First time sheering

[misfitmorgan]

Now WHY didn't *I* think of that View attachment 44289

Actually, all of Teddy's barrel and partway up his neck was done with the electric shears. I don't know how many times I took the cutter and comb off and cleaned them out, then reinstalled. Used a ton of oil.

I'm still wondering what went wrong there......

 

[Bruce]

I'm HOPING it has mostly to do with the REALLY short bits from "second cuts" combined with the oil glomming up the cutter/comb. This year I'm going to ignore the lack of evenness and see if it doesn't go better.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Don't shoot for even just shoot for sheared. Second cuts will kill you. We do not aim for smooth, if we want a super smooth look we will go back after the animal is completely sheared and take off a little more where needed but generally unless they are going to be shown there is no point to aiming for smooth.

 

[mystang89]

So sheering smooth is literally down to it's both suit?

 

[Latestarter]

Think Marine corps crew cut

 

[Bruce]

So sheering smooth is literally down to it's both suit?

I ASSUME "both" was supposed to be "birthday"??
When I think "smooth" I'm thinking not a lot of high and low spots all over the animal. A good shearer doesn't leave high spots, ridges, etc. But as @misfitmorgan said, if you aren't showing, it isn't important.

Sheep are usually sheared a bit shorter than camelids though I don't know why. But I ordered the camelid comb when I bought my shears (which come with a standard comb, no swapping one for the other).

 

[mystang89]

Yep, auto correct strike again. Lol.

 

[misfitmorgan]

No you definitely don't shear to it's birthday suit.

Show sheep are sheared down to about a 1/4" of fleece left on their hide. If your shearing for the animals health only there are no benefits to shearing that closely. It looks nice for a few weeks yes but unless your going to blanket or sheet them, pink skinned sheep can get sunburn. Also if your pasture has anything "rough" in it like brush or sticks they can get scrapped up by it with the super short fleece.

 

[Bruce]

I obviously am not showing anything but IMO, the animals look better with more "covering". If I were in charge of judging such things, I'd give higher marks to a nice looking animal with at least 1/2", better a full inch. Nice and smooth of course.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I obviously am not showing anything but IMO, the animals look better with more "covering". If I were in charge of judging such things, I'd give higher marks to a nice looking animal with at least 1/2", better a full inch. Nice and smooth of course.

While i understand and agree i like my sheep better with more fleece,the idea behind short fleece is your not able to hide any negatives. You can hide a wrongly angled rump or a small butt, shallow brisket, etc with fleece.....these are meat sheep mostly so carcass is important.