Productivity is not a challenging undertaking if you have the right products and close control of expenses. Breeding and raising domestic sheep is beneficial as these animals produce income from the sale of wool, milk, and meat. Interestingly, the highest quality of meat can be found from lambs — a year-old sheep.

In constructing an ideal shearing shed system, there’s a number of factors to consider. Proper planning is critical. This includes choosing the right location for the shed, installation and maintenance of the sections of the shed, obtaining the right tools and equipment for the processes in the shed, hiring capable workers, maintaining healthy sheep, and following the industry standards to ensure the health and safety of everyone working on the farm.

After planning, your first step before you can operate in NSW, Australia is getting permission from the SafeWork NSW, a trusted entity that regulates workplaces in New South Wales, Australia.

Hiring the Right People

Sheep is not a dangerous animal to handle. The risk arises when you don’t know how to manage them properly. When you desire to raise and breed sheep, you should hire trustworthy people to handle the sheep and the facility appropriately. They need to undergo proper training and have adequate knowledge about handling sheep.

People who work by cutting or shaving off sheep’s wool typically earn by how much wool they can get. The tendency is that these workers do the shearing as fast as possible, and the sheep get hurt a lot. So, it’s essential to choose the right people who care for the job and the animals.

Obtaining the Necessary Tools and Equipment

• Neck or leg crook: This is what you need to catch the sheep. Most sheep get hurt when using crook by the hind leg; catching the sheep around the neck through the crook causes less to no harm to the animal.
• Shear: A hand shear is a traditional tool used by shear workers back then, and is still being used by some shearing facilities today. With the advances in technology, electric shears are now available on the market to speed up the shearing process. They work excellently in removing wool closer to the sheep’s skin without hurting them; therefore, yielding more wool for profit. Take note that the shear becomes dull quickly and to maintain the excellent shearing process, make sure they are always sharpened.
• Cutter: This can be integrated into the shear that does the work of cutting the thick wool without snagging or dragging.
• Comb: Comb is another part of the shear that protects the skin of the sheep while the shearing process takes place. It helps the shearer cut enough depth to harvest longer fibers.

Shearing Shed Design

Shearing facilities have these essential areas:

• Pen area: Having the right pen area is ideal to maintain the cleanest possible condition for the sheep and allow the manure to pass through.
• Shearing board: This area must be between 750 mm and 850 mm above the wool room ground to allow shearers to gain increased working ease for picking up fleeces. The ideal wideness is 1830 mm at the stands.
• Wool room: This is where you store collected wool.

The most critical things to keep in mind in a shearing facility are ventilation and lighting. Consult the experts to achieve the ideal environment for the job.

To ensure that you’ll have the shearing facility that follows the industry standards, hire the right company to build it. You will have the proper access laneway through the sheep area and considerable shearing environment for the workers.