Hair-cuts for other bleaters

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 1

Hair-cuts for other bleaters

Mr Bob Michie, a Wool Board shearing instructor from Ngaruawahia,. sheared his first, goats in the shed of Mr J. G. Gunn at Darfield yesterday. Mr Michie was among a group of the board’s provincial instructors from all parts of New Zealand attending a! course held periodically to update and standardise instruction procedures. , The childlike bleat of a goat on the sheafing board is still rather an unfamik iar sound, but it may become common if goat numbers increase and they have to be shorn twice a year. ' The board’s field director, Mr Godfrey Bowen, who was with the party has recently returned from South Africa where he found that about three million goats are shorn twice a year. In thotnbush - type country, he said, farmers ran about 70 per cent sheep, 20 .per cent goats, and 10 per cent cattle, each type of stock being . . complementary in grazing pattern. Mr Bowen said if - had been agreed that the board would assist the South Africans with their shear* ing. standards and that, of course, took in goats as well. Mr I. L. Rutherford, the board’s chief shearing instructor; in the South .flsand, is one of two men who • will go to South Africa to help. "One animal,. shorn yesterday by Mr Michie

was a wether goat about six years old. It clipped I.Bkg of , fibre at its halfyear shearing. Mr Michie said afterwards that he had encountered some difficulties; if he pushed the comb it seemed to run over the top of the fibre and he also found the wether, in particular, very active. The lack of grease in the goat. fibre results in the comb’s tending to heat, -and so special combs have been devised for goats. Mr Bowen said that in South Africa it was found that goats tended to be delicate animals and were susceptible to disease. Losses also resulted from the activities of a bloodsucking tick, which did not affect sheep.