Shearing sheep can be backbreaking work.
Most days involve eight hours of hard, physical labour. It can be tough work and farmers can understand why more young bodies aren't putting their hands up for the role.
The working conditions, along with other factors such as border closures due to the COVID pandemic and vaccine hesitancy have contributed to the current Australia-wide shearer shortage.
That's why Kevin Butler, in Kilmore in northern Victoria, decided to take matters into his own hands to invest in semi-automated technology to shear his sheep.
"I would say it takes away 95 per cent of the energy [required]," Mr Butler said.
"A shearer is like one of those tennis players at the Australian Open right now. The players only play for three hours, but a shearer has got to wrestle sheep for eight hours a day with the same amount of energy.
Mr Butler said by investing in the technology he wanted to "dig the well before you need the water".
"I know my shearers are getting on like I am and there's no young ones coming up to replace them, so where are we going to be in five years' time?
"I've got a $70,000 wool clip. I'm happy to go off and buy a tractor, so why not invest in something like this? It is expensive but it's worth the investment."
Mr Butler said the industry is at a crisis point. He said a flow-on effect of the shearer shortage was compromised flock health, as flystrike took hold over the summer months.
"We are in a state of absolute crisis in the shearing industry, and unless the powers that be start thinking differently then there's going to be a lot of deaths in the paddock through flystrike," he said.
No longer backbreaking
Mr Butler invested in the semi-automated system last year, which works by securing and moving the sheep while they are being shorn.
"The sheep walk into what we call a mild crush. It doesn't actually pin them, but it sort of holds them," Mr Butler said.
"And then a lever rotates the sheep over on its back and onto a platform. We then slip the legs into some restrainers, and it exposes the sheep so we can shear it.
Mr Butler typically needs a team of shearers to complete the work, but with this technology he only needs himself and another; his roustabout and shearer Barry Milne.
Mr Milne agrees that it creates less work for shearers.
"It's no stress on me. I'm getting on and I'm not having to visit a chiropractor a couple of times a month," he said.
Automation to take off
Victorian shearing instructor Tom Kelly said he has noticed more farmers using semi-automated technology for shearing, which he said was extremely useful in a time with declining shearer numbers.
"They continually improve the machines that I've seen, without trying to get way beyond having the person not shear the sheep," Mr Kelly said.
"I think you'll see [the technology] develop and become more user-friendly.
