Shearing through Covid-19
March 2020
TopKnot Shearing provides a critical and essential service to our customers. We are making contingency preparations and plan to shear all of our customers’ animals for them this season. Our season is limited to a specific time frame for the health and well being of the animals. If we wait to shear the animals until later this summer, they could suffer from heat stoke and potentially die before we shear them. Also if we push the season back later into the summer, the animals will not have enough fiber regrowth before winter to stay warm through the cold winter months. That being said, we have pushed our whole season back two weeks. This is farthest we can push it back and still get all the animals sheared within a reasonable timeframe. We also postponed our training seminar in early April so that crewmembers would not be travelling unnecessarily to Montana.
Protocol for TopKnot in 2020:
*Disinfecting all of our equipment in between farms-including our hands. (we already do this)
*No hugs or handshakes with the customer at customer’s farms.
*Not entering into our customer’s homes. (If we must enter the customer’s home to use the bathroom, we will disinfect our hands before and after)
*Any crewmember who is sick or starting to get sick will not come to the farms.
What customers can do to help us out:
* We love seeing each of you every year but please don’t expect a hug or a handshake from us this season. (Just for this year-we will make up for it next year!)
* Please don’t invite extra people to watch the shearing.
*Pay by card, check, or online the day of service.(no cash please).
*Any customer who is feeling ill, the day of or two days prior to shearing, should stay inside the house. We will take care of everything: shearing, animal handling, bagging fiber, etc. Customers will receive an electronic invoice and have option to pay online.
*If you want to prepare a meal, please make food TO GO that does not need a lot of handling. (IE don’t let everyone make his or her own sandwiches) THANK YOU!
* We love coming into your homes and getting to know your families but please (just for this season) don’t invite us into your home.
*Items listed here are subject to change as more information about the virus is revealed.