Angora goats are world-renowned for their luxurious fiber, and so they’ve been selectively bred over a long time to produce as much fiber as possible.
Even if you are keeping Angora goats without any intention to sell their fiber, you will need to shear it off them at least once a year.
Let’s find out more.
Do you have to shear Angora goats?
You do need to shear Angora goats, though there are a few minor caveats to this.
As I said, mohair yield of any given individual goat is going to vary a lot, so some may need to be shorn a lot less frequently than others.
Indeed, depending on your local climate, it may only ever be necessary to give your goats a little trim and nothing more.
Keep the coat tidy and free from matting or clumping and you’ve done your job.
On the other hand, given that Angora goats have been bred for the sole purpose of growing as high a yield of mohair as possible, Angora goats in general produce more hair than this.
So, if you are thinking about Angora goats and the issue of having to regularly shear them is a deal breaker for you, then you should go in assuming you will have to shear them at least once a year.
They’ve been very successfully engineered to produce a great deal of mohair, and in the context of mohair farms, the goats are usually shorn twice a year.
The hair will just keep growing if it is not shorn, and this can end up causing issues for the goat.
Indeed, the same is true of sheep—they need to be shorn regularly otherwise their wool will simply grow and grow to the point that it is a hindrance to the sheep.
So, yes, you have to shear Angora goats.
I’ll look in more detail at how regularly you might have to do this in different circumstances, but again, you should always assume you’ll have to shear them before you embark on owning them.
So, how do you do it?
How do you shear Angora goats?
Exactly how to shear an Angora goat will depend a bit on their temperament.
That said, for the most part, Angora goats are very docile and friendly, and won’t be much bothered by being held in place for shearing.
The best choice is to get a shearing platform that you can strap the goat into, so that it can’t run away while you are shearing it.
Get it used to this before you try to shear it and it should stay more or less still for the shearing.
You will also want to get an electric shearer, or your work will take many times longer than it could.
With an electric shearer and your goat comfortably strapped into the shearing stand, raised off the ground to make it easier, shearing the goats will be a breeze.
Simply run the cutter down from the top of the back, making sure the edge doesn’t run off the edge of the comb.
Do this gently but try to do it as quickly as you can without rushing—the goat will get more and more antsy the longer it has to stand there.
It will take one or two attempts before you are fully comfortable shearing the goat, but by that point it will come pretty naturally.
How often does this need to be done?
How often do you have to shear Angora goats?
In general you can expect to need to shear your Angora goats twice a year.
There is a lot of room for variation in this, of course, and it can depend on a lot of factors.
As I said, any one Angora goat may have a much higher or much lower yield than the average.
With that said, very few Angora goats are going to need to be shorn more than twice a year, if any.
For some of the lowest fiber producing Angora goats, you may only need to trim their coats every now and then.
This, however, is likely to be a more regular, smaller job than a full shearing.
If you wanted to just have one or two big jobs a year, go for the full shearing—otherwise, give them a trim every few months or so.
What happens if you don’t shear Angora goats?
If you don’t shear an Angora goat then eventually its coat will become uncomfortably long.
It will begin to hinder movement and the hair will start to become matted and very uncomfortable for the goat.
While some goats might do just fine with the amount of natural shedding their coat will do, you shouldn’t expect this to be the case with Angoras.
In order to keep them happy, they need to be regularly shorn.
Angora goats make fantastic companions, and many people favor the breed for this reason.
However, owning them is going to involve shearing them at least once a year.
While this can be a somewhat arduous task, it really isn’t as bad as you might expect.
Besides, by the time you’ve done shearing the sheep, you’ve got some fresh, luxurious fiber that you can sell or donate, or even use yourself!
More in Angora
- Are Angora Goats Easy To Look After?
- Are Angora Goats Friendly?
- Are Angora Goats Good For Meat?
- Are Angora Goats Good Milkers?
- Are Angora Goats Hardy?
- Are Angora Goats Profitable?
- Are Angora Goats Rare?
- Do Angora Goats Need To Be Shorn?
- How Long Do Angora Goats Live?
- How Much Does An Angora Goat Cost?