At first glance the seven shearers tackling Merino weaners in a shed between Nyngan and Warren last week looked right at home – but in fact four of them were new recruits from Wales being coached on the intricacies of Australian sheep as a solution to a nation-wide shearer shortage.

Nyngan-based contractor Mick Taylor is well used to employing backpacker labour in his team and is now being supported by peak wool industry body Australia Wool Innovations, which is creating a campaign to attract more young people from the United Kingdom to boost shearer numbers in NSW, Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania.

The AWI is providing free training to the Welsh shearers in Mr Taylor’s team and also videoing the process as part of a recruitment drive to bring more young people out from the United Kingdom.

AWI board member, Dubbo-based woolbroker Don Macdonald, is leading the taskforce to find immediate solutions to what has been a critical shortage of shearers following the pandemic.

Mr Macdonald said the recent Australian Bureau of Statistic Census showed significant decline in the number of people employed as shearers.

“To get the flock of 70 million Australian sheep shorn it was previously around 24,000-25,000 sheep per shearer, but at the last census it had gone up to 28,000 sheep per shearer - so we just simply didn’t have enough shearers,” Mr Macdonald said.

“And when we had border closures and wet weather and Covid illness and all that stuff it just snowballed.”

Finding less labour-intensive ways to harvest wool is a key mission of AWI but Mr Macdonald said innovative solutions being trialled such as biological harvesting were a “fair way down the track”. 

“Right now, we need a quick and effective way to get sheep shorn. If we don’t do it now growers will leave the industry.”

In the past the labour gap has been filled by shearers from New Zealand who would come over for a short period during the busiest periods, typically between October and December and the end of January through to the end of March.

Mr Macdonald said the influx of these Kiwis had stopped during the pandemic and had not fully recommenced and meanwhile sheep numbers had increased sue to the good prices and bountiful seasons.

PHOTO: Kieran Robinson and Angus French were videoing the action at Merryanbone for an AWI recruitment drive

“We started at the Pacific Island Labour Scheme but there have been issues in the horticulture industry which are too hard for the wool industry to handle and they don’t come from a culture where they’re shearing sheep.”

“There a lot of shearers in South Africa but it’s not easy for them to get Visas to work in Australia, and so we started to look at the United Kingdom.”

“There are 30 million sheep in the UK, and then Ireland has got about 8-10 million. They speak the language, they are already involved in the industry and even if they don’t know how to shear they know what goes on. And our peak season is their off season.

Mr Macdonald was visiting a shearing shed in his capacity as a woolbroker when he met Gwen, a backpacker from Wales who was learning to shear with Mr Taylor’s team.

“I asked her where she was from and she said “Oh I’ve come out from Wales and I’ve learned to shear here” and I thought well we’ve got to get more of your mates.”

“Gwen used her contacts and all of a sudden Mick’s got four Welsh shearers in his team and there’s actually 15 in the country and we reckon next year that will double.”

Mr Macdonald said it wasn’t unusual for young people from the United Kingdom to travel down under to shear – but they had preferred New Zealand because they were experienced in crossbred sheep rather than Merinos.

“The AWI is now encouraging them to come here by contracting some of Australia’s best shearers to train them in Merino sheep for free. They’ll earn good money. They can stay and do a season. They might come back for a couple seasons. The visas are easy. They’ll go home with a pocketful of money and tell their mates how good it is.”.

AWI contracted shearers Daniel McIntyre from Glen Innes (current National Champion), Oberon-based contractor Josh Clayton, and a wool handling specialist were also on hand to provide on the job training.

Mr Clayton said the Australian conditions were very different to those in the UK, however the young Welshmen were quick to adapt.

PHOTO: AWI board member Don Macdonald is hoping the young shearers from the UK can help fill the Australian Shortage

“I worked with these three boys about four weeks ago down in Yass on some really traditional fine wool wether weaners and that was their first step in to Australian shearing,” he said. 

“It’s a lot different to what they do at home where they are used to shearing big strong wool sheep on a trailer to be shearing young Merino wethers in a 100-year-old cross board drag woolshed but they’ve taken to it very well and within four weeks they’re up to 100 sheep a day.”

“They are used to shearing them their feet, so to speak, where you’ve got to work very fast because if your feet fall behind the sheep are going to get away. The sheep they’ve been shearing in Wales are a lot more physical and lot stronger than our Merino sheep.”

“With a Merino sheep, especially the traditional type where we were at Yass, you have to do a lot of shearing with your free hand – your left hand – to keep all that loose skin really tight to get each section ready for the shears.”

Mr Clayton said the Welsh shearers were also getting used to using the narrow combs needed to get into all the tight points on a Merino.

“They’re very receptive young people. Good value, good people to have in the team. Very hardworking and funny. Just good clean-living kids out here sinking their teeth in.”