CONTRASTS IN SHEARING

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28370, 31 August 1957, Page 9

CONTRASTS IN SHEARING

Godfrey Bowen In Britain

Mr Godfrey Bowen, the chief I shearing instructor of the New, Zealand Wool Board, brought a breath of fresh air to Britisn ! shearing and wool handling while! .he was on loan to the Britisn; Wool Board for two and a half; months. During a break in training! voung New Zealand shearers at Canterbury Agricultural College. Lincoln, this week Mr Bowen recalled that in taking the Bowen technique of shearing to Britain he had at first to break down centuries %of tradition and parochialism—it had been said “we have been shearing sheep this way for* 600 years. What can a! New Zealandei teach us?” But. said Mr Bowen, once he had proved himself, and word of his success preceded him. he had been received ' with open arms and treated like a grand duke. Shearing techniques in Britain I vary from district to district. In Wales and many parts of Scdt-I land sheep are shorn sitting on, benches with their legs tied. About 75 per cent, of all sheep | are shorn in the open. A port-i able shearing plant is set up in i the corner of a paddock, and the sheep are caught out of a dirl paddock and shorn on sacking, or perhaps even straw. Ln Kent, Sussex and Devon the sheep are shorn round and round —half with] the left hand and half with the right.

“While there are many styles ot shearing in Britain, they are all slow and awkward, and most of them tend to depreciate the value of the fleece considerably by second cuts and tearing the wool about.” said Mr Bowen.

Speed is not a strong point, with British shealers. In many shearing competitions shearers are allowed an hour in which to shear two sheep, but on an average, Mr Bowen said that the time taken to shear a sheep would be from seven to 10 minutes compared with two to three minutes in New Zealand. A Strong Point But in one respect British shearing impressed Mr Bowen. 11 was a rare thing to sfce a sheep cut. —when fat lambs were worth

£9 a head and ewes £l4. farmers did not want their sheep, mutilated. These shearers made

“a pretty jnb.” said Mr Bowen His hardest task was to make a good enough finished job—“my best job was just good enough.” During his visit Mr Bowen put 80 of the best machine shearers in England, Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland through a t.hreeday course in the Bowen technique. These men were trained as potential instructors. Mr Bowen said that they had no desire to go back to their old styles, and wool appraisers and wool handlers had all been greatly impressed with the wool handling methods they had been shown.

British people, he said, had been impressed with the idea of shearing sheep on the board, they had never seen sheep shorn off the grating before, nor had they seen a wool table.

Now, right throughout Britain, there was a new interest in using some of the existing buildings round farm homesteads as shearing sheds. Many of the old stables cleared of junk could be made into nice little sheds where sheep could be shorn in more comfortable surroundings and the wool could be kept cleaner.

“They were very impressed with what I had to show them over there, and in every district •n which J have been they have expressed a desire to have me back again.” said Mr Bowen.