Shearing!

Shearing time has just finished here at MacGregor Hollow. It is much colder than usual this time of year and some of the goats are now sporting sweaters. It typically takes me about 40 minutes to shear, deworm and trim the feet on each goat. I also like to do an initial skirting at shearing and toss all of the felted or otherwise undesirable fleece as I go. Four goats are a typical shearing day for me, so shearing occurs over a few weeks.

When I started shearing years ago, I found that I didn't have good luck shearing the goats in the typical style with the goat on the ground. After a few ugly cuts on the goats and a big hit on my nose with the back of a goat's head (I actually saw stars!) I gave that up. So, I shear with the goats on a stanchion. My stanchion has a ramp to walk the goats up on and removable side rails. I like to place a side rail on the opposite side of where I am working to hold the goat on the stanchion. I use my Oster Showmaster shearer for the majority of each goat. I use 2 types of combs, mohair combs and 20 tooth goat combs. The Mohair combs come from Heininger. The teeth are lower in the center and flare out longer at both sides. I tend to use the Mohair combs on adults The 20 tooth goat combs are taller in the middle and taper shorter on both ends. I like these for the kids.

Starting at the middle of the topline, I make strokes down the sides of the goat from top to bottom, going under the belly as well. Then I shear down the outside of the legs. I try to be patient with the back legs, many of the goats kick out some or squat down as I try to shear the back end and I don't want to nick any of the animals. I shear the neck and chest area up to the head restraint.

For the tight areas, I like to use a set of hand-shears - old fashioned ones with red handles. This works well for inside the legs, the udder area and the head and neck around the head restraint. I like them better than scissors, I find that I'm less likely to cut the goat and they spring open automatically, saving alot of time and effort for me.

The pay-off of all this work is an amazing bounty of 23 gorgeous fleeces to have fun with. There are beautiful shades of grays, taupes and white fleeces from kid to adult. I'm so excited!!!!