Phot essay: shear power

By David White | Published on January 7, 2012 | Issue 3739
| Tags: Feature
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Listener photographer David White spent two days with a shearing gang in a hot Waikato woolshed.

After decades of a shrinking wool industry and in a country defined by its sheep, shearing is again a burgeoning business. In a hot Waikato woolshed, a shearing gang work their way through 800 sheep, pausing every half-hour for a drink of water and eating stew at lunchtime. By day’s end each shearer can have lost up to 2.5kg as a result of perspiration.

A sheep makes a quick getaway
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Adrian Short guides his comb over a sheep’s neck while his shearing gang works through the flock on a southern Waikato farm
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Cotton dries off
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Presser Stephen Ahipene
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Presser Stephen Ahipene works with a wool bale
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Presser Stephen Ahipene works with a wool bale
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Rousie Jo Cotton and Ahipene try to keep up with the mountain of wool as the gang hit their stride
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Shearer Adrian Short
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Shearer George Collins
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Shearers Adrian Short (foreground) and Dave Cotton at the end of a day’s shearing
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Sheep in a holding pen
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