[Jacob-list] adventures in goat kid shearing

[Elaina Kenyon]

I know this isn't sheep, but it does relate to shearing so please bear with
me.  If anyone has any particularly good tips for shearing angora goat kids.
Please share them.  I do the adults on a shearing stand with hand shears
which works okay, but this doesn't work for kids because of size, tendency
to wiggle, etc.

Yesterday I attempted to shear my first goat kid.  This morning there is a
half shorn goat kid happily cavorting through the pasture with her mother.
I decided to shear her on a canvas tarp on the ground and tie her feet
together in approved Texas-style the way they describe it in the angora goat
book.  Well the goat kid screamed the minute I touched her and kept on
bellowing (this is fairly normal).  Trouble was that her mother was on one
side of the gate systematically smashing the gate to try to get to me and
her kid; on the other side of the gate the Great Pyrenees is pacing back and
forth alternately whining and growling and looking totally flustered.
Things were going very slow because neither my Burgin & Ball small hand
shears or the tender touch fiskar sissors I had were cutting well in that
fine oily hair.  Suddenly I realized that there was blood everywhere.  On
the shears, the goat and me, but I couldn't find where it was coming from.
At this point I was as flustered as the dog, hugging #39 and telling her how
sorry I was.  Deciding that now was a good time for a break, I went to the
house and there realized that the blood was coming from the 3/4 gash in my
thumb.  End of shearing for that day.  I have figured out that this activity
does need to take place away from where both mother goats and dog are
located.  However I still need to figure out a better way to cut through all
that fine hair.

Elaina  
Avillion Farm
Apex, NC