Times a-changin’ for Bendigo contractor

But before the clock strikes 7.30am his team can be seen warming up to improve their performance and longevity before their first stride into the holding pen.

While the Raywood-based contractor and wool-producer has now retired the hand-piece, except for the occasional outing, he manages one or two teams of shearers in the Bendigo area.

Griffin Shearing began about 10 years ago officially, but Mr Griffin had been putting teams together for local sheds for several years before that.

And with the rising average age of shearers being one of the major dilemmas of the shearing industry, training is something that's important to the business.

"If you're well trained there's good money in it," Mr Griffin said.

In recent years the craft has been professionalised, and with the help of levy-funding from Australian Wool Innovation, training and development is now continuous for those who want it.

"The training they offer nowadays is brilliant," he said.

"It's a high-risk industry, they say.

"People wear out and hurt themselves."

Shearers and woolclassers are trained on the job and can also complete TAFE qualifications at several locations in Victoria.

"You never stop learning when you're a shearer" – and even the well-seasoned people on the team take important lessons from sessions with the trainers, Mr Griffin said.

"Some people can shear but they can't grind (the shearing combs), some don't have their footwork quite right – there's a whole heap of things that can be worked on to improve technique," he said.

"They also help out with things like diet and exercise.

"Even the good old shearers, you see them in the morning doing their exercises and you would never have seen that 20 years ago.

"You have to behave yourself and look after yourself, and you can make a lot of money.

"The way I see it, the ones who burn themselves out are the ones who make a bit of money for 10 years or so and then go off and blow it."

And while big pay-cheques offered for trades and mining work has lured young people away from the industry, Mr Griffin believes there's still money to made for consistent performers.

"A good, steady shearer can make $80,000-plus a year take-home – they make a really comfortable living," Mr Griffin said.

"You get a fella who shears 700 a week at nearly $3 each and he's getting towards $1700 a week, take home."

Rouseabouts could make about $1000 and woolclassers as much as their shearing counterparts per week, he said.

That hasn't inspired numbers of young shearers in recent years, however.

According to 2011 census data, there were about 3200 people who registered their profession as "shearer" – a number which has anecdotally dropped since then.

This is a far cry from the estimated 12,000 there were in the job 20 years ago, according to the Shearing Contractor's Association of Australia.

Although this rough 300 per cent decrease has coincided with a heavily shrinking national flock, the average age of a shearing team in Australia is creeping up each year – something that's visible in almost every shed.

There are three or four full-time shearers on the books of Griffin Shearing and up to eight in spring, plus four woolhandlers and a woolclasser.

The permanent staff range in age between 40 and 60.

"The average age of the team is getting up there," Mr Griffin said.

"That's a bit of a worry."

While the veterans still shear 35-50 head each run (depending on the sheep), the physical nature of the job means some of will be approaching retirement in the coming years.

"A lot of people have mentioned to me 'You have a great crew but we're getting older'," Mr Griffin said.

"But on the other hand, while these older fellas are good value, you're not going to push them aside, because they're good men and they keep coming back – and people love having them."

Mr Griffin says he does his best to foster new young talent at the same time.

A young woolhandler on the team is currently considering going a step further and picking up the hand-piece.

"We'll push the young guys who are coming on and we'll encourage them to do the courses," Mr Griffin said.

And while this doesn't directly address the falling numbers, Australian contractors have the option of topping their teams up with extra staff from across the Tasman, Mr Griffin said.

"New Zealand is full of young shearers."

"NZ is dropping a million sheep a year so our population of shearers is supported by it."

DESPITE the drop in numbers, competition shearing hasn't taken off in Victoria in the past few years.

This year, however, the Northern Shears Association held its championships at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show at Bendigo and had to knock back entrants by the close of registration.

In total more than 80 shearers and 35 wool handlers competed.

Competition shearing has been a long-time hobby of Garry Griffin, who was the foundation chairman of Northern Shears.

He's had only three years away from the position (while chairing Sports Shear Australia) and is working to grow participation further.

"We've had a lot out of it," Mr Griffin said.

"We've had some really good trips out of it.

"We've been very lucky to be involved.

"I've got to know a lot of really good people around the country.

"There are some really great people in the shearing industry."

AFTER combing the backs of tens of thousands of sheep over his shearing career, Garry Griffin knows what he wants in a flock.

At his Raywood property Mr Griffin runs 1000 Merino ewes and 1000 wethers on 730 hectares with wife Jayne.

In the past few years he has shifted to using Koole Vale to take some wrinkle out of the skin.

"We just wanted to back off the heavy skin a bit," he said.

"The sheep were getting too heavy to shear wool-wise.

"They're doing well now.

"I like the Glendonald-type wool which Koole Vale is based on."

Each year stud rams purchased are joined with a small flock of registered breeding ewes, which are based on a flock purchased at the Wonga dispersal sale.

Originally the flock ran on Riverina rams but the move to Glendonald and then Koole Vale has helped brighten the fleece and increase its cutting ability.

Ewes cut about six kilograms of skirted 19-micron wool in a good year while wethers hit the eight-kilogram, 20M mark in a good feed season.

While the national wether flock has vastly shrunk, it's still economical for the Griffins to run the flock while they're cutting 8kg.

"I've made my living out of shearing wethers," Mr Griffin said.

"You'd go to a farm and shear 1000 wethers and 300 ewes - now it's the opposite.

"But it's still worthwhile.