Slick Shearing show cattle

I am wondering if anybody ever slick sheers their show cattle in march after its started to warm up? How fast does it grow back?

I've heard of a few people doing this and they claim the hair comes in much nicer and its a lot easier to work with instead of trying to get the dead winter hair out.
Does anybody have any opinions on this?

I like in Wisconsin and I don't have a heated wash rack yet so cattle in the winter don't get much work so I'm looking for a way to make up for lost time. First show is end of May.

Thank you.

we are in northern indiana and slick shear about first part of april to show in July.  I like it and the hair does seem to work nicely.  We wash well before we shear as it saves on the blades and just goes quicker

We live in Texas and do if after Houston which is about the 3rd week of March. I think it makes it a lot easier and their hair looks a lot better. DO NOT shave the hair on their belly, legs, or tailhead!!!

The Show said:

We live in Texas and do if after Houston which is about the 3rd week of March. I think it makes it a lot easier and their hair looks a lot better. DO NOT shave the hair on their belly, legs, or tailhead!!!

Click to expand...

agreed. we shear after houston. but you have to leave the above hair. because it is the hardest to grow back

I have seen slickin them work well, and have also had some real train wrecks.   Slicked a steer one time, and he never did hair up again.   Was shaggy haired, slicked him, he never grew hair again.   would put him in the cooler wet and he would just shiver, didn't grow a bit of hair.   I guess you have to decide if its a risk you wanna take.

The Show said:

We live in Texas and do if after Houston which is about the 3rd week of March. I think it makes it a lot easier and their hair looks a lot better. DO NOT shave the hair on their belly, legs, or tailhead!!!

Click to expand...

thanks for the info we are going to try it this year also and was wondering about legs and tail head.

we didn't do it in the past but we will continue now. started doing it a couple years ago and the hair came back just as well with less wave/curl in wavy haired ones and the really coarse haired ones came back softer. i shear in march and heifers normally come in from the bull around may/june and they had it back to coat quality similar to december/january months.

one heifer didn't fuzz back up but she was always a little hard haired. kinda had the real thin long stuff as a calf and it took a lot of brushing to train it to pop in the winter.

My nephew may show a breeding calf or 2 in May & again in June.  I was thinking about taking it down to 5/8 or 3/4 inch sometime when I wean them later this month or in early March, but curious what others thought about the length as that would be about 60-75 days of regrowth which I think will be about right.  I don't expect a high level of competition and not even worried about winning... most of the others will be slick, but I want the calf/calves to have just a little "pop" & look nice.  FWIW, we've slicked steers down to 1/4 inch with a Texas Cattle Comb in March or early April for an August State Fair Show & that worked well.  However, this is a little different.    

   

Another thing I forgot to add is after you shear them it's good to spray them down with some revive or pink because the sun will dry their skin out and sunburn them with the least bit of exposure.

it really depends on the weather and when your going to show them. I like to slick them right before winter then just clip them every month after. Also i fully wash them every two weeks and atleast blow and spray some water on them every day on mon-fri if im not busy