Shears?

[Charlie99]

Yep, electric clippers do the job. About 4" wide, they get it done fast. Of course, if you push too hard, you cut a nice 4" wide hole in the sheep's side. :ugh:

Funny you mention that. Back around '92 I visited an Australian company that was developing a robotic sheep shearing machine. The engineers were a bit "sheepish" when I inquired about the clip they attached to the sheep's tail. It turns out that their robot would sometimes misjudge distances and cut the sheep. The system would do an emergency retraction of the clippers when they sensed continuity from the shears to the tail clip, through the sheeps body and blood.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

Thankfully, in the time I was involved with sheep, we only had to do an emergency stitch-up once. Now that is something you NEVER forget. "Run get the thread and needle!. Oh, and grab some alcohol too!" Yep, that's what we used, white sewing thread and a needle, all dipped in either peroxide or alcohol.

Of course, slicing sheep open was one of the lesser gross things to deal with.....

 

[DarkFrog]

While we're on the topic of shears, what size shears should I look for when ordering? I was looking at medical suppliers and they came in 5", 7.5" and some places had even larger. I know I want it to be big enough to use with a gloved hand, but that's pretty hard to check with mail order.

Justin