BIGGER sheep, more female shearers and three quarters of shearing injuries over time caused by the 'catch and drag' method used in traditional shearing sheds has been a catalyst for change.
An Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) project has been to develop a way of delivering sheep to shearers, instead of shearers having to walk to a pen, grab a sheep and drag it back to the shearing stand.
The project aim is to eliminate the risk of injury, particularly back injury, from dragging and twisting actions involved in the shearer getting their next sheep.
With AWI collaboration, a Naracoorte, South Australia, company, Haynes Engineering, has designed and is now marketing two versions of a modular shearing stand with a raised race - rather than a pen - holding three sheep across the back of the stand.
On the pneumatic version, the shearer presses a button, a section of the race swivels, moves out sideways towards the centre of the stand and then tilts to present the middle sheep to the shearer.
On the manual version the shearer takes two steps, opens a gate in the side of the race and collects the sheep.
The race includes a dummy pen in front of the presenting pen, so a better flow of sheep along the race is achieved.
Shorn sheep exit as usual to the rear, under the race.
The modules can be connected together to provide a multi-stand shearing platform with a continuous race across the back, which can be set up for the time it is needed in any large shed with a flat floor.
Alternatively, the race and sheep delivery system - pneumatic or manual - can be set up in an existing shearing shed to replace a catching pen behind each shearing stand.
Other rural engineering companies are also working on their own versions of a race feed to present sheep to shearers.
AWI's wool harvesting training and development manager, Craig French, told a recent Western Australian Shearing Industry Association (WASIA) annual meeting that he did not expect to see "a robot shear a sheep in my life time", so a more pragmatic solution to removing catch and drag had to be found.
"We need to reduce the catch and drag because over time it is the cause of 75 per cent of injuries in the industry," Mr French said.
"The sheep are getting bigger and heavier and there are more women shearers these days - I estimate between 5pc and 6pc of shearers now are women (who are generally lighter and smaller-framed than male shearers, making them potentially more susceptible to catch and drag injury).
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"It is important that we retain staff, it is also important that we attract staff to the industry and getting rid of the catch and drag is a big part of that I believe.
"What I like about this (race system) is it doesn't change the way we shear, it doesn't change the way we handle the wool - it leaves the wool exactly the same as if it was a traditional shed shearing," he pointed out.
Mr French told the WASIA meeting Paraway Pastoral company, based in Orange, New South Wales, wanted to hook 20 of the shearing modules together.
They have a 20-stand shearing shed shearing 3000 sheep a day at present which they would like to replace with modules, he said.
"The challenge is, the manager wants to run 20 (modules) with one person penning the sheep up - that's what happens at the moment - but I suspect the penner up might need a couple of good dogs with him," Mr French said.
He said 12 modules had been hooked together for a demonstration at a field day at Falkiner Memorial Field Station near Deniliquin in the NSW Riverina and had worked "very well".
Shearing contractors who had experience with the modules told the WASIA meeting shearers could shear more sheep per run without having to work harder.
"They make shearing more efficient," Mr French said.
