Sam Whitelock and Rowland Smith front new wellbeing programme for shearing workforce

Sam Whitelock (left) and Rowland Smith have teamed up for Live Well Shear Well, a programme to help pass on mental fitness skills to the shearing workforce.

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The NZ Shearing Contractors Association is teaming up with wellbeing programme Farmstrong on a new initiative designed to pass on mental fitness skills to the shearing workforce.

Called Live Well Shear Well, the programme shares practical habits and thinking strategies to help shearers and woolhandlers manage the day-to-day pressures of the job.

The initiative is fronted by a couple of sporting legends, too, world champion shearer Rowland Smith and former All Black and Farmstrong Ambassador, Sam Whitelock.

NZ Shearing Contractors Association’s chief executive Phil Holden is the spokesperson for Live Well Shear Well.

He said the idea had been in the pipeline for a while.

“We’ve been working with Farmstrong for a number of years to try and find a programme or project that we could really hold hands on together and launch, and that’s been the genesis behind Live Well, Shear Well,” he told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.

While the industry focused on animal welfare recently, Live Well, Shear Well concentrated on the human side of shearing and woolhandling.

Listen below:

“The focus of this is on the people, because at the end of the day, behind every handpiece, every rousie on the floor, the person in the pen, there is a human aspect,” Holden said.

Shearing is a demanding job, and managing the workload requires mental and physical stamina.

Adverse weather, labour shortages, animal welfare, woolshed quality and changing market conditions are also factors that could add pressure.

Holden said Live Well Shear Well could help with these challenges.

“This is just about providing a bit of a toolbox and a reference point for our people to access and take them to the next step and support them in a way that they may not have had access to in the past.”

The best of Farmstrong’s mental skills advice most relevant to shearing has been packaged into free, online resources in print and video that shearers and woolhandlers can access on their mobiles.

Topics covered include managing everyday workplace pressures, healthy thinking strategies and mindsets, working as a team, nutrition, body conditioning and rest and recovery time.

In the videos, Smith and Whitelock discuss how they perform under pressure and stay well.

Holden said the pair had a natural rapport, as they’d worked together before – back when Smith was a shearing contractor for Whitelock.

“So when we shot the material for all the resources that are available on the Farmstrong site, they knew each other.

“There’s one there where Rowland was teaching Sam how to shear a sheep. It’s quite cool.”

Live Well Shear Well will be launched as part of this year’s Golden Shears and World Shearing Championships in Masterton.

Listen to Hamish McKay interview Rowland Smith in the Live Well Shear Well podcast below: