About PBA

No Pygora shows in your state? Not a problem, just ship your goat in a box to the show. Actually, for PBA-sanctioned fiber shows, you can keep the goat at home and just send the fleece. It is a fun way to show-off pygora’s main product. It also removes any possible risk to the animal’s health associated with traveling. PBA requires all fleece shown in a sanctioned fleece show must have been harvested within 1 year of the show.

How to prepare for a fiber show? The hardest and most time-consuming part is preparing for harvest. If you have more than one goat, you may want to save the best fleece for last and practice on the less perfect ones. Below are a few steps that can be used to prepare a fleece that is going to be shown. Some steps can be skipped depending on the goat and the fleece.

Get rid of dirt and debris. It is important to do this first or you could wash dirt deeper. One method is to use a blower. A commercial animal blower or a hair dryer on a cool setting can be used. A leaf blower works well too. Make sure you don’t set the blower on high, this makes the air travel very fast and can cause felting. Restricting the opening of a blower also makes the air travel fast and can felt the fleece. Use the air to blow dirt out not in. Don’t blow straight down on the animal; let the air travel at a 90º angle. If you notice felting occurring, either slow the air speed or hold the blower farther away. If you don’t have a blower you can use a brush to very lightly brush the fleece, teasing the dirt out. Don’t comb it like your hair; use short quick strokes with a dog slicker or a hairbrush with balls on the tips of the bristles. It is very important that you don’t brush the locks out. You are using the brush to more or less shake the dirt out. If you do brush the locks out, spritz with water and let the fleece dry for a day or two. Bed the goat on straw which also helps to clean the fiber.
Wash the fleece. This can only be done before the fleece is harvested. PBA does not allow the fleece to be washed after it is removed from the goat. PBA further requires that the fleece be shown in its’ natural state, which means you should not use anything but water. Use warm water if possible to rinse the goat. Make sure you have enough time to get the goat totally dry before shearing. Do not wash your goat if the weather doesn’t permit.
Finally, harvest the fleece! This can be done by shearing, combing, or plucking. It’s up to you and the fleece type you want to show. However, the way you harvest can affect your score. For example, with a combed fleece, a judge cannot see lock formation. It may help the judge if you clip some of the fleece to preserve some locks.

Take your time harvesting so you can preserve as much of the look of the fleece as possible.

If you shear, watch out for second cuts. This can really hurt your score.

Label the box or bag with date of the harvest. If you comb or pluck, record the start and stop dates as the fleece will not all release at one time. Make sure there is a way for you to know which goat the fleece came from.

Only minimal skirting is allowed. (Skirting is the removal of undesirable or stained parts of the fleece.)

Package your fleece for display. You want to present the best picture possible. Laying the locks out in a box with tissue paper is a very popular way to display Pygora. This means more time has to be taken while shearing but the presentation is well worth it.
Before you send your fleece to the show make sure you include the statistics.

The box must have the shearing date and fleece weight.

You must include a copy of the goat’s registration papers.

Sending the fleece is easy. Contact the chairman of the show and find out what they require for return postage of the fleece. Most shows require you to send return postage. If you are interested in selling it at the show, ask them what their rules are.

Buck fleece shows
Because of the habit of bucks to add their perfume to their fleece, a buck’s fleece is shown very differently. A one-ounce sample of fleece taken from the barrel along with a colored side view picture of the buck in full fleece accompanied by their registration papers is all that is needed.