Blog #11

The GOAT(s): Fran and Zelda

So …,

There are a few breeds of goats that require periodic fiber removal.  Two that I’m familiar with are Angoras and Pygoras.  Pygora goats are a cross between angora and pygmy goats.  The other breed requiring fiber removal is the Cashmere goat.  While I’ve heard that some fiber producers comb their goats to remove fiber, that would almost need to be a daily event to keep tangles down and keep vegetable matter (burrs, twigs, straw, etc) from infiltrating the fiber.  

 

Fran and Zelda were the two Angoras we sheared recently.

Dede and I started an early morning trek to the north of Athens and were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise as well as deer, hawks, and squirrels on the drive.  We left early enough that our local coffee houses were still not open, but there was one on the way that was ready to go when we pulled into the drive-thru.  Has anyone else been to a Scooter’s Coffee?

Once we arrived the owner had the goats in their pen, and they seemed to eye me with suspicion.  I’ve sheared these two goats twice before, so maybe they had some vestigial memory of shearing.  As we were setting up the owner updated me on bumps, scrapes, and other things on and near the animals’ skin to be aware of.  Even though shearing is fully my responsibility, the owner is responsible for the animal and making sure I know to look for and watch out for makes for a lower stress day for us all.  That level of knowledge is certainly not possible in a flock of over a hundred sheep or goats, but with a flock that you can count on one hand with digits left over, it really helps and is a great indicator of the owner’s knowledge of their animal’s health.

    

Since goats have no lanolin, the shearing handpiece requires additional oil on the cutters periodically while shearing.  Sheep usually have enough lanolin to preclude this, but not so with goats.  These two goats have quite fine, silky fiber, which also means they slide around the board very easily, which is good and bad.  Fran and Zelda were both squirmy enough that I required Dede’s assistance holding them to get all the fiber off that I could.  These two goats also have curling horns on narrow heads, which is a challenge to shear around and under.  I’ve added goat combs to my inventory, so even with the squirms, kicks, slides, and horns, nothing got nicked on the goats or the shearer.

   

The difference between a goat comb and other combs is the number of teeth.  My regular sheep combs have 13 teeth, while goat combs have 19 teeth in the same size comb.  When you consider that you can get combs with as few as 9 teeth, this is a big difference.  The tips of a goat comb are about 3/16” apart, 13-tooth comb tips are just over 5/16” apart, and 9-tooth comb tips are just under ½” apart.  Think of it this way — a matchstick can fit between the teeth of a goat comb, a chopstick between 13-tooth comb tips, and a fingertip can fit in a 9-tooth comb.  For fine, open fiber on thin skin, 19 teeth are much safer and still shear fast.

At the end, both goats came out looking good, but they were anxious to get off the shearing board.  The photo-op shot Dede took was about a half-second before the goat launched out of my hands across the pen.  As we were cleaning up, the goats nibbled on some kibble and watched us work, not a care in the world beyond how many treats they might get that day, and definitely cooler for the summer ahead.

This gig being north of Athens meant we came home down US-441, which steered us right in front of Farm 441.  While Dede looked at English Thyme and flowers, I looked at ice cream.  Hardly a shock, we finished the stop with a few herbs and a bowl of peachberry ice cream, much like we did about three weeks ago.  Driving through Georgia and not being on interstate highways truly has advantages.

C-Ya!

*** No animals were harmed in the making of this post. Shearing is an important part of sheep farming for the wellbeing of the sheep. ***