Five pillars of shearing wisdom
Two-time world champion shearer Shannon Warnest told the Dubbo crowd about the five pillars of technique for shearing: gear, position, grip, freehand and entry. “In not one instance have we not been able to fix a problem for a shearer by going through these five pillars,” he says.
- Gear relates to the quality of the shearing equipment – “make sure it is always running at 100 per cent,” he says.
- Position is how the shearer uses their body to move the sheep. Shannon gave a demonstration of how he uses only his knee and his free-arm elbow to manoeuvre the sheep, to give him the neatest and fastest cut while not stressing his body.
- Grip comes back to how the handpiece is held – “not like holding a knife about to stab someone,” says Shannon.
- Freehand is what the shearer’s free hand is doing while the sheep is being shorn.
- Entry is vital as it can dictate the number of blows needed and the rhythm that will be used to shear the sheep. “It’s all about keeping rhythm – sometimes it might mean two or three extra blows to keep that rhythm and that’s OK,” Shannon adds.
“When you think about it, these five pillars relate to many actions in everyday life – even taking a drink of water from a bottle.”
Return to Beyond the Bale Issue 29 index page.