Shearer

So my name's Peter Downs. I'm a learner shearer.
This is my first season sharing.
So this is the wool shed. This is where all the action happens.
We got our shearers over there, our wool handlers. This is the wool press.
This is where most young people normally start off.
They come into the shed and they fill up the pens for the shearers and pick up
the wool and put in there and make bales with it. It is a seasonal job,
but the South Island tends to shear a little bit later than the North Island
main shear. A main shear will last about 4 months.
So once we run outta work up here, once all the sheep are shaun,
then we normally head down to the South Island,
do another 4 months down there, come back here. Another 4.
I quite enjoy like the lifestyle, I like traveling.
In the future I wanna go overseas,
so I'm gonna use shearing as a means to go overseas. So these are my moccasins,
shearing shoes. They're made of leather,
so they protect your feet if you muck up and the handpiece goes towards your
foot. I do enjoy Thursdays, which is payday, but other than that, I, yeah,
mainly the people. People are my favorite parts. It's really like, you know,
down-to-earth sort of people.
We have a lot of laughs and good times and that sort of thing. Oh,
no pressure guys. . This is the handpiece.
And then on the bottom we got our comb – on the top, our cutter.
All I have to do is click on onto the counter and then yeah, go grab one out.
It took me a long time to share my first sheep but yeah,
you sort of just practice on it every day. It's just training your muscles,
like muscle memory.
You get faster as the time goes on. After a while you learn how to hold them and
how to stand and how to work the hand piece right.
Everything just gets better over time. I used to drive trucks up in
Auckland, but I got sick of the traffic.
There's a lot of contractors you can look up online,
like shearing contractors and you just give one of them a call and most of
the time if it's the right season,
they'll give you a job. There's a lot of different things you can do in the wool
shed. It's a very physical job,
so you gotta like not be afraid to get dirty and sort of have a bit of pain.
But yeah, it all comes with it sort of thing. No,
you don't need a qualification to become a shearer.
As long as you're keen and you can work hard then you'll be away.
Just go for it, really. Call up a contractor or call up somone you know,
and then just go for it.