Sheep Shearing - Modern Shearing

Modern Shearing

Today large flocks of sheep are shorn by professional shearing teams working eight hour days, most often in spring, by machine shearing. These contract-teams consist of shearers, shed hands and a cook (in the more isolated areas). Their working hours and wages are regulated by industry awards. A working day starts at 7:30 am and the day is divided into four “runs” of two hours each. “Smoko” breaks are a half hour each and a lunch break is taken at midday for one hour. Most shearers are paid on a piece-rate per sheep. Shearers who “tally” more than 200 sheep per day are known as “gun shearers”. Typical mass shearing of sheep today follows a well-defined workflow:

• remove the wool
• throw the fleece onto the wool table
• skirt, roll and class the fleece
• place it in the appropriate wool bin
• press and store the wool until it is transported.

In 1984 Australia became the last country in the world to permit the use of wide combs, due to previous Australian Workers Union rules. Although they were once rare in sheds, women now take a large part in the shearing industry by working as pressers, wool rollers, roustabouts, wool classers and shearers.