LFP 211: Livestock Farm Practice (0+1)

CLIPPING

Horses

• The growth of hair varies according to the season of the year to provide comfort to the animals. Hard work and heavy coat causes excessive sweating which tires the animal easily and makes it loose condition. It also renders the animal much more liable to chills. The extra labour involved by grooming a long haired horse is avoided by clipping. For these reasons horses are clipped about twice during the winter.
• Automatic clipping machines or hand clippers can be used. Horses have to be restrained according to their temperament, clipping is done against the flow of the hair. The machine should be used on a clean horse. They should not be used on manes or tails. Hand clippers are used to hogg. the manes and to trim the fetlocks.
• Clipping out: means all over including the legs. It is done for appearance sake or for dealing with skin affection.
• Hunters clip: Means clipping all over except the legs. It protects the legs from cold and injuries.
• Saddle patch: A saddled horses is clipped all over the body leaving the hair under the saddle intact. This prevents the feel of the cold saddle and also avoids irritation by the short stumps of clipped hairs which are apt to be forced down into the horse’s skin by the weight of the rider and the saddle and thus irritate the skin.
• Clipping trace high: Heavy and light draught horse working in towns are clipped trace high. Here a large patch of hair is left covering the upper parts of the trunk down to the level of the points of the shoulders and then straight back. Hair is removed from below this level down to about half of the distance between elbows and knees in front and stifles and hocks behind.
• Clipping fetlocks: while clipping the “feather,” the length of the hair should be gradually edged off so that no apparent ridge is left. But the hairs in the fetlock allow water to drain off better and is therefore a prevention of cracked heels.
• Hogging: Means clipping the mane. It is done with hand clippers. A mane is supposed to give protection from the tropical sun.
• Banged tail: The long hair of the tail is cut off level with the hocks with a pair of tail shears, if it sloped upwards and forwards. It will be carried a hand’s breadth above the hocks when the horse moves and the cut end will be almost square ie parallel to the ground.
• Fan tails: Are tails which have been docked and have had the hairs cut off or “pulled” about 2 to 3” below the stump.
• Rat tail clip: Is one in which the hairs growing on the lower half of the undocked tail are cut off close to the skin. The hair growing from the upper half is left long and is frequently plaited or dressed in other ways during work. It is used for heavy draught horses only.
• Pulling: To trim a tail either a long one or a fan, tail, a few hairs at a time of a small lock should be pulled from the lower surface with mane comb also any long straggling hairs from the sides.
• Singing: Is to burn off long hairs. A gas lamp or a mineral oil lamp may be used in conjunction with a mane comb to remove the feather from the fetlocks o long hairs from round the jaw or to remove the so called “cat hairs” or the ridges left by the clippers.

Cows

• Dairy cows only need to be clipped. The hair is removed for the region of the udder, the sides of the abdomen and from the tail and hind quarters.
• SheepClipping of hair in sheep is know as shearing. Fine wooled sheep are shorn short while coarse wooled breeds are shorn such that one inch wool is left in the skin for protection. Sheep are shown once o twice a year depending on the climatic factors as well as the breed involved.
• Two methods of shearing are (1) along the sheep and (2) around the sheep. It is necessary first to open to fleece which consists of sitting the sheep upon its buttocks and starting at the throat clipping down over the breast and belly to the udder. If the sheep is to be clipped “along” the wool is then clipped in parallel strokes from head to hind quarters until the back is reached, first one side is done with the sheep lying on the opposite side of the body, then it is turned and the other side is done each stroke being kept even and regular , the blades of the shears being kept flat to the skin and level. If the skin is kept loose, shear – cuts may happen.
• In the alternative method of clipping, the fleece is “opened” in the same way then the sheep is turned with the back away from the Shearer and the wool is removed by strokes going round the sheep from the fleece opening at the throat, first round the neck, then round the shoulders, back and so on. During this time the sheep is kept sitting more or less upright on its buttocks.

Dogs

• May be clipped for dealing with cases of skin affections. Poodles and other breeds are clipped or trimmed for show purposes.
• In eastern Countries dogs are clipped in hot weather except at the chest region. Plucking or stripping with a knife, is a better method to get rid of surplus hair. Hand plucking is often preferred for dogs for show purposes. Daily use of dandy brush keeps the dog’s coat I good condition.