Safety first in the woolshed
‘‘It makes it easier for the presser because they’re not under so much pressure and it lets them know when the bales get to a certain weight.’’
Smith makes sure his staff are well fed and watered with several cooks employed to whip up tasty nourishing meals.
‘’You always get someone complaining they don’t like tomatoes or someone’s forgotten the milk or sugar and it’s like the end of the world.’’
While Smith doesn’t begrudge his staff a beer at the end of a hard day’s work, he won’t tolerate staff turning up to work drunk or under the weather.
‘’If they’re full of booze we send them home.’’
While some farmers still shouted a beer for the shearers, they also provided a non-alcohol option like lemonade for the sober driver.
Smith also encourages shearers who want to attend parties not to work the next day.
‘’Shearers work better when they have regular time off.
‘’I’d love it if shearing was Monday to Friday and we didn’t have to shear over the weekend but that’s not the nature of the job.’’
Smith said the tailing side of their business had given him an insight into how sheep think compared with being trapped in a small pen in a woolshed.
‘’You have feisty ones and quiet ones – fat ones and skinny ones.
‘’Sheep have more brains than you think they have.’’ The new online training programme Tahi Ngatahi could help address the critical shortage of skilled workers in the shearing industry.
New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association executive officer Mark Robinson said while it wasn’t a ‘’silver bullet’’ it could help with the recruitment and retention of people in the industry.
‘’This programme is about keeping people safe.
‘‘If we can show them we care when they enter the industry then that’s a real positive,’’ Robinson said.
Tahi Ngatahi, meaning one together, is a new programme which aims to reduce injuries in and around the woolshed by getting shearing contractors, farmers and their staff to work together.
About 30 shearing contractors, farmers and industry representatives attended the launch of Tahi Ngatahi in Gore on Wednesday.
ACC figures show there were 755 injuries in wool harvesting and a further 4700 work-related injuries in wool growing in 2017, which resulted in about 45,000 days of lost productivity.
In Southland there were 10 injuries per 100 employees in wool harvesting although that tally was much higher in wool growing with 36 injuries per 100 employees.
More than half of the injuries in both wool growing and harvesting relate to sprains and strains.
Robinson said the key to reducing injuries in and around the woolshed was to prevent them from happening in the first place.
‘’Rather than be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff we need to prevent the accidents at the top.’’
The on-line training programme covers many aspects of wool growing and harvesting and those at the meeting were shown how to access the technology.
Tahi Ngatahi covers shed and sheep preparation through to reducing shearer injuries and looking after their mental health and well-being.
It also highlighted the importance of shearers fuelling their bodies properly as many in the industry likened a day’s shearing to running a marathon.
New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association president Mark Barrowcliffe said stress and fatigue were major concerns in the shearing industry.
‘’If you don’t put the right fuel into your body it can be an issue,’’ he said.
Some of the country’s top shearers such as Dion Morrell, Emily Welch and Dave Sargenson have been involved in the production of Tahi Ngatahi, which has been developed over the past 18 months. The programme was designed to be moved through quickly and simply with the modules taking 1.5 to 2 hours to complete. Barrowcliffe said there had been good uptake of Tahi Ngatahi in the North Island and he hoped other shearing contractors and farmers, who were yet to signup, would see the benefit of being involved in the programme.
Tahi Ngatahi is a partnership between Federated Farmers and the New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association and is supported by ACC and WorkSafe.
ACC have provided $1 million of funding over three years for the development of the programme.
Robinson said ACC had been impressed with the development of Tahi Ngatahi and were keen to see similar programmes adopted in other industries to improve their healthy and safety records.
‘‘If we can show them we care when they enter the industry then that’s a real positive.’’ - New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association executive officer Mark Robinson.