TO INSTRUCT IN SHEARING, WOOL

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 10

TO INSTRUCT IN SHEARING, WOOL

A feature of a course for Wool Board shearing instructors held in Canterbury this week was that they received instruction in wool handling and were certified as wool handling instructors to assist sheep and wool instructors of the Department of Agriculture in raising the standard of wool handling in shearing sheds.

The course was attended by 18 instructors—l 7 machine and one blade—of which four are full time and 14 parttime. Under the direction of Mr G. Bowen, field director of the Wool Board, it it was the first gathering of its type for five years and Messrs C. Waite, chief shearing instructor, and . I. Bowen, senior shearing instructor, said afterwards that it had been very profitable. It had been very necessary, after the passing of five years, that they should come together to compare notes and brush up on style and training techniques. The two men said that the Wool Board’s shearing instruction scheme had now been going for 14 years and this week the instructors had taken the opportunity of re-

viewing the style and techniques of instruction used. It had been the unanimous opinion of the instructors that the method used had been most successful, in that it had been easy to learn and had produced a high standard of workmanship, and for trade shearers had had the result of enabling big tallies to be achieved easier and with a much higher quality of workmanship. The instructors received wool handling instruction and were certified as wool handling instructors by Messrs L. Galloway and C. J .M. Gardner, sheep and wool officers of the Department of Agriculture.

They will now be available to instruct groups of farmers and shearing trainees in wool handling when sheep and wool instructors are not available. Messrs Waite and Bowen said that this was an outcome of the increasing awareness of the need for correct wool preparation in the shed so that the product was put before the buyer in the best possible condition. The three-day course was held in the shed of Mr J. Opie, at Leeston. It was held in Canterbury because (his 'Shed and also sheep were available.

Only two instructors were unable to attend the course. One of these, Mr N. Sadler, from the West Coast, is now shearing in Australia.