Sheep Farmers
Plan, organise, control, coordinate and perform farming operations to breed and raise sheep for wool, meat and breeding stock.
Shearing week and a wet Monday
You are a sheep farmer on shearing day, with a team of shearers booked and a flock that is too damp to shear safely this morning. It is 6am. Heavy rain overnight has left the paddocks muddy and the sheep wet. A team of six shearers has just pulled up, and you have a flock that must be done this week.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
My team is ready to go, but those sheep are wet. I can shear them if you want, but the wool will be damp in the bales. Or we wait. It is your call, and either way my team needs to know the plan.
Shear them anyway, so that the team does not lose a day and you stay on schedule
The team gets going, but damp wool can spoil in the bale and the buyer later marks it down. A rushed start to save a day cost you far more than the day was worth.
Move the sheep under cover to dry, start with the driest mobs and agree a clear plan with Ray for each day
A few mobs are dry by mid-morning and shearing starts. Ray appreciates a farmer who makes a plan. A shortened day is better than a ruined clip.
Tell the team to wait in the cookhouse until you know when the sheep will be dry
The sheep dry eventually, but the team is idle for hours with no plan to work toward. They are polite but restless. Giving people a plan, even a changing one, keeps them on side.
I have been going through the first few fleeces. The wool from the back paddock is a bit shorter and a bit lighter in colour than the rest. I can class it separately or mix it with the main lines. Which do you want?
Mix it into the main lines, so the bales look uniform and the buyer sees one good clip
The buyer finds the difference when testing and trusts you a little less at the next sale. A uniform look is not worth losing your name for accuracy.
Class it separately and label it clearly, even though it is a smaller line
The buyer sees honest, well-described lines and bids confidently on both. Linh nods; this is what she was hoping you would say.
Ask her to decide because she knows the buyers better than you do
She makes a sensible call and classes it separately. But it is your wool and your name, and she would have preferred to hear your view as well. Trust her expertise and still say what you want.
I am not keeping up with the others. The sheep keep getting away from me in the pen, and the shearers keep sighing. I think I am slowing everyone down. Should I just stay out of the way?
Move her to a lighter job, like sweeping, to avoid slowing the team
The pace picks up, but Callie feels demoted and does not learn the job she came to learn. Taking the pressure off is kind, though it should not close the door.
Tell her everyone is slow on their first season and she should just try harder
She tries harder and tires herself out, but nothing changes because nobody has shown her what to do differently. Encouragement without teaching is not much help.
Ask an experienced hand to show her how to move sheep calmly
Within an hour the sheep stop scattering. Callie is still slow, but she learns, and the team relaxes. A farm is also a place where people learn their trade.
How it went
By Friday the last bale is branded and loaded, and you can finally breathe. Sheep farming runs on seasons: lambing, shearing, selling, and always the weather. Do the rhythms and the responsibility for a whole flock sound like the kind of work you would want?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The wet shearing week
A fictional case set in a fictional wool-growing property with a woolshed, in the week the shearing team arrives.
The situation
Meredith Cole ran a sheep property called Karoola Flats. A shearing team of six had been booked months earlier and arrived on Monday as planned. But a night of rain left the sheep wet, and wool cannot be shorn when it is damp without spoiling it. The team was paid by the number of sheep shorn. The sheep needed shearing before a hot week made them uncomfortable. The forecast offered only a patchy chance of drying by Wednesday.
What they did
Meredith talked to the shearing contractor first, rather than guessing. They agreed to have the sheep under cover in the shed overnight, start at first light each morning and shear whatever was dry, even if that meant shorter days. She arranged meals and a place to stay for the team. She also rang the buyer to say the wool would arrive a few days late and why.
How it turned out
Shearing took five days instead of three, and the shearers earned less than they had hoped from the week. Meredith made a point of thanking them and tidying the shed for the next team. The wool was clean and dry, and the buyer accepted the late delivery without fuss.
What would you do?
- Why did Meredith talk to the contractor before deciding anything?
- What do you think it is like to wait on the weather for a whole crop?
- How do you keep a team happy when the plan has fallen apart?