Getting in the way

Ready

Now that I had accomplished my first camping trip, I was super eager to try more trips.  Unfortunately, there are a bunch of farm animals to take care of.  Before you go all crazy on me, I don’t mean anything bad by saying “unfortunately”.  I adore all my animals and wouldn’t trade them for anything.  But some of the responsibilities are harder than others and this was the job that is harder and scarier than all the rest; shearing.

Hairy goats

Shearing

The goats need to be sheared twice a year, give or take.  Their fleece grows at about ¾” a month.  While it is gorgeous stuff, if you leave it too long, they get hot, itchy, the fleece gets matted with hay and other vegetable matter, and it gets more difficult to clean and pick once it’s off the animal.  The scary part is, those electric shears are sharp and they can do some SERIOUS damage if you aren’t careful.  I try to be really careful, but I have nicked my own finger and a couple of goats.  It breaks my heart every single time.  These guys are overdue to be sheared and we’ve had to wait until it cooled off a little and the fires let up.  I don’t want to heatstroke the little guys out!  That also means, no motorcycle trips until I get them sheared.

Prep for shows

Before the COVID this year, we were planning to show some of our goats.  Some of the shows have rules that the goats need to have been sheared in the current year.  Last year, I sheared them in March because that is when it starts to get warm here.  The first show was in June and we were docked because our goats fleece wasn’t long enough.  Lesson learned.  This year I sheared the show goats in January so they would have a full fleece in time for the shows.  The shows that never happened.  I sheared the rest of the goats in June.  Now it is much later in the year and the show goats are overdue.

No expert

Shearing goats isn’t easy for me.  I grew up a city girl and, though I was around horses a lot, I definitely wasn’t around goats or sheep and had no experience with shearing.  I decided to try it though when I found out what it would cost to get someone to come out to the farm and do it.  We have had the goats for about 2 years and I am definitely getting better at shearing, but I’m no expert.  I have my own system and it seems to work.  I do the head, then the belly and the insides of the legs, then put them on the stand to finish them off.  They are not keen on this operation, but they don’t argue too much.  Usually.

Shearing last year

Things to do

Some of the goats didn’t need to be sheared, as I said, I sheared them later in the year, but, for the boys, I wanted to clean up the pizzles (where the pee comes out) and clean up their legs and faces where they pee on themselves during rut.  (This is gross, but THEY think it’s sexy.  The girls seem to agree).  Two of the boys needed to be completely sheared, and two needed to be cleaned up.  More of the girls needed to be completely sheared, and the rest would need to be cleaned up around the butt and the faces.  Everyone will get their nails trimmed and they’ll be treated for lice.  Yes, goats get lice.  We don’t get them from the goats, but when the fleece is long, those lice drive the goats crazy.  I’ll also get poop samples to run fecal exams to check for internal parasites.

         

Trimming feet                                                Starting with the head                            Starting to shear the body  

It takes me some time to complete the shearing process.  I have a bad back and sometimes I just can’t do anymore.  The first day, I cleaned up a couple of the boys and quit.  My back was hurting and it was hot.  The next day I cleaned up our three withers (neutered males) and sheared two goats.  The next day I got more goats knocked out and today I finished all but the two big bucks.  They need to be fully sheared and they are in rut.  This is breeding time and they are overloaded with testosterone.  I really don’t want to deal with those two, so I’ll wait on them until the weather cools off and they get back to normal.

A boy in rut is no fun to shear.

Better

As I said, I have gotten better at the shearing and this time, while still nervous, I noticed I wasn’t in terror regarding the shearing.  I was much more relaxed than I’ve ever been.  It helped that I was using sharp blades for the first time ever!  I have bought combs and cutters for my shearing machine, and I always assumed they came sharp.  After last shearing season, they were all dull, so I found a local sharpener James Slaughter and he hooked me up.  Dang!  Those combs and cutters went right through the hair with no problem!  I was stunned.  Since the cutting was going so much easier and I wasn’t as terrified, I focused more on not getting any second cuts.  Second cuts are when you don’t cut the hair right next to the skin and have to go back and cut it again.  This ruins the fleece and takes longer to get the fleece off the animal.

Getting the fleece off

I did notice that, with concentration, I was a lot better at getting the fleece off the goats without second cuts and, I did not nick a single goat.  That was a reason to celebrate!  No one, not me, not the goats, got hurt and no one bled!  I was thrilled.

Before and after

Done

And, now the goats are sheared.  This means I can go on more practice motorcycle camping trips!  Now I just need to figure out where I can go on a weekend that will give me enough miles to simulate a day that I’ll have on my trip, and isn’t on fire!