Sheep waiting for the shearing - the good news is there's plenty of grass. Photo / Paul Taylor
Sheep waiting for the shearing - the good news is there's plenty of grass. Photo / Paul Taylor
Tens of thousands of sheep are queuing for urgent shearing as Hawke's Bay endures one of its longest wet stretches in recent times.
With little shearing taking place in the last week, the situation has been highlighted by shearing contractor Colin Watson Paul, of Flaxmere-based Shearing NZ, who has about18 shearers ready to go, among shed staff totalling more than 30 people waiting to shear an estimated 30,000 sheep which have backed-up in the rain.
Many are ewes urgently needing pre-lamb shearing and others include hoggets which may head for the meatworks without being shorn, he said on Monday, fearing that, based on latest forecasts, there would be little or no sheep shorn for a second week in a row.
Damp sheep seek shelter. A contractor estimates his farmers have 30,000 sheep waiting to be shorn when the rain stops. Photo / Paul Taylor
The situation, a typically wet late-June and early-July after a drought amid seven months of below-average rainfall, and shearing delays caused by the Covid-19 crisis had him comparing the new wet with conditions as long ago as 23 years.
"I can remember about 1997, when I'd come back from North America and was going to stay and shear here," he said.
"We had 21 days of straight rain in July, we'd just bought a house, it wasn't doing the bank balance any good, so, on day 17, I booked a fare to Aussie and shot through."
"I've probably got 30-odd jobs ready to go, about 30,000 sheep," he said as crews sat-around waiting, some pondering whether to head for the season in the South Island.
There was some work on Friday, with a farmer able to shelter some sheep beneath the trees before penning-up overnight, but mainly there has been no shearing in a week.
Napier contractor Brendan Mahony said he last had crews out on Monday last week, while Raupunga contractor Willie Culshaw, of Pahauwera Shearing, said on social media his gangs hadn't worked since last Tuesday.
Shearing contractor Colin Watson Paul (left) teaching shearing in better times. Rain has meant there's been little shearing in Hawke's Bay since the start of last week. Photo / File
Hawke's Bay Regional Council rainfall figures for the last seven days showed as much as 250mm had fallen in several places in the ranges, but on the plains rainfall varied mainly from as little as 10mm to 60mm.
National weather agency MetService was on Monday forecasting showers and rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Watson Paul said if it went any longer it could be Saturday before any sheep are shorn.
