Sheep shearers

Today's sheep shearing with hand machines

Historic sheep shears

Hand sheep shears, shown at the New York Sheep & Wool Fair in 2007

Demonstration with hand scissors at the New York Sheep & Wool Fair 2007

A merino sheep that is shorn in Victoria , Australia .

A sheep shearer cuts the winter fur of the sheep with electric hand clippers . Originally this work was done with hand sheep shears . In some countries, sheep shearing is an independent profession that is trained in special schools such as Queensland. The profession of sheep shearers developed through the division of labor , which was caused by the mass production of sheep meat and wool. The roots of this profession lie in Australia , where sheep breeding began around 1800 with the sheep breeding pioneer John Macarthur and which then developed into mass production. Today this profession is mainly found in Australia and New Zealand , in Germany it is rare and is practiced as a part-time job .

history

With the domestication of sheep, the shepherd profession developed. Shepherd is one of the oldest agricultural professions and originally sheep shearing was part of their work. In Australia in particular, sheep breeding became an essential part of agriculture, as sheep's wool and sheep's wool became an important export item. The sheep herds grew within a short time to tens of thousands of animals and in this context the profession of sheep shearers developed. The early Australian sheep shearers worked in sheds in poor working conditions and at low wages. In 1891 there was a shearers strike by around ten thousand unionized sheep shearers against the poor working and wage conditions. A second shearers strike followed in 1894. As early as 1888, Australia had the first shearers station to use clippers. In 1915 a sheep station with steam-powered machines was built.

present

Most of the herds of sheep are in New Zealand and Australia. There were about 13,000 professional sheep shearers and 125 million sheep in Australia in 2004; in Germany less than 2 million. Even today, the sheep shearers are paid according to the number of sheep shorn. There are different techniques of sheep shearing like that of Godfrey Bowen since 1950 or the Tally Hi method . The Tally Hi method was developed in 1963 by Kevin Sarre and the Australian Wool Corporation , because with this application the sheep fight less when shearing and the force required by the shearers is less. There are sheep shearers in Australia. In 1983 the Australian sheep shearers went on strike for 10 weeks.

Germany

There were around 3 million sheep in the GDR. Sheep shearing was a regulated training occupation back then. There is no regulated job profile for sheep shearers in the Federal Republic. In an apprenticeship to become an animal farmer , a specialty sheep farming is listed in which "differentiate between shearing methods and performing full and tail shearing" is the content of the training.

In addition to state championships in sheep shearing in Brandenburg and Thuringia, there are German championships, where sheep are sheared in a time of a little more than a minute, with integrity, shearing technique and accuracy being assessed. The fewer than 2 million sheep in Germany are mainly used to maintain the landscape of heathlands and dykes or for meat production. Today, sheep's wool is only a by-product, as it does not appear economically viable for reasons of cost. In order to summarize the interests of German sheep breeders, the "Association of German Sheep Breeding Associations (VDL)" has existed since 1934 and recently an "Association of German Sheep Shearers" was formed, which in 2009 had 21 members, mainly from Brandenburg and some from Schleswig -Holstein and Thuringia are coming. This association, whose members practice the profession of sheep shearing as a sideline, also wants to organize training courses and courses in sheep shearing.

The place Schorlingborstel in Lower Saxony is named after sheep shearers. Scherling or Schorling is the Low German name for sheep shearers.

Competitions

Since there have been competitions in sheep shearing, the record holders have developed their own cutting patterns, for example a sheep is sheared in two to three minutes and in competitions under 30 seconds. Those who shear 200 sheep a day are called gun shearers . These sheep shearers wear out 50 to 70 cutting blades a day. When they work, they wear special clothing that protects their front and legs.

Sheep shearers competitions take place in Ireland , Great Britain , South Africa , New Zealand and Australia, but also in Germany. In Wales the competition is part of a big show, the Royal Welsh Show . In Edinburgh a competition as part of the place Royal Highland Show in June.

The largest such event, the Golden Shears Championship , has been held in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand over several days since 1961 . There, the work of the competition participants in cutting fine and long wool as well as a second sheep shearing is evaluated. This competition takes place in March each year, in 2010 the competition took place for the fiftieth time.

Records

Sheep shearers hut near Kyeamba , New South Wales in Australia

On October 10, 1892, the Australian Jackie Howe sheared 321 sheep in 7 hours and 40 minutes. Kevin Sarre was the 20th century's most successful sheep shearer using the Tally Hi method in Australia. Henry Salter won the first sheep shearing competition held at Pyramid Hill in 1934 and was named best machine shearer in Australia in 1953. Dwayne Black held six world records and Brendan Boyle held the world record in 24-hour shearing with 841 merino sheep . The 2010 World Sheep Shearing Championships will be held in Wales .

In the outback there has been the Australian Shearers' Hall of Fame and Museum in Hay in New South Wales since 2001 .

The profession in art

The activity of sheep shearing can also be found in artistic representations such as painting and sculpture, such as B. with the sculptor Rudolf Schweinitz in his work Die Oder again. The painting by Jean-François Millet “The Sheep Shearers”, which was modeled on Van Gogh and is exhibited in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh in Amsterdam , is well known.

The Sheep Shearers by Vincent van Gogh
Book Illustration: Man and Woman Shearing Sheep (14th - 15th Century)
Oil painting: Sheep shearing by hand in Australia by Tom Roberts (around 1890)
Book illustration: Cleaning sheep's wool after shearing in Tibet (1905)