Shepherd’s diversity leads to work all year round

Sheep shearing, says Neil Parsons, is one of those emotive jobs which creates, in roughly equal amounts, argument, competition and admiration.
“If it’s not the way the sheep are sheared, it’s the number of sheep sheared in a day or even the make of the shears used to shear them – the discussions are endless,” he comments.
For the last three years Mr Parsons has been running his contract shepherding business – N&Z Parsons Shearing and Shepherding Services – from Sutton Valance, Maidstone, Kent.
Always interested in sheep, he set out to make a career from shepherding right from the start, firstly by attending agricultural college and then gaining experience from working for a few years on a number of sheep farms.
A six-month visit to New Zealand provided an opportunity to become acquainted with the Bowen shearing method, which is now used by all the top shearers and one which Mr Parsons employs to shear more than 4,500 sheep a year.
But while shearing is an important part of it, Mr Parsons also sets out to provide a service which could keep him gainfully employed all the year round.
“The first detail to note about this part of Kent is that, while it has some large sheep farms, it also has a high number of hobby-type farmers, many of which run small flocks of sheep,” he explains.
“These clients see my services as one of ensuring their sheep remain healthy and produce a few lambs each year while keeping the grass under control in the paddock.
“At the other extreme, some of the larger sheep farms require extra help at busy times of the year such as shearing, lambing and so on. So it’s a job of two dimensions – large or small with little in between.”
Apart from the clients he has in Kent, there are now those in East and West Sussex and even some in Surrey – all of which calls for some careful planning when there are seasonal jobs to be done so that he is not clocking up a huge number of miles and an equally large fuel bill.
Like most shepherds, he considers the year always starts with lambing and, if the past few years have taught him anything, it is that he can’t be with all his clients at the same time.
Instead he says he attempts to achieve some sequence of lambing times to spread the workload over a longer period.
“It doesn’t always work out but I generally start lambing in late January and then carry on with different flocks through to April,” he says. “Lambing can be a tough time with long exhausting days and when there’s an icy wind blowing in the early hours there are times when you start to question just why you are doing the job but equally, there are good times – to see a “gang” of young healthy lambs charging about in the sunshine, is perhaps one of the better ones.”
But then there is shearing to look forward to and, if you are a keen shearer like Mr Parsons, the start of shearing is an occasion to savour.
“It’s usually hot, you’re bent double all day and the wool is smelly and oily,” he says. “But it’s sort of addictive in that the more you do, the more you feel you want to do.”
Fair to say from the start shearing is a young man’s occupation and certainly not for those who may have even a hint of back problem. For those who make a career of it – shearing in the UK and then doing it all again in the southern hemisphere – there usually comes a time when the body says enough is enough.
Sheep shearing, though, is strongly supported in a multitude of events which take place around the world and culminate in the biennial world sheep shearing championships which, in 2012 are held in Masterton, New Zealand.
“To be a successful shearer you need the right equipment,” he says. “And this means acquiring penning, a board, the hand piece, motor and the right footwear.”
Bearing in mind that Mr Parsons has to travel some distance to attend to different flocks, he has deliberately reduced his penning to a simple four-sided unit which can be taken apart and transported in the back of his Ford Ranger pick-up.
“I know some contractors have specialist trailers to carry all their kit in but I prefer just to load up the pick-up,” he says. “Towing a trailer for long distances on motorways is just one more worry I can do without.”
Supplied by shearing equipment specialist Tavistock-based George Mudge & Co, the pen is usually linked to a farm’s larger holding pen although, for some of his smaller clients, the pen is large enough to hold all the sheep in one go.
Exited from the pen through a spring-loaded door, a sheep is sheared on a wooden board. Interestingly, to provide some protection for his back, Mr Parsons uses a belt which is connected by springs suspended from an overhead metal stay.
“I can set the springs so they take a percentage of my weight but still allow me to move freely while I’m shearing,” he explains. “There are arguments for and against its use in terms of back muscle usage but I find it very useful.”
Providing the power for the handpiece is a Lister motor which uses an enclosed belt and pulleys system to take the drive down a solid driveshaft. Some shearers prefer a flexible drive while others, like Mr Parsons, opt for the solid drive.
And now for the key component: the handpiece which does the actual shearing.
“Deciding on which handpiece to use is not easy; there are several makes to choose from and they all have their differences in the way they feel in the hand when it is in use,” he points out. “I use a Heiniger Redback, which is made by a Swiss company and used by more than a few professional shearers. It costs about £300, which is at the upper end of the job.”
This handpiece is fitted with a 93.5mm comb, which, when in use, needs replacing every hour and three cutters which last about 15 minutes – keeping combs and cutters in good condition is the key to trouble-free shearing.
“Sharpening combs and cutters is an acquired skill and needs to be done properly so that the cutter blades are in perfect contact with the comb,” he explains. “It was something I learnt how to do in New Zealand.”
So having slipped on the Moccasin shoes – light, pliable and gripping – it’s time to call on the sheep.
“The Bowen method, which was introduced in New Zealand by Godfrey Bowen in the 1950s, is now the preferred method and one used by all professional shearers,” points out Mr Parsons. “It’s a system which calls on the non-shearing hand to keep the sheep’s skin tight while long passes of the shears are made – the more time spent cutting, the quicker it is.”
Like most skills, it takes practice to achieve perfection and there is a vast difference in the output between shearers – hence the competitive side of the job.
A shearer at the top of his game can, depending on the breed of sheep, shear over 500 or 600 in a nine-hour day, but these are professional athletes who train hard and earn big prize money and lucrative sponsorships as a result.
For Mr Parsons, such numbers are in the incredible zone. “I consider myself to be a competent shearer and, given a good day, I can shear about 180 sheep,” he says. “My target for this year is to crack the 200 mark, but we shall have to see.”
With shearing finally over an air of normality returns along with the more routine but albeit, important jobs. By now some of the earlier lambs are being drawn out for market and, as the year moves into the autumn it’s time to think about ram purchase and next year’s crop of lambs.
“There are a thousand and one jobs to complete – foot trimming, scanning, vaccinating and so on. It’s all part of the shepherd’s year,” he says. “And if I crack the 200 sheep a day mark when shearing this year I will be wondering if I could manage perhaps just a few more next year…”