Wet winter causes shearing delays in Otago and Southland

It has been a juggling act for sheep farmers, trying to get pre-lamb shearing done in recent weeks between bouts of wet weather. Photo / Alice Scott

Mud, mud and more mud.

Winter is dragging on for sheep farmers in Otago and Southland with many waiting their turn to get mobs shorn before lambing.

Elsie Lyon, of Peter Lyon Shearing, said the wet weather had grounded all their shearing crews for a few days last week, and the week before.

"It's pretty unusual for us to not have somewhere to send our crews as we have quite a big radius. We have had a couple of days where we haven't been able to get crews working anywhere, but it hasn't been too bad.

"I feel for some contractors who haven't been able to get going at all yet.

"No one can control the weather. We just need to keep our chins up and be ready when things have dried up," she said.

Clearing through the backlog of clients could be a stressful bottleneck but most clients were understanding, she said.

After more than 25 years working as a wool rep for PGG Wrightson, Kevin Waldron said July had been the worst month he had seen for contractors trying to get through crossbred shearing.

"It's been pretty dismal, but it's not as bad as some might think. Things are only a couple of weeks behind.

"It was a pretty good run through June and wool stores are only just starting to look a bit empty now. We've got a bit of time to catch up before the halfbreds start."

Lee Stream sheep and beef farmer Gary Nichol had a "day or so" of shearing to get through when Southern Rural Life spoke to him early last week.

With 3300 ewes and 1000 hoggets, shearing usually took four to five days in their four-stand woolshed.

This year, Nichol was into the third week of trying to get the mobs shorn during the windows of dry weather. He still had the hoggets to go.

"I have them in the covered yards at the moment, but they are still getting wet so I'm not too sure what's going to happen, we might have to let them out yet and wait it out."

Nichol was feeding baleage to his woollies and the shorn mobs were going straight out of the woolshed and on to crop.

"I have been trying to keep the hoggets off the mud so they are clean for shearing, but that's easier said than done," he said.

It had been a relentless few weeks for Nichol, but he was pragmatic about the situation.

"It is what it is. We will get out the other side eventually. The moisture is good for things too."