Recommend you plan to pick after you shear, unless you can keep him on
clean pasture after you comb him out. Combing WILL blow the lock
structure so making Santa beards will be pretty much blown.

Why shear now? Usually the fall shearing is for lambs born in the
spring that are going to the locker, and for some breeds such as
Icelandics that put on inordinate amounts of growth otherwise...

On 3 Nov 2003 01:43:09 GMT, enigma wrote:

i have a cleaning question or 6...
Radar, the lovely Angora wether, is due for fall shearing
this week (as soon as i get his polarfleece coat finished...
can't have the poor thing freezing). anyway, being his typical
obnoxious goaty self, he's got hay & such in his hair. do i
try to wash & comb him out before shearing (he had a bath a
few weeks after he was neutered & boy did that improve his
appearance & smellg)? or do i have to hand pick a couple
pounds of mohair? before or after i wash it? on the off chance
he may have picked up lice while on pasture, how does one
remove the remains without destroying the fiber?
TIA. i ruined his kid cut
lee