Breeding creates more shear hard work
Generations of selective breeding have produced sheep that are too big to shear, according to an Australian livestock expert.
Australian farmers have traditionally favoured merinos: a slow-growing, small-framed breed that produces high-quality wool. Merino ewes can weigh up to 80kg with a full fleece, but when shorn they tip the scales at about 50kg.
A focus on dual-purpose crossbreeds in the past 20 years – sheep that produce a full fleece of wool and can also be sold for meat – has produced heftier animals.
The increased size has created a problem for people who make their living handling sheep, according to Phil Graham, a livestock systems analyst with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
‘‘I know a shearing contractor who is no longer shearing first cross ewes because of the stress it’s putting on his shearers and breakdown – not injuries but breakdown – in knees and joints, just from the continual strain,’’ he told ABC radio.
Graham said the weight of mature ewes in Australia, both merinos and crossbreeds, increased by 15kg between 1990 and 2010. Some of that was intentional, the result of farmers deliberately trying to breed bigger sheep. But much was accidental, the result of farmers trying to breed for other qualities and getting giants as a result.
‘‘I was just talking to a Suffolk breeder and . . . he says, ‘My sheep are too big’.’’
Graham said Australian sheep producers needed to have a national conversation about the size of their sheep, in case they ended up trying to wrangle animals that would top 90kg in another 15 years’ time.
There is a lot of wrangling involved in sheep management. They are flipped upside down to have their feet trimmed, sat on their haunches during shearing, and lifted up to be drenched.
As sheep got heavier, Graham said, more farmers were relying on sheep handlers – metal constructions in which a sheep is secured and then gently tilted at the pull of a lever.
‘‘I know people who ring me up and say, ‘The ewes are that big that I just can’t handle them, I can’t do anything with them – what’s the best handler to buy?’.’’
Professor Frank Dunshea, a sheep expert from Melbourne University, said it was possible that farmers were just more concerned about the occupational health and safety risks of lugging around a large animal than they once were.
‘‘Most people who have anything to do with handling animals end up with a bad back or a bad knee. It could just be that businesses are taking better care of their staff.’’