work visa to go to New Zealand. And so it's a fairly easy process for you to go and do that, hasn't it? It has been. Yeah. That's great.
SPEAKER_02Fortunately, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And so do you get a break period in? Is that is there actually a period of rest?
SPEAKER_02My name is Phoebe, and I work every day of my life. So no. We do. We have our work, our rest days are weather days. So we can't cheer in the rain, we can't shear in the snow. Um, and so we actually end up having a lot of open days. That's the kind of unique thing about our job, is we just work until the weather changes. So we could work three months and not have a day off, or we could work a week and have two days off. So it just depends. It kind of depends.
SPEAKER_00I do you have some control over that? Like, are you able to block time off with your crew? And so you can you can work as much as you want, you could also scale it up, scale it down as you need to, as and so that's the one of the perks of that.
SPEAKER_02Because we are considered our own contractor. So we have the ability to say, hey, we don't want to show up today. But with that clubs, your spot can be taken. So if you don't show up every day, then a lot of times our contractors will just find somebody else to fill it because they have work that needs to be done.
SPEAKER_00So and so with that, you know, how how many sheep shearers are there in Oregon, for example? We could just start with Oregon, or you could speak to a Lamette Valley. I mean, how big is this pool of shear that you're working with?
SPEAKER_02It seems big, but in reality, it's really, really small. Just here in the Lameth Valley, I know probably nine commercial shears. There is a lot of people that'll shear themselves or shear little flocks here and there that I haven't come across. So that number I don't know, but I would say like commercial-wise, there's probably nine or ten people here in the Lameth Valley. There's a crew that I know of in Roseburg that's about three guys. There's a crew uh that well, there are so there are crews that come into Oregon and shear some jobs. So they don't actually, they're not from here, but they do come and shear some jobs we don't get. Yeah, as far as kind of the main crews here in the state of Oregon, um, we've got that crew in Rosberg, and we've got the two crews here in Mellon.
SPEAKER_00Three primary crews that are gonna work in the the Valley and Oregon circuit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And how many women?
SPEAKER_02In the state of Oregon, I think I'm the only one. You might be the only woman in the industry. Well, there is other women that do shear, but commercially on the on those crews.
SPEAKER_00I'm the only one. Yeah. Do you want to share anything about what that experience is like?
SPEAKER_02I mean, it's always been great for me. I mean, the shearing industry, especially in the United States, does not have a lot of females. There are some of us out there, and those of us that are out there, we have a lot of fun cheering together. But it has been primarily a male job. So there actually is a lot more females that shear overseas, just more accessible. The the circumstances are a lot better over there. I say that because here you're on the road, you're, you know, for probably six months out of the year, if you're shearing all the time. It's just a lot of really rough conditions. So living-wise, just conditions and work-wise, too. There's just not a lot of women I think are attracted to it, but we're definitely welcome in the industry. Um, that's been my experience. A very welcoming experience for me to be there. Yeah, the guys I work with are fantastic. I love them. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for sharing that. And yeah, and just yeah, breaking into the industry and showing that it is possible. And you touched on kind of the rough conditions. And, you know, I think one thing to address is how physically challenging this work is. There's the handling of the animals, and then there is the posture and the impact on your body of bending over and shearing. And so I'm wondering if you can speak a little bit to that in terms of how did you learn how to protect your body when doing the work? As well as, you know, you're you're 24, so you're very able to do this for a period of time, but you know, our bodies do tend to change. And so, how are you approaching this work physically from an ergonomic standpoint so that you can keep doing this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would say that is why a lot of women don't do it, is because it is really physically taxing. We have like stamina really fast, but it's really short, right? And a lot of men have stamina that can last a longer period of time. So, in terms of that, I've struggled a lot. My energy, we shear an eight-hour day, my energy really tanks at noon. And so I can go all out, and then it I feel like I decline. So I've done a lot of experimenting in terms of that. Learning how to like pace my body, knowing what my body can handle has been really important for me. So, not just getting out and cheering as hard as I can has been really vital. Also, you talked about the first month, what it was like. It was a lot of pain because it is so physical. The sheep are not light, so you are lifting, you are lifting with shoulders, your lower back, so everything in your body that hurts uh when you lift heavy weight if you're not doing it right. So the nice thing that I had was the guy that taught me, he knew technique really well. So there is a lot of guys out there that just kind of muscle the sheep brown. They're definitely really good shearers, but as far as technique goes, they're not as smooth because they have the ability to use their shoulders a lot more than we do. And so I was fortunate in that shearing, when you really break it down, anyone can do it because it is all in your legs. And that is where our PowerPoint is. Yeah, so he, I was fortunate to have him teach me. He was able to, women naturally, we rely on our legs, our hips. And so stepping into that, I think I actually learned technique a lot faster because I had to rely on my legs. I didn't have the shoulder strength to muscle those ewes around. So, and then it really helped for me to shear with other women. Unfortunately, I didn't get that experience super often until more recently when I really started traveling and meeting more women that cheered. But a good friend of mine, uh Gina Govea, she sheared out of South Dakota, North Dakota. She shears out of New Mexico, but she is like 5'1, the cutest lady ever. Man, she's just so fun to watch. And she was one of those people she was shearing before I was. And so when I stepped into the industry, she was somebody that I was able to kind of watch and look how she did technique. And that really helped me to look at the the smaller guys that were about 5'1, 5'2 that sheared and watched them and their technique. And so, yeah, it it is all about technique.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And so, really just making sure you're paying attention to that. And yeah, and eight-hour days, right? But what does that mean? How does that translate in terms of on average, how many sheep are you shearing in an eight-hour day? So let's let's take the scenario you're at a on a farm that has more than one day's worth of shearing. So they're just coming in from one property. How many sheep would you shear in one eight-hour day?
SPEAKER_02It depends. And we don't always shear eight hours. Yeah. So the farmers have things to do. So we get cut off sometimes or late sometimes because we make our own schedule. But for the most part, we at least try and do a seven-hour. And what that looks like is we do a two-hour run first thing in the morning. We take a 30-minute break and then we do an hour and a half. And then we just repeat it in the afternoon. Your numbers per day depend on the conditions. So you can shear sheet and be shearing 70, 80 head a day, which would be for good cheerers that are shearing consistent every day, that would be kind of a bad day. On average, I shear about 150 a day, and that's when the conditions are like mediocre. So that can change. And that that is one thing I really love about this industry is you can shear however many you want. Yeah, you can go as slow as you want, you can go as fast as you want, but at the end of the day, those numbers are really influenced on the condition. And I say that because it matters with weather and it matters with the condition of the animal. So, an interesting fact, wind changes the way the sheep shears. So they're when it gets windy outside, their hides tighten up to protect them and their wool and their hide becomes a little bit dense. Oh, wow. So to push your hand piece through the wool, if they were loosened up, and it would be a lot easier to do that. So that slows you down a little bit. And it's something really simple like that that you wouldn't think of, but it does change. The breeds of sheep matter. So there's different types of wool. Fine wool is really dense naturally. The sheep have lots of wrinkles, and so you're taking your time. Um, you really have to push through them. A coarse wool shears a lot easier and faster when the sun's out, they have a natural oil in their wool. The axe is kind of a lubricant, and so you can really shear those. Yes, and the feed they're on really matters. So the nutrition they're getting can change the way their wool is. So there's a lot that goes into it.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Our shearing isn't often a time for us to do that health check with our sheep. And you know, we had a the person we used before you was pretty great. He was pretty well experienced, and obviously not a vet, but he would be able to tell us things based on shearing. But hey, you might want to consider, you know, looking into this a little bit more. And so that connection to obviously from the health of the animal to how it shows up in their coat and then your experience. It's really interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that is something we actually do for the farmers, is while we're shearing, some of them don't, some of them do, but especially commercially running thousands of sheep, you don't get the chance to look at them every day. And so, you know, natural things happen to them, like they can get something called fly strike, which is when we have really wet weather here in Oregon. So it happens a lot more here than in other places. We have things like foot rot that happen because of our weather. And so those are things that the ranchers actually have us look for. And if we find them, we mark them and they separate those sheep off and give them the attention they need because we are looking each one over from head to toe while we're shearing it. So, and in lambing season, we look for things like bad bags. So the farmer knows what that you and her lamb need attention, or any older you'll look for, and they'll put them out and give them special feed and that kind of thing. So we are kind of a big part of looking their livestock over while they have them all in one area.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, have them in there and yeah, and they'll have trimming and so that that is an optional add-on and part of what you do. Can you talk a little bit about the balance of your workflow in terms of working with smaller farm operations here in the valley, you know, ranging from you know, I don't know what the minimum sheet pet you would have going here. One from one, yes, all the way to some of these larger operations that you're traveling to and that have you know thousands of sheep. Can you talk a little bit about the balance and what that looks like and any other observations you have or just comments on working with the different scales?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, my schedule. I guess I see this in terms of like this is how my schedule is built because I have loyalty in all my customers, but my main loyalty is with my commercial crew because I am not in charge of that scheduling. So when that schedule is made, I have to be free to show up. And so I base all of my smaller jobs around my commercial jobs. So I will get a phone call that says, hey, we have a week's worth of work here, and I will cut that out. And then if I have any phone calls for smaller jobs, I just schedule around those bigger jobs. Um, like I said, the commercial jobs take up three-fourths of my schedule. So I am busy running around doing that. Those jobs are where I travel the most. My smaller jobs are actually local, which is super nice for me. So on the days where I know we aren't gonna have work for a week, I just call all those people. I make a list in my phone. Whoever calls me gets the top of the list first and then it goes down the line, and I just schedule as I get free days. And then there are particular small jobs that I will put on my schedule. And the reason for that is I work with a few people that sell their fiber, and so they are really reliant on the time that that fiber comes off the sheath. And so for those particular jobs, um, I will schedule those. And then sometimes I just won't show up to my commercial job because I'm busy doing one of those. And so yeah, I I am all over the place all the time, but I do get afternoons off. I actually really enjoy my fiber jobs because it's a lot of people I know, and I get to just spend time with them, get to look over some really cool fleeces and see what they do. The fiber side of things is not what we pay attention to on the commercial scene. And so I've actually been able to learn a lot about the fiber side of things doing those smaller jobs, which has been really fun for me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's really neat that your job position to really across the spectrum of sheep-related agriculture and products in the Bali and in Oregon and beyond in a really unique way. And so you have an opportunity to be in community with these different parts of the ag sector. Yeah, can you speak to just how you see this profession for you, this role connected with your sense of community within farming in Oregon?
SPEAKER_02Coming out of college and having that be like the time of COVID, when I started cheering, I was really able to make incredible friends through the people that I worked for. That's been one of my biggest aspects that I am filled with joy when it comes to like your guys' sperm. When I come out and cheer for you guys, I get to see the pigs and I get to see your family. And, you know, I am doing a job, but I'm able to take a second to stop and share stories. And and, you know, I come and see you once a year. So things have changed in your life, things have changed in my life. So, in terms of community, I'm like up on the scoop, you know, I get to like, I get to talk with everybody and I get to see all the great things that they're doing, and and and so that is one of my favorite aspects. Those smaller jobs allow me to kind of take a second to stop and be in a part of community. There is a a community in the larger commercial jobs, those ranchers we are really close knit with. A lot of them will have a place for us to stay, they'll feed us, and they are kind of like family when we get there and and work with them. Yeah, I I feel like being able to travel around and share these jobs, it's actually brought me more of a community than I could have ever asked for. Just because I get to see it every day and and be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And for timeline a little bit, how many years have you been cheering since you first went down to Southern Oregon and you started working with that crew? This is about four and a half years. Four and a half years in. And I have to share that you have participated in some competitions. Yeah. Right. So you're four and a half years in and you have already achieved a pretty high level of quality of your work, right? You'll be you're winning some of these competitions, you're placing in these competitions. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I'm trying to brag a little bit about and figure out how to get you to share how within, I mean, I feel like four and a half years is a relatively short period of time to learn a whole new profession and skill. And yet you have completely immersed yourself in this world and this work, and have now an estimated how many heads of sheep do you think you have shorn in the past four and a half years? Could you tell me thousands and thousands and thousands of sheep? Yeah. And you're doing competitions and you're placing, and so you are fully in this world. And how do you see the trajectory of your skills? Like, do you feel like you are still considered a beginner shearer? Do you feel like shearing is something that it takes a lifetime to truly master? Can you speak to what skill development in this profession looks like and where you think you are in that process?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm excited about this one because I feel like it's been my own kind of experimental journey. And I did step into the shearing industry unknowing of it. I I was not raised amongst it. And so I do actually share with a lot of people that were had grandfathers at shore, dads that shore, and now the son's shearing. So there's generational shearing. I didn't get that experience. And so what I was fortunate to have is in my traveling, I made it a point to have a sheep in front of me every day for the last four and a half years, or as much as I could. That I would say expedited my skills. So shearing is a season, and a lot of people, kind of cutting back to what I said, the shearing scene in America is a little old-fashioned. We don't have constant shearing. We weren't, a lot of the people in the shearing industry in America haven't really left America. There's there is a handful of people that have gone and learned overseas. And don't get me wrong, there's incredible shearers that were born here and never left and are still really good shearers. I share with a guy that is like that. I would say from my experience, shearing with all different kinds of shearers, beginners, advanced, intermediate, people that shear in a different style. You just learn so much. And that's why I traveled. I wanted to learn on different types of sheep. I wanted to learn from all different types of shearers. And I would say that is what has expedited my learning. So I did not, a lot of shearers in America, they find a person that teaches them and they'll stay on that crow and shear. And so they are learning, you know, to the best of their abilities, but also I feel like it's it can be a little bit capped sometimes on their learning level because they will get as good as the best person on that group. So if you are always finding somebody better and kind of have that mindset of like my mindset is I will learn until the day I don't cheer anymore. I will always find somebody that is better than me. And that has really taken Me, I feel through the roof. I feel like you know, I have days where I'm like, man, I don't know a single thing. And then I have days where I'm just sailing away and I'm like, I feel like I can look back on my first year sharing and be like, well, I've I've really learned some things. But sharing shows, I guess I will probably brag a little bit about it. Please do.
SPEAKER_00I was I was actually sliding up here.
SPEAKER_02I've always been a really clean shearer. And so coming off a commercial scene, that's not always there, there's a lot of really good clean shears in the commercial scene, but when it comes to fiber, it's so much more detailed. And so that has kind of been my specialty. I've learned, I didn't know that right away, but because I'm a detailed person, just kind of my characteristics, I have kind of become known as the person that shears a really clean sheet.
SPEAKER_00Can you can you explain what that means from that might not know what a clean shear means?
SPEAKER_02So when you're shearing in terms of fiber, you want to shear the sheep kind of like uh you're peeling a tangerine. So, like if you can get the whole skin off in one go, that is the best for a spinner because they have to have to be able to spin a piece of wool, it has to be a certain length. And if you are shearing and you cut one spot of the sheep where say the fiber across the board on the sheep is like three inches long. If you cut some spots that make it one and a half or two, or that full three, the spinner has to pick through and they can only use the stuff that's three inches because the inch and a half won't fuse together. It's too short, it's not a strong enough strand. When you're shearing, you want to keep your blade on the skin of the sheet, and you want it to be a totally even cut. And so you'll hear terms like second cuts, which are when you're shearing, and you cut that fiber in half, and then you go back down onto the skin. So there is a piece of wool left on the sheet. And so that is what I'm good at. I'm good at taking the fleece off all in one go and having it totally even across. So when it comes to show shearing, that is what they're looking for. They look at the fleece. There is a time aspect to it, which I've actually never really been good at because I'm slow. Um, but the quality of the wool and the quality of the sheep is what they really focus on. That is a good portion of your points. And so that's why I've been able to place in some shows. I've won one and I've placed in a couple. And were these overseas or locally or both? I won one here actually. And then I've placed in the final for about three shows overseas. Yeah. But then kind of something interesting about me is, and you don't see this super often, but so you kind of have the show sharing scene, and then you have the shed sharing scene. I will say numbers across the board, the people overseas shear a lot more sheep than we do. And I won't really go into it, but it is primarily based on the size of the sheep over there, they're a lot smaller than we have here in America. And like I said, they're just a lot more advanced in shearing. So their numbers are out the door. So by terms of my best day shearing in the shed, I feel like it doesn't even come close. But for American shearing, it's up there, which is really cool. So I was able to shear in the shed. We look for big numbers, so as many as we can shear in a day. So I've actually been fortunate to do 315 in a day. Yeah. And so we we've had a guy here in America that's done over a 500, and then there is a handful of people that have done a four. But in terms of shearing American sheep on American soil, I would unofficially be the first female to do that 300 here.
SPEAKER_00So cool. Yeah. Well, that is definitely claw-worthy, and you should do that. Okay. Yeah, and I'm I'm picking up on there are aspects of who you are that have led you to this path. I'm curious if you get paid differently. Like, do you get paid a higher per head for fiber? Are you able to charge a little bit more for your smaller operations than the contracting? How does that work?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I do want to say really quickly, going back to the numbers, I do want to preface that my number for that big day was purely for like an American number. There are a lot of really incredible women in New Zealand and Australia that have done six and six hundreds, five hundreds. So that's what I aspire to be. But I just wanted to prepare because there are some really incredible women shearers out there that have gotten some huge numbers. But anyway, commercially, we have a set rate that's placed by our contractor. And that's just what we make across the board. It does change for the shape. So when we shear finals, we get paid about a dollar, sometimes a dollar and a quarter more than what we would get paid. We we get paid per head. So that's why it's important for the number of sheep you shear in a day commercially. The course rules are a lot easier to shear, so we do get paid a little bit less for those. But also when we shear the final, we're traveling to do that. So that extra dollar is kind of compensation for the travel as well. When I shear my fiber jobs, I'm in charge of how much I'm charging people. So uh I kind of have a I have a base rate. Somebody calls me to shear one sheep, I have a base rate across the board, and that goes up to five sheep. And then so I actually in my small jobs, I don't charge on the difficulty level of the shearing. I charge, I have to charge, pay for my gas to drive over to those jobs my time to go. It it sounds crazy, but it takes just as much time to go shear one sheep as it does 20 sheep. And so that's why I have a base rate past 10 sheep, it becomes per head. So I do shear I consider them smaller fiber jobs, but I do shear for some people that run a couple hundred ewes. So that's when I turn it into per head. And yeah, those people, they every fiber person I shear for, they want me to slow down. They I have people that'll bring me 30 sheep a day because they want me to be slow and focus on the wool coming off. And they are simultaneously picking up that wool and processing it in that moment, uh, which doesn't really happen in our commercial scene. So that's why it's not as important. Commercially, we are mostly shearing the sheep for their health, and so the way it looks coming off doesn't always matter. But at the same time, do you want to preface that those farmers are also the wool is a byproduct, so it has to come off in a way that they can still sell it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And how do people find you if if they're not if it's not through the contract or is it word of mouth? Is it people website?
SPEAKER_02Mostly, yeah. I have had a few, I have a fun little sharing Instagram that a few people have messaged me on, but it is mostly word of mouth. So just other shears. A lot of times I'll do this too. If I have something coming up in my schedule, I'll call another guy that I trust is gonna do the same job as me and I'll call him up and say, hey, I've got this small fiber job, can you fill in for me? And so we we actually trade a lot of work, and that gets your name out there because like if if somebody, if you show up, it does happen a lot. It can be a bummer sometimes, but say if you show up and you don't really do as the job that those people were looking for, and then they send somebody else and they do the job they're looking for, then you will probably end up with that job. So that does happen too. But then we also have people that are more suited toward the commercial scene and people that are more suited toward the fiber scene. So some of those commercial people, when I kind of started doing what I do, they actually called me and said, Hey, I have these jobs if you want to take them over. We've had people leave, move out of the state, or just not be shears anymore. And that actually happened. I I think I stepped into the shearing scene at a good time. We had somebody move that was very influential in the fiber scene. And so there was about a hundred jobs that came my way. And yeah, you just it is really just word of mouth mostly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and with not that many people, it travels fast. And with that, I mean, is there a sense that we need more shears? That this is, you know, an industry that could is on the brink of dying out, similar to you know, meat processors because nobody wants to do it, or is this different and there seems to be just enough people getting into it, or it's still good enough of a job? Can you just speak to that?
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, it depends on again the country. So overseas, it's still very much a place where it's generational, so younger people are stepping into it a lot more than they are here. In America, we actually don't have very many American chairs, like I said. There is not a lot of people that are willing to step in and work a that that physical of an eight-hour day and make a career out of it. So it's really hard. There's a lot of people that have interest in it. They see it, they are intrigued, and then you know, they work maybe a couple months and then they're like, man, this is really not for me. So it is extremely hard here to find people that not only like you're willing to give your time to teach them because it is years of teaching to get somebody out of the beginner stage. Yeah, just people that end up staying. So we are fortunate in that just like I've gotten visas to work overseas, we have people that get visas to work over here. So, in terms of shearers being here to shear sheep, I would I would say we do have enough, but as far as American shears go, that number is really depleted because back then, 50 years ago, the the ranchers actually would shear their own sheep sometimes. They had enough knowledge and they just kind of pick on them when they could. And so, in terms of being a full time shearer, that number has really gone down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you've got some job security there. Yes. And you know, do you envision doing this as your career? Is this looking like what you want to do for the long haul? It's very addicting. What's addicting about it?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. There's like a chase. I think for me it is that for and for most shearers, that big number. I absolutely love going into a work day and being like, how many sheep can I shear today? It's like an endless challenge. That, yeah, that is like really addicting because you're just always pushing yourself to do better. Yeah, man, that's probably the that is probably the biggest drive. But I I do love the travel.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And the travel and the people and the community that you get and and the sheep that you get to work with. And I think that's what I was I was starting to form my thought earlier around what is it about Phoebe that led you to this career, that is keeping you here, that is positioning you away that you're excelling in this. I mean, it's not like you have found this work and it fits within your life and you're just doing it. You have found this work. You are seeking out every opportunity to improve. You are fully immersed in what it means to be shearing in the states and internationally. And what I just heard is that for you, it's it is that challenge, and it is the fact that you have found something that for a lifetime you could be improving upon, that you can be finding, you know, more and more nuance and and and ways to improve your skill, but also that that challenge is not gonna go away because it's baked into what this work is. And that's that's really cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I yeah, I I want, I mean, I think there probably is not a commercial shearer that that doesn't stop shearing. Um very few. Because yeah, it is that like getting back to when I first started shearing, the guy that taught me very joyous personality, somebody that was just a huge light, kind of walk up onto the scene of the shearing trailer and the sheep and the pen going into the trailer, and kind of the first thing that hits you is just the noise. There's shearing machines that are very loud, there's music playing on the radio. That's it's a rock album all day. Music is a big part of our work. And then the guys that I I first met, just big personalities. And so you kind of step around and you just see these guys shearing, and it's like this environment where they're just like you can tell they're just having fun. And that is initially what made me even, you know, I loved sheep, I loved working with them. Never had in my mind they'd be a shearer. But when I stepped into that environment, it was like, I want to have fun. I want to like be a part of this. And I think that's an attraction too. You step into, you know, you show up in the morning, you're like stiff and tired and sore, and you're just like, oh, I gotta shear sheep today, you know. And then the moment you pick up that handpiece and the music starts, it's like, I get to shear sheep today, you know, like it totally changes. And, you know, obviously we have bad days, but the bond between the guys I work with, man, it's like we have it, it's like constant joy and there's a passion to it. And we are like family. Um, and so to me, it's like eventually down the road, you know, if I have kids, if I kind of step into that role, probably wouldn't travel and cheer. But I actually, the two guys I work with, they bring, they both have two kids, and they're all four of them are 10 and under. So they're little kids. It's such a cool environment for them to be a part of. They do so well in that environment. They actually travel with us, and that's been really inspiring for me to see because it makes me, I think, comforted that I could eventually do that. Take my kids and share that experience with them. Um, that's kind of why I like the small fiber jobs. As I get older, you know, that scene is probably going to become more realistic for me down the road. And so those smaller fiber jobs closer to home, still kind of that environment, but something I can share with kids. And it'd be something that I can still be passionate about. Say after my kids are grown up and gone, I still have this thing that's a part of me that I love to do. And so I would say it's something that'll probably never go out of my life, but it will, the involvement in it will shift.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's, I mean, that seems to be one of the benefits of the work is that you can scale it up, you can scale it down. And given the fact that you are truly integrating across the various parts of the business and the industry, you're gonna have those relationships, you're gonna have those skills. And okay, I feel like most people just don't have any concept of this work or how this fits into our agricultural system. What do you want people to know about shearing, about the industry in Oregon?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, I could dive really deep into a lot of different things. But um, I think there's been such a disconnect in our in our world. You touched on it a little bit earlier. Overseas, you see a lot more respect towards the farmers, the people that are included in that agriculture industry. We've really lost that here. But we've also just lost the knowledge of what it takes to have this agriculture industry. With shearing, there's a lot of misconceptions. We've had a lot of issues, unfortunately, with teaching others because we come across people that because of the uneducation of the shearing, people can look in on it and think that you're hurting the animal or think that you're, but it really comes down to just a misunderstanding of what is happening. And so it is it's been challenging to take it out. That's actually something I'm quite passionate about is bringing that back out into the world and teaching people that, hey, this is actually something we have to do for the animal's health. You know, even if people didn't want to, you know, have sheep as you know, producing a byproduct and they just wanted pets, it's still something you have to do to pets. So, you know, there's a lot of people that frown upon the commercial scene because of the way we have seen where the commercial scene can go. And but at the end of the day, it is still something we have to do, whether it's commercial or not. And I don't know that a lot of people understand that. It is primarily looked upon as a commercial job. And so that's why to me, uh, going out and teaching people just handling sheep, it surprises me the number of people that don't even know that a sheep has to be sheared. You read a storybook, you watch a movie, they're all woolly. And people don't understand that that wool grows and grows and grows and grows. And so it can be as simple as that as just sharing with people, hey, for you know, humane purposes for this animal, this has to happen. Even though it looks maybe some at times inhumane, it is what the animal needs from us. We are responsible as a community who have turned commercial and bred these genetics and done all these things. It is our duty to then step back in and take care of the things that we have produced. Because a lot of the sheep we have produced commercially here in the States, especially with the show scene, are not animals that could survive in the wild. So yeah, I that I think that's why my job feels so important to me and why I want people to understand it is there is that disconnect of, hey, we do actually have to circle back and take care of what we have created.
SPEAKER_00That's so well stated. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I think it's an important point. I'm wondering if you can touch on what you do to take care of yourself and your body as well as your mental health with the travel and it is both physical and mental.
SPEAKER_02I don't think a lot of people stepping into it, they just see all physical, and it actually is more of a mental game than anything else. And I say that because when you have a tough day of shearing, it takes everything in you to just grab another shape and shear it. Man, I we have to treat ourselves like athletes. We are basically professional athletes. As and we it's kind of I say that in kind of a laughy way because we kind of joke about it. Because a lot of people look at us and be like, what? No, you're not. But at the end of the day, we actually are. We treat ourselves as such. I do a lot of stretching. Stretching is huge in our profession. I have to pay attention to what I eat, especially as a female. I talked about this earlier, energy, all of those things. I never had to pay attention to my diet, but I have to have a lot of protein and a lot of carbs because we actually burn a full eight-hour day of shearing. This is just kind of what I've heard. I don't actually have an effect on it, but we burn as many calories as running a marathon. And so if we're working two weeks in a row, we are running a marathon every day. So my calorie intake has to be high. Yeah, a lot of protein. We have to have a lot of electrolytes because we are sweating nonstop, even if it's cold outside. So salt is a huge one for me. Yet I actually work with a chiropractor. I've been fortunate and I have not had many issues, but there are certain things that we do protect ourselves. Some of the older guys I shear with, they shear in what's called a sling. And it's basically something you just wear around your waist. It's actually attached to the ceiling and it has springs that basically just kind of hold your body weight. So they're not having to hold their own body weight. A lot of younger people don't do that because if you start out in a sling, your back muscles are not being built to what they need to be, which is why you kind of just see it in the older shears. But our shoes are a big part of that. We wear these, we call them moccasins. They're just like a flat piece of leather that wrap around our foot. And the purpose of that is being bent over. Just like weightlifters have to have kind of a platform or they lift barefoot. Bending over all the time, we can't have a restricting sole. It would really hurt our back. So our shoes really help our backs in the technique of shearing. That's why it's important to stretch. We're taught to you bend at the hips, you don't bend at your back, you hold your shoulders up. You never lift with your shoulders. So knowing how your body works, how your muscles work is really important. Um so postures, everything. And then, yeah, my chiropractor is fantastic. I go, I try to go about once a month, and she just kind of puts me back. The biggest thing she does for me is she helps blood flow. So I, especially on myself, my forearms are so tight all the time because we have to have incredible grip strength. We're holding on to our shearing machine and we're holding on. The shape, and I'm sure probably like rock climbers or you know people like that could really understand, but she helps with blood flow. So if it didn't do that, I think my body would freeze.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah, appreciate it. And then the mental health and the stress. Yeah. And I'm gonna add a little variable to this that maybe you can touch on. Okay. And it's back to the differences. And you know, working in a culture overseas where you would be celebrated and deeply respected and really, you know, uh have your work ultimately sort of revered and understood to a place here where most people probably just have no concept of what you do and how challenging it is. So how do you find that support and motivation and who are your cheerleaders? Hopefully every farm you go to, but in addition to that, right?
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, actually, I mean, a lot of my small fiber jobs, I have a lot of cheerleaders in because they are like, you you shear a clean sheep, and that's what they love about me. And so I do have a lot of cheerleaders in that aspect. My guys I work with, I would say are my biggest cheerleaders. They have been since the beginning. Stepping into that role in an all-male environment didn't ever, I think, want me to try and be like them, but they expected my best. And so stepping into that, I never tried to compete with them, but I just brought my best. And I think that has what that is what has built our relationship. And so I remember I got my first hundred in a day and my first 200 in a day, and it was like a party at the house. They were driving around the town we were in and you know, seeing people they knew, and it's like Phoebe got her first hundred, and you know, just like absolutely celebrating me being there for me when I did it, recognizing how hard of a job it was to get what I got at the time. You know, my one of them, the guy that taught me how to cheer, he doesn't cheer much anymore. But when I did my 300 here, he actually showed up to the shed the last 30 minutes of our work day and he opened my door, he handed me shape, he he was just there because he knew how important that was to me that day. And I think that makes me emotional because you don't see that in workspaces a lot, just across the board, because I think there's so much competition, and it's like in our line of work, it's like a healthy competition. It's like we are we are there to support each other on the bad days and on the good days. Yeah, I feel like that support system is so strong. I have learned in traveling, it really matters who you share with. There is nothing like being home sharing with my guys. I I have learned so much from all kinds of people across the world. But when it comes to having this job as a career and sharing every day, my guys here at home are the people that I want to do that with. They they make it the reason why I have this passion for sharing and showing up every day. I I would not want to show up every day if I didn't have them and their all their passion. And so, yeah, and in return, I mean, you I'm the same way towards them. You know, it's it's a celebration of their successes and their losses. We sat together on a hard day. We have cried on a hard day. You know, it's we've been in dust storms in Utah, we've been in negative 10 degrees in Wyoming with the wind blowing, and it's just hard going. The conditions are hard, we're camping. A lot of times we're dry camping, so you don't get a shower at the end of the day. It's hard conditions, and we can sit together and be like, man, this really sucks. Or we can also come together on a super good day and be like, we just did that, you know? And I think that is the beauty of it. That's where we find our joy.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much. Yeah. My usual last question is the name of the podcast for the love of farming. What do you love about this work? And you have shared so much. Yeah, you've shared so much that really feeds into the complexity of what you do and the challenge of what you do and why you do it. Is there anything else you want to share about this love, this passion, this work that you do? Or anything else that you want to be sure you say?
SPEAKER_02I think because of that passion and joy that we find in it, it deserves the recognition. And I think that's why I'm here talking with you. The education and the recognition of what we do and what it takes to do what we do. Yeah, the the mental and physical health is something that anybody struggles with. It's not, you know, just because our job is hard. There are so many aspects in our life, in anybody's lives, that's hard. So to be able to find that in whatever you do, I'm a firm believer in that you can find that in whatever you do. I've been able to find that in sharing, and I think that's why agriculture is a huge part of my life. It's something I love and I understand the importance of sharing that. But, you know, one of the main reasons why I talk about what I do is because of being able to find that joy and passion. I never want to go a day without being able to find some sort of joy. And I think everybody deserves to have that. I think a lot of people don't even know sometimes what where to find that joy, what what it feels like to have it. And so I think that is my biggest lesson in sharing this because without that passion, the support and the joy that my crew and I share, I would not be the shearer I am. I I just I I love the people, I love where it takes me, I love the sheep. Farming is creation. You take dirt and you can make fields that sheep graze on, and you it's such a beautiful world to me. So that is why I'm in this industry.
SPEAKER_00Aw, Phoebe. This has been amazing. I am so grateful for you, for your time, that you found this path, that you do this hard work, and that you're willing to share. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I look forward to our next sharing session. Yes. And if you want to find out more about Phoebe Smith and her sheep shearing adventures, you can find her, as she mentioned, at SheShears Sheep on Instagram. That is She Shears Sheep. Hope you join us next time. Happy farming.
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