Two Montana State University Extension agents traveled to New Zealand this summer for intensive training that will help them better train Montana sheep shearers.
Mike Schuldt, MSU Extension agent in Blaine County and Jim Moore, MSU Extension agent with the Regional Sheep Institute, went to New Zealand to learn the techniques that make that country known as one of the most accomplished sheep shearing locales in the world. Their experience will benefit students who take classes from Schuldt and Moore in Montana.
"We can apply the techniques and information we picked up directly to the instruction we'll provide at the Montana Wool Harvesting School," Schuldt said.
Their trip was funded by a Growth Through Agriculture grant from the Montana Department of Agriculture. Besides covering travel and training costs, a portion of the grant will also be used to purchase and upgrade equipment used at MSU sheep shearing schools.
The agents flew to Dunedin, on the South Island of New Zealand, where they attended an advanced sheep shearing school taught by instructors from Tectra Limited, a company registered to provide wool-harvesting skills training by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. Sheep are the number one agricultural industry in New Zealand, which has about 45 million sheep.
"One of the things we learned was that having the proper footwork and style will help make the job easier and will aid us in training our students," Moore said.
After the training, Schuldt and Moore traveled to Geraldine, where they practiced the skills they'd learned by working as shearers for Bruce Rogers, an area shearing contractor.
Rogers matches the skills of available shearers, wool handlers and pressers to the needs of farms that are scheduled for shearing services. He then puts together a group of workers, called a "gang," to do the work. While working with a gang, Schuldt sheared alongside Rod Sutton, who holds the world record for shearing 721 head of strong-wooled ewes in nine hours.
The two agents spent the last week of their visit on the North Island, where they visited farms and ag businesses.
Schuldt and Moore will instruct the annual Montana Wool Harvesting School March 14-21, 2008 at the Montana State University Red Bluff Research Ranch near Norris. For more information, contact Peggy Kelley at 406-994-3415.
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Jim Moore, foreground, and Mike Schuldt at work learning sheep shearing techniques in New Zealand.
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