It’s hard to figure out how to get funding to train sheep shearers.
It’s also hard to find people who want to take on the tricky but valuable work.
“There seems to be a lack of people wanting to become a sheep shearer,” Cory Arbuckle of the Manitoba Sheep Association said at its annual meeting.
“Identifying shearers who are interested in doing it for a long period of the year to help commercial producers, that’s one of our goals.”
Shearing sheep is important for farmers, even if virtually all sheep production in Canada is focused on producing lambs for meat. The wool provides an important secondary product that can help cover the cost of producing the lambs.
Read Also
Manitoba Parkland research station grapples with dry year
Drought conditions in northwestern Manitoba have forced researchers at the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation to terminate some projects and reseed others.
Arbuckle said sheep producers had hoped to get provincial government support for apprenticeship training by having it classified as a trade or occupation.
However, that would require it to be deemed an industry that would bring a steady supply of students that would consistently fill college classes.
“Being designated a trade is not going to work,” said Arbuckle.
However, the industry hopes that describing it as an occupation might allow some support.
Educational institutions such as the University of Manitoba are interested in helping train shearers, but the training requires funding, which the small sheep industry can’t provide.
Solving the funding riddle and finding people who want to become sheep shearers are key focuses of the industry, Arbuckle said.
