Laura González, like any 22-year-old girl, likes to travel, party and enjoy life, which is basically what one does at that age. But, if there is something that makes this young woman from Ciudad Real from Calzada de Calatrava special, it is that she is one of the few women in Spain -or perhaps the only one- who is dedicated to shearing.
And what is shearing? It is not a new dance or any modern artistic discipline or profession. Nothing of that. This ‘word’, which unfortunately is known by fewer and fewer people, has to do with one of the most ancient activities in human history.
Since man ceased to be a nomad, hunter and gatherer, and became a sedentary farmer and rancher, one of the animals from which he took the most advantage has been sheep.
From them he obtained milk above all, but also wool, which in other times was a highly valued commodity for the textile industry.
That is precisely where the word shearing comes from. According to the Royal Spanish Academy of Language, it is the action and effect of shearing, the house where the sheep are sheared and the time in which it is sheared; that is, in which the wool is removed from the sheep. Well, now we are in that period and one of those who has participated in this task, eminently male, is Laura González.
Every year around this time, crews of shearers strip the wool from the more than 500,000 sheep that Castilla-La Mancha has. A job that currently faces a shortage of labor and generational change, since many of those who work in shearing are not even Spanish anymore, and every year professionals from other countries are in demand to carry out the season.
For this reason, the case of Laura González is an exception within this profession, since she is young, Spanish and a woman surrounded by men. This Calzadeña is currently doing the Livestock and Animal Health Assistance training cycle in Talavera de la Reina, studies that she wants to complete and then finish her Veterinary career.
Laura, from caste comes to the greyhound. She has been lending a hand to her family since she was little in the cattle farm they have in her town. «I really like being there and I really enjoy being with the animals and helping my father, who is the one who manages it, with everything he needs. It may be that tomorrow I will be the one to take charge of the operation », she tells ABC exultantly.
During his training, one of the many things he has learned is shearing and, in the center where he studies in Talavera, one of the practices consisted of shearing the sheep they have. “It is a very hard job, but at the same time very beautiful. Since I can remember, I do not remember any woman who has come to shear the sheep on the farm, although I do not know that she has. It is striking that in this world there are not so many women who are dedicated to livestock, and even fewer who are in charge of shearing the sheep; It is a job that requires a lot of strength, but above all skill so that the sheep do not move », she says.
That’s where she is, who as an apprentice has begun this year to take her first steps in shearing. “I hope that my experience adds to that of other young people and, above all, girls and women who are encouraged to work in this sector that is so in need of labor; and that it is not necessary to resort to so many foreign workers to carry out the tasks that we have always carried out, “says the young shearer.
“There are very professional people in shearing that take just two minutes to shear a sheep, but I need about ten,” says Laura González, who still needs more practice. The lesson she has received during her first experience as a shearer is that “the secret is to hold the animal in a good position so that the job is done as quickly and as easily as possible.”
Now, the sheep that Laura has sheared have stayed very cool for the hottest months of summer. Her wool is another source of income for her family’s livestock farm in Calzada de Calatrava, which she sells above all for the sale of milk to make Manchego cheese and her lambs. This young shearer stays there, and after this first beautiful experience she is already counting down the months to repeat next year.
