GULL LAKE, Sask. – Proper shearing technique makes it easier on both the sheep and the worker.
About 14 shearers from British Columbia to Ontario spent one recent week in a barn outside this small Saskatchewan community practising their craft at a shearing school sponsored by the Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers Ltd. and the Manitoba Sheep Association.
“I sheared for 10 years and I thought I knew how to shear,” said Dave Carlson, of Fort Macleod, Alta., who was taking his second course in as many years.
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“I was shearing very inefficiently.”
Still, it’s clear as he removes wool that his skills are superior to those of the beginners.
Carlson shears about 13,000 sheep each year, along with 1,500 llamas and 1,500 alpacas.
“It’s all I do for a living,” he said, adding that he is booked for April, May and June a year in advance.
He said taking a refresher course is important because bad habits do come back.
He also said a course is an investment in his business that will pay off in a couple of ways.
A shearer should be able to take the wool off a sheep using 45 to 50 “blows” of the cutters. Carlson said he learned he was using 65 to 70 blows.
Fewer blows means a shearer can process more sheep in a day and make more money.
It also makes it less physically demanding on the shearer and less stressful on the sheep.
The comfort of the sheep is important, said Carlson.
“They tend to be ticklish,” he said, and they will kick or wiggle if they are nicked with the clippers.
But positioning the sheep between the shearer’s feet correctly can keep both parties comfortable.
“A small man can shear a big sheep,” said Norm Harraway, who travelled from Rakaia, New Zealand, to conduct the course.
“It’s all about technique, positioning your feet and sitting (the sheep) right.”
Harraway said shearers should begin with the belly, and then move on to the legs, neck, front shoulders and back.
Sheep are more comfortable if they’re not sitting directly on their tails. Just tilting them to the side a bit can make a difference.
“At home, you’re not going to get a full-time job unless you’re doing 200 head a day,” the New Zealander said. “Here, we’re concentrating more on doing the job right.”
Shearing is a physically and mentally demanding job, Harraway said, and it’s even more so in Canada where shearers tend to do the job alone rather than in teams.
He said there is a worldwide shortage of shearers because many young people don’t want to work that hard.
Carlson said that labour shortage is another reason to improve his technique.
“The average age here is about 45,” he said. “As we age, we’ve got to make it that much easier on the body.”
Carlson’s career has almost ended a couple of times because of injuries.
Morris Beauvais, wool services manager with the co-operative, said there will likely always be a shortage of qualified shearers in Canada.
“If I were to hold a learner’s course, I don’t know where I’d find enough people,” he said.
The people at the Gull Lake course will be able to pass along some of what they learned, after practising on about 1,400 head. The co-op purchased all the wool.
Harraway said all shearers in New Zealand take courses to upgrade and refresh their skills every year or two.
Shearing is a huge cost to sheep producers and they have to be able to count on the shearers to do the best job possible.
“If you’ve got 5,000 sheep, just to shear the ewes it would cost about $15,000,” Harraway said.
