Getting that first shave in for shows..... ugh

allenslabs · #1 05/04/07, 02:02 PM

This sunday will be the first show of the season and so shaving is upon us here. I've been working trying to get em all shaved and oh man! Talk about wearing a gal out! HAHA! I have 2 dry yearlings (a saanen and an obe) and they gave me a run for my money. But a pretty shaved goat looks so nice. Actually they look best a few days AFTER the shave but still they do look good. This way I can see what I actually own instead of all kinds of hair! Now that I can actually SEE what I own I am again reminded that..... my girls is so perdy! LOL! I just love em and they're so soft. Hooves are done and now the hair and all I need to do is udders which I'll do saturday night.

So, if any of you get bored and wanna see at least 200 head of dairy goats feel free to head to the bedford fairgrounds!!

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #2 05/04/07, 02:32 PM

I soo cheat...I hire a girl to shave everyone in the herd the first shave of spring...her clippers her blades to sharpen and $10 to me. Then I give touchups before appraisal and shows. It's part of the cost of goat keeping for me...oh she also comes out monthly and trims buck feet

Vicki

allenslabs · #3 05/04/07, 03:00 PM

Man I want that girl for a neighbor! HAHA! No one here thinks you need to feed goats anything but tin cans let alone shave em. I was at the fairgrounds where we were setting up the livestock expo this weekend and was talking about the goat show and the guy there said the only good way to see a goat is hung up being bar b qued if that gives you an idea of how goats are viewed here. LOL! I told him that if he wanted to see what real goats looked like to come to the show this weekend. LOL.... so mine need to be REALLY clean and look nice. I just have one more to shaves and I'm trying to decide if I really want to as she's a small Obe and has a really nice coat anyhow. My bucks need it (at least one does) but I'm not sure that I wanna wrestle em to the ground as I'm sure neither has been shaved before and them yearling does were bad enough let alone 2 yearling bucks! HAHA!

CountryHaven · #4 05/04/07, 03:06 PM

I'm so dying to shave, but the weather up here is still just so funky. This Monday and Tuesday we had 90's, then Wednesday dumped into the 40's and today and yesterday were between 50 and 40 with cool breezes--today feels like rain. Plus one of them has a lot of white. How do you handled that with the all white saanens and sunburn possibility? Any problems with that?

HHR · #5 05/04/07, 03:16 PM

My daughter has white lamanchas, lots of baby powder after shaving. We have a couple that stay in the barn for a few days.

allenslabs · #6 05/04/07, 05:10 PM

Good ole fashioned sunblock. HAHA! Most don't have too many problems but Good has a tendency to like to sunbath afterwards and get scorched. So I just put some sunblock on her and do it that way. I've had one or two get burned but they pretty much don't do too bad.

ailsaek · #7 05/04/07, 05:23 PM

If you're not showing, is it OK to skip shaving?

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #8 05/04/07, 05:59 PM

I shave everyone and we don't show bucks or kids. It makes them so much cooler in the humidity here, and they look like they are worth something. We always tease during the winter that nobody would come and steal them with all that long hair they look like the nannies and billies at the auction barn

Now up in misquito country keeping the hair on them makes sense. But at least shave bellies, rears, and udders if you have dairy stock. Vicki

Tracy in Idaho · #9 05/04/07, 07:43 PM

I'd really like to know why the need to do the first shave of the year inevitably means the temperature drops 20 degrees

Our first show is the 12th, and of course our 60'ish degree weather dropped to a nice 24 degrees this morning. Supposed to start warming up again, so I've put shaving off until Sunday.

Tracy

allenslabs · #10 05/04/07, 11:07 PM

HAHA! Yeah for whatever reason when you need to shave it gets butt cold out. Not really sure why that is. Like it had been in the lower 80's and high 70's till I made the final decision to clip one. Then ALL the forecasters were wrong and the sun turned to rain and the warmth turned to sweathshirt weather. It was great.

CountryHaven · #11 05/05/07, 11:14 AM

Is it true that if you have a group, and you don't shave them all on the same day (sort of right away one right after the other) that there will be tusseling and squabbling over position again in the group? I'd love to clip my three dairy girls but I'd rather they not set out at squabbling over position again especially since one is due to kid in a few weeks.

Forgot to add: I'd PREFER for my own comfort to be able to shave one a day, not all three in one day.

xoxoGOATSxoxo · #12 05/05/07, 04:45 PM

Do you find that the hair grows back so much thicker and coarser after shaving? My oldest does were these prickly shavebrushes, and the babies are so soft. Then I shave them, and when the hair grows backs its all thick and rough. Rougher each year. I only showed my ALpine once, (therefore I only shaved her once) and her hair is so nice! It's sleek and fine and cool and grows tight to her skin in the summer, But is wooly in the winter. She's the only one I never shave in summer, because she never needs it.