The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Lucy benfield on July 01, 2022, 01:22:38 am
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Due to the national shortage of shearers, Are there any courses/training for smallholders to learn to shear sheep?
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Best bet is the Wool Board (properly called the British Wool Marketing Board.)
If none of their courses work for you, you may be able to arrange a bit of tuition from one of the friendlier folk that go around shearing small numbers of sheep. Philip the Singing Shearer got me started, and Michael Churchhouse (sheersheep) gave me an update a few years later (he is hand shearing only.) But I would really recommend doing the proper course if you can. (I only wanted to do hand shearing, and BWMB never ran a hand shearing course in my part of the world while I was looking - and I knew I would not be fit enough for their machine shearing course.)
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Is there a shortage? I know there was in 2020, the guy who was supposed to come to see to mine changed his mind and I googled and there were quite a few listed for small flocks. At time I had 11 sheep, 5 woolies + 6 lambs, which he sheared and I put in freezer a few weeks later!
I don't mind paying stupid money, (£50) they do a job i cant.
The chap i found was via Preloved, came back last year and this year, though down to 3 Woolies and 4 ewe X lambs who are staying and ALL feet, including the Wiltshire Horns. From speaking to him, he does a lot of small flocks. I will PAY him what he asks.
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Is there a shortage?
UK summer shearing used to rely heavily on Aussie and NZ shearers coming over for the season. I assume that Covid has made a significant dent in that, no idea whether Brexit may have impacted too.
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I got a guy in the village to teach me, and after four years I'm now moderately confident doing it myself, but I definitely leave them preeetty patchy.
As a neighbour said, the only thing he's done that was harder was home schooling a pair of twins during the pandemic.
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Hubby did a course with www.lantra.co.uk (http://www.lantra.co.uk) who do land based courses of various sorts. It wasn't a hand shearing course but later he adapted to hand shearing which is so much quieter and more relaxing than electric shears.
I tried to organise a hand shearing course some years ago in Scotland with the Wool Board but there was no-one to teach it ::) so that was a fail.
www.lantra.co.uk/course/machine-sheep-shearing (http://www.lantra.co.uk/course/machine-sheep-shearing)
Lantra also does e-training for long distance transport of animals
www.lantra.co.uk/course/level-2-award-animal-transport-road-long-journey-driver (http://www.lantra.co.uk/course/level-2-award-animal-transport-road-long-journey-driver) and others