MY SCHOOL JOURNAL

My new bucks needed to be shorn before they could go and meet my girls, if I left their long fiber on there was a chance they might get fly-strike or that they might just get so wet and sodden in winter that they would get cast on the ground and die. I have decided to call my bigger buck Ronald after the man who shore them, Mum was going to do it and then this man who had come to shoot geese told us he was a shearer, he shore them for us. My smaller buck I have called Halt after a character in a book I read.

Ronald’s fleece weighed 3.75kg and Halt’s weighed 2.5kg.

Ronald’s fleece in front.

Me checking the fiber for contaminates.

Once the fleeces are off the goats they need to be “skirted” which means any rough edg bits need to be removed and any stain or grass or sticks need to be taken out.

stained fiber and good fiber.

Then the fleeces are bundled into their own plastic bags and we sen them off to the buyers. When they get there they are classed into different categories depending on their length,  style, character and type.

Kid fiber is worth the most money because it is finest (about 24-26 microns) “teenage goats” produce the next finest fiber and from then on it gets thicker with age. I am interested to hear how fine the fleeces are from my bucks because the finer it is the longer I can keep my adult goats in the future.

I’m not sure but i think this fiber is about 25-30 microns?

Me bagging Halts fleece.

Rons fleece in its bag.