SHEARERS BAIL TO OZ

The pay is better over the ditch, the job has become tougher, and the hard physical work deters young Kiwis. Pat Deavoll reports on a tradition in trouble.

IT’S 7.45am in aNorth Canterbury shearing shed and the day is in full swing. The walls vibrate with the hum and rattle of the machines; the air is pungent with the sweet-sour smell of sheep and sweat, and the radio blares.

Four men deliver sweeping blows with their handpieces across the sheep they grip between their knees. The wool cascades to the floor. The shearers’ tattooed arms shine with sweat, even though it is still early morning and chilly.

Circling the men are the wool handlers, the presser and the classer, all intent on their supportive roles. But the shearers are the kingpins. The pace, intensity, the sheer hard yakka of the work they do shines. As does the skill which has taken them thousands of sheep to hone.

Sadly, there is a shortage of shearers in New Zealand and their art is a diminishing one, for a number of reasons.

South Canterbury shearing gang owner Chris McCarthy used to drive from Ashburton to Blenheim and see nothing but corriedale sheep. Now it’s cows and grapes.

Dairy and the failing wool industry have taken a toll on sheep numbers, he says. It has pushed what sheep remain back into the hills.

‘‘It doesn’t take much math to work out that with half the number of sheep there were 50 years ago there will be half the number of shearers. Our sheep population peaked at 70 million in 1982, but has dropped to less than 28 million.’’

After 30 years in the contract business, McCarthy sees fewer shearers not only because sheep numbers have plummeted, but because farming practices have changed.

‘‘We shear all year round now because the North Island is doing their main shear right up until March and this overlaps with the South Island. Shearers are spread thin.’’

He struggles to find ‘‘good people’’ in the busy season, especially for shearing merinos up-country where real expertise is required.

‘‘Contractors are all after the same people. It’s hard to keep shearers and shed hands when there are options like dairying for young people to get into.

‘‘If I get good people, and that includes shed hands and pressers, I don’t let them go. This includes the girls that do the merino wool. They work very fast. They have to go at the shearer’s speed, and it takes real skill. And all for $25 per hour.’’

Many Kiwi shearers head for Australia and end up staying where they can make better money, he says. North Islanders go to Wagin, Western Australia; Mainlanders head to Hamilton, Victoria. ‘‘They are in demand over there. It’s seen as a craft.’’

Mark Barrowcliffe is president of the New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association. He owns a King Country-based shearing contracting business and has been shearing since 1986.

On a lunch break in the shed, he talks about the shortage.

‘‘The only thing that saves the industry from this shortage is the decline in sheep numbers. If there were 70 million sheep like there used to be there would be no way we would be able to service them.’’

A few things are going on here, he says. There is no shearer training, and the workforce is being poached to greener pastures.

‘‘We have had no official training pathway for five years now, and there is little exposure through schools to the wool industry as a career pathway.

‘‘And I’m not just talking about shearers, I mean everybody in the wool industry. Wool handlers and pressers as well.’’

Kiwi farmers are missing out on the best shed staff, he says. For a long time New Zealand has been known as the best training ground for shearers, wool handlers and pressers and then they go overseas to make good money.

‘‘We’ve been paying coins and Australia has been waving dollars around.’’

There’s a perception that it’s better pay and better continuity of work over there. It’s still seasonal but there are better working conditions. You can work five days aweek and have the weekends off because of the weather, he says.

‘‘We don’t want to stop them going over there, but we want to

‘ We’ve been paying coins and Australia has been waving dollars around.’

entice them back to give our workers a hand during the busy season.’’

The work is undeniably physical, and this can be offputting, he says. But some people like it.

‘‘Yes, it’s a hard job and you sweat a lot but look at an office job. You sit all day and then feel compelled to go to the gym. We get paid to stay fit.’’

Shearing Contractors Association board member and Winton-based shearing contractor Jamie McConachie agrees that the shortage is a growing problem.

‘‘It’s hard for contractors to keep to a schedule and the delays compound throughout the season. This means for some farmers waits of up to two weeks getting their sheep shorn,’’ he says.

‘‘Overseas workers have filled