SHEARER training has been lifted to a new level with the use of a raised shearing platform machine to bring learners along gently.
Wellington-based NSW TAFE Western shearing and wool handling trainer Jim Murray said starting newcomers on the ShearEzy raised shearing platform was safer than using conventional overhead machines.
Mr Murray has been towing the ShearEzy machine across New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria since May this year.
“At all of our beginner schools this is how we start them if they have never had a handpiece in their hand.
“If they’ve never had a handpiece or a sheep between their legs this is a far safer way for use to teach them the necessary skills before we put a sheep between their legs,” he said.
“We can get people confidently holding a handpiece and knowing the shape of a sheep far quicker by using the machine which means we can get them up and shearing a lot quicker than using traditional across-the-board methods.
“Some trainees could take up to a week before they were confident with the handpiece and the shape of the sheep using overhead equipment, but this could be shortened to a few days with the raised platform machine,” he said.
One trainee Luke Brown at Merriman Station at Brewarrina was shearing more sheep after day three on the raised platform machine than the other learners were doing on the overhead machines. Raised platform-trained shearers also developed a lighter hand with the handpiece meaning a better quality job, Mr Murray said.
He believes the raised platform shearing machines also have a place in the industry “for the sheep nobody else wants to shear”.
“Which are your big heavy sheep like your meat rams and big fat crossbred ewes over 100 kg that people just don’t want to drag out.”
Mr Murray said a machine would not be built that was as efficient as a shearer in “full flight”.
“It is an absolute engineering miracle what a shearer can do, especially when he is young, fit and has got a goal in mind.”
The machines also gave an opportunity for older shearers to stay in the industry.
Mr Murray had a knee operation seven days before Sydney’s Royal Easter Show this year.
“On day seven after the operation I was shearing 130-140 kilogram Merino rams on the platform.
“I couldn’t walk but I could shear – that’s the power of this machine.”
ShearEzy inventor and manufacturer Bill Byrne of Peak Hill Industries said he had sold about 30 of the machines in Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
Buyers included older shearers specialising in heavy ram shearing and small flock owners doing their own shearing.
He was working on modifications to accommodate bigger British breed rams.
