Friday, March 29, 2024

Blades of glory

Avatar photo
Country-Wide editor Terry Brosnahan and photographer John Cosgrove recently paid a visit to a Canterbury sheep station up the Rakaia Gorge to capture a disappearing art – blade shearing. Before walking into Middle Rock’s woolshed the expectation was to hear only the snipping of the blades and snippets of conversation. No chance of that. The radio was blaring and the six blade shearers were deep in concentration. That was until the flash on the camera went off and jibes about who was best shearer to talk to started. When the oldest-looking shearer was asked how long he had been shearing, he just grinned and said it was his second season. He turned out to be Brian Thompson, a New Zealand champion and according to his colleagues, started shearing back in 1971.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The shearers say the secret to blade shearing is keep the top blade on the skin, bottom blade stationary and chop down on the wool. They cut across the sheep, rather than down.

Middle Rock is owned by Bruce and Lyn Nell. They are farming with their daughter Charlotte Rietveld, a Country- Wide columnist and husband Vince. They have a five-month-old daughter, Lucy.

The farm may be named after the fact that where-ever a posthole is dug there is bound to be a rock in the middle of it. Or it could be named after a big glacial boulder sitting on one of the ridges.

Bruce Nell says Middle Rock carries 5000 ewes, but this winter hogget numbers are down to 1500. There was no point taking the wether hoggets through winter.

The Nells also operate accommodation and farm tourism businesses. Pre-lamb blade shearing starts for the gang in July and runs through to September-October. After that a number of the gang join machine-shearing gangs.

The Nells blade shear because 1-2cm of wool is left on the skin ensuring weather-proofing in an area known for snow storms form June to September.

Shearers are paid $2.70/sheep but the all-up cost is $3.80/sheep that also includes classer, travel, wool handlers and gear allowance.

The blade shearing gang has been running for more than 30 years with younger family members replacing retiring blade shearers.

Half the gang is under 35, which is a rarity. The gang used to be run by Thompson and now, by Terry O’Donnell.

Blade-shorn sheep at Middle Rock Station.

A new blade shearer can shear about 130/day. O’Donnell says an experienced shearer can shear about 180/day on Merinos, 190/day on good sheep like the Nells.

After 20 years working as a woolhandler and another six as a classer, Hillary Tahere knows her wool. Bruce Nell, who also has his wool classers’ ticket, says she is spot-on when splitting the wool up into the different micron lines.

The head classer works off the crimp, length of the staple and the softness. Her judgement is confirmed by the wool lab testing.

Tahere says normally Corriedale wool is 27-plus, but the Nells’ sheep are finer, ranging from 25-29.

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading