Hair question?

[Mainevent]

If I was going to be taking a baby heifer to junior nationals in order for her to not be shucking hair at junior nationals would you recommend rough clipping and her head or shear her end of february?

 

[cmmilc62]

Body clip her.  Winter is the best time to practice clipping, also.  My dad and I often clip the calf completely, then body clip the whole body.  DO NOT SLICK SHEER THE ANIMAL.  Your goal is to cut the dead ends off, just as you would get your hair trimmed. Slick steering gets rid of the healthy hair already grown.

 

[Barry Farms]

How long should you leave their hair? Or a better question would be how much to remove?

 

[chambero]

Being from the same part of the world, I have had steers that I've had to slick in the summer to keep them eating.  Ive never done it on one in the spring.

Honestly, the shedding combs available now have revolutionized getting rid of dead hair.  Infinitely better than griddle bricks, etc.  I'd suggest using that at the first sign of shedding in late Feb/early March.

As far as Im concerned the stuff about clipping heads is an old (new) wives tale.  By summer, they are going to have shed their winter hair no matter what.  Genetics will determine how much they grow back.

 

[Mainevent]

So chambero you're saying just let genetics take over don't worry about clipping or shearing? She's a monopoly x salute/double stuff shorthorn so genetically she's hairy.

 

[chambero]

I would treat her like every other calf you've shown.  You're in Decatur right?

 

[Mainevent]

Yes sir. You're up around Wichita Falls right?

 

[chambero]

Yep. What age heifer are you talking about?  I'm assuming you are talking about a fall born?  I'd clip her just like you would any prospect - I'd think avoiding clipping completely would result in too much dead hair still around in June.  I really dont think slicking her off would make hair come back faster.  If she's so hairy you can't keep her cool I'd consider it, but that's usually a July/Aug problem.  No kidding - those shedding combs are great.

 

[Mainevent]

Yeah she's a fall born. I usually don't mess with it, I clipped the bull I took to junior nationals in March for our county show to show as a prospect steer and he had a good amount of hair at nationals and didn't have the hair genetics.