Efficient daily hair care?

[heatherleblanc]

In the past I have only had a couple calves to do, but this year I am going to have at least 5 animals to work with by myself, and I have to leave for school by about 7-7:30.    Do you rinse them all at once and then blow them all? Or how do you find you can do it the fastest and most efficient?

 

[obie105]

We rinse in the evening when we have more time. Just blow real quick, spray in conditioner, comb and feed in morning. Do the rinsing at night.

 

[frostback]

Not sure there is a right answere to this. I would just make sure they are getting worked. Not sure it matters what time you do it will matter much this time of year. You could do a couple in the AM and finish the rest in the PM, and alter who gets done when. Or you can do a experiment and do the same ones in the AM all the time and see if the hair comes on different with time you do them. Keeping the hair clean and conditioned is the right thing though.

 

[vc]

This time of the year, they stay out in the run all day and get brought in, in the evening to be worked, if it pouring rain we just bring them in and blow them out and tie them for awhile. At this time of the year it is more about getting your hands on them daily and getting them used to being worked.
The kid I am helping out is still playing football, they have 0-period in the morning at 6:30 (weightlifting) and practice after school it ends around 5:30, I told him to just bring them in when he gets home and blow them out and get a comb on them, rinse and wash on the weekends. Once football is aver start rinsing daily. I was over looking at the calves yesterday, once they were washed and blown out they looked show ready.
Come April first he will need to start rinsing 2 to 3 times a day, and wearing out the rice-root brushes.

 

[LoveToShowSteers]

I have had steers in the past have hair as a baby but when show time come around they start to lose a lot of hair, would washing them in the winter help prevent that or is there a way for them to keep the hair?

 

[heatherleblanc]

***** I am not planning on working with them each right now, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to do it once the 3 to 4 months mark hits

 

[vc]

If it is just you and you plan on rinsing twice a day, I think you will probably need to find a system that works for you. You may find that rinsing and putting in front of fans until you are done rinsing them all and blowing out in the same order may save you some time, if you can put them all in the wash rack at one and rinse them all at once may save you time. Bottom line is what ever you do it is going to take some time, if you hurry it will still take you about 2 hours at best, 3 hours worst case.

 

[grandchamp58]

my steer has more hair than my friends whom rinses once a day. I rinse my steer about 5 minutes, blow him, put some kleen sheen on, comb it in really well, blow that in, and sometimes i will work the leg hair with a rice root and scotch comb. He has tons of hair and looks show ready everyday. The best part is that it only takes 35 minutes.

 

[grandchamp58]

sorry, for my post above i meant that my steer has more hair than my friend whom rinses their steer twice a day

 

[vc]

Grandchamp58, take 35 minutes and multiply it by 5, how long is that? 2 hours and 55 minutes.

 

[HeiferShower14]

Double blowers help alot.

 

[heatherleblanc]

If it is just you and you plan on rinsing twice a day, I think you will probably need to find a system that works for you. You may find that rinsing and putting in front of fans until you are done rinsing them all and blowing out in the same order may save you some time, if you can put them all in the wash rack at one and rinse them all at once may save you time. Bottom line is what ever you do it is going to take some time, if you hurry it will still take you about 2 hours at best, 3 hours worst case.

Would it be okay to rinse, comb, and leave them wet, or is that going to cause them to heat MORE, and therefore LOOSE hair?

 

[carter o]

I would not leave them completly wet. If you needa save time use ur comb to get as much water off as u can and just do a quick blow. Even 2be mins to get the rest of the heavy water out will help. If u leave wet ur going to have a hard time getting the curls and stuff out.

 

[vc]

Leaving wet is said to create heat, body warms the water and they stay warmer longer.
We would leave the belly damp, but blow most the water out off the body, then put in front of fans with their morning feed and let them dry completely.
As stated you run into hair training problems by leaving them wet, and if they are tied wet and lay down it is bad as well.

Here is what I would suggest, rinse, scrape excess water off, comb, tie and feed, do the rest of your morning chores, get ready for school. Come back and use a double blower to blow rest of the water out, probably will take 5 to 10 minutes per animal to get them dry enough. We have what they call May Gray and June Gloom, (foggy mornings) we could never get them completely dry in the morning, but we got the water off them and the hair was up. and the skin was damp to the touch but no water standing or wet areas. We fed them then and let the fans blow the dry the rest of the way. In the evening they are blown out completely and the hair worked after rinsing and again before they get kicked out at night.

There are allot of routines, you have to find one that works for you and still promotes optimum hair growth, you may need to start one routine and modify it until you find a routine that works for you.