Shaved my first goat today - Shame on you all for not warning me...

[freemotion]

The right tools are critical to speed, too. When I worked full-time with show horses, a wall-mounted clipper sped up my clipping time big time. The clipper head stayed cool and the unit was quiet and the handset was quite mobile. This also led to more cooperative horses.

Someone could make a tasty wad of cash by traveling to farms and clipping goats....if you charged only $20 per head and could get two done an hour....not a bad deal on both ends. If it saved the owner 2-3 hours per goat, they would consider $20 to be a great deal. Hmmm.....

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

The right tools are critical to speed, too. When I worked full-time with show horses, a wall-mounted clipper sped up my clipping time big time. The clipper head stayed cool and the unit was quiet and the handset was quite mobile. This also led to more cooperative horses.

Someone could make a tasty wad of cash by traveling to farms and clipping goats....if you charged only $20 per head and could get two done an hour....not a bad deal on both ends. If it saved the owner 2-3 hours per goat, they would consider $20 to be a great deal. Hmmm.....

$20 per goat would be way cheap for the groomer.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

I was shaving our new buck Falkor just now, and had to stop for a bit! Between trying to comb out his THICK udercoat from over winter, and the animal clippers not wanting to operate correctly... it is a pain. He is everything you could ask for though! He just stands there feeling the vibrations from the clippers and has this,"I'm in goat heaven" look on his sweet little face! Washing will tell for sure, but it appears that this "dirty white" buck is actually a light to medium caramel(going by the first inch of hair going out from his skin)

 

[freemotion]

The right tools are critical to speed, too. When I worked full-time with show horses, a wall-mounted clipper sped up my clipping time big time. The clipper head stayed cool and the unit was quiet and the handset was quite mobile. This also led to more cooperative horses.

Someone could make a tasty wad of cash by traveling to farms and clipping goats....if you charged only $20 per head and could get two done an hour....not a bad deal on both ends. If it saved the owner 2-3 hours per goat, they would consider $20 to be a great deal. Hmmm.....

$20 per goat would be way cheap for the groomer.

$40? Would people pay it or just muddle through? If someone could do 2 goats an hour and had, say, 8 goats to do, they could make a nice hourly wage for a morning's work.

Of course, travel would be taken into consideration. I charge about double and have a 2 session minimum to take my massage table out to a person's home. I end up getting about $50 per hour or more for driving, essentially. Not my highest hourly pay, but a nice wage for sitting and listening to the radio or books on tape!

 

[julieq]

I'd pay 20.00 per goat just to not get goat hair down my shirt!

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

A typical groom on a dog that takes under an hour is $40-$60.

 

[KellyHM]

A typical groom on a dog that takes under an hour is $40-$60.

Last time I called one of the groomers down here they told me around $25.

 

[freemotion]

Yes, but what will the market bear? Goat owners are probably mostly do-it-yourselfers. Let's say one can make $30-40 per hour. Still a nice wage.

And a goat is less likely to shred you like a dog would. Well, depends on the goat.....

 

[chandasue]

Someone near here posted on craigslist that they'd do shearing for $10/animal + $50 trip charge with a max of 15 animals to give you an idea of the going rate here in MN.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

Yes, but what will the market bear? Goat owners are probably mostly do-it-yourselfers. Let's say one can make $30-40 per hour. Still a nice wage.

I mostly agree with you, but it's important to factor in the cost of the equipment and major wear and tear on your blades. If you were bringing home $30-$40 per hour after your costs are covered it'd be worth it, provided it wasn't a wrestling match!

KellyHM, $25 for a full service groom is nuts! I'd have quit my job long ago.