A shortage of shearers and shed hands is one of the biggest challenges facing the sheep industry but one SA pastoral family has never had the issue of empty stands in their sheds.
In fact they are helping contribute to the solution.
This week the Nutt family are hosting their 50th shearing school at Pandurra, near Port Augusta and estimate that over the past five decades about two million sheep have been shorn by eager learners and improvers at three of their stations.
On Monday seven shearers and five shed hands started the fortnight long improver school at Pandurra.
With a contract team on the other six stands in the shed they should come close to shearing 20,000 Merinos.
Fifth-generation woolgrower Bruce Nutt says the shearer training began in 1974 when Australian Wool Corporation's Tony Ryan and Andrew Brown from the SA Department of Agriculture approached his father Ralph about teaching wannabe shearers in a "proper working shed".
"Fifty years ago it was exactly the same as it is now, young ones were going to the mines or into other jobs and there was a shortage of shearers," he said.
The Nutts also began hosting a school at Curnamona via Yunta at about the same time but this ceased in 2019.
Since 2003- the year after the Nutts bought Oakden Hills - another station north of Port Augusta they have hosted an improver school there each May.
"Early on we had some blokes only shearing 20 sheep a day and it did sometimes drag out but it was a commitment that we made," he said.
"The model works because there is no big cost to industry, we have never received any money for having the schools and we pay the shearers for what they shear."
Mr Nutt says the highlight for him has been the willingness of young people who have been through the school to come back and help train the next group coming through.
"There are not many shearing sheds that you can walk into where someone hasn't been through one of our schools," he said.
"I remember (instructor) John Hutchinson one day pulling me up and pointing out that this young fella had a good technique, it was Shannon Warnest (multiple world champion shearer) as an 18 or 19 year old."
He says during COVID when tafeSA - the training provider at the time -were forced to cancel their Oakden Hills school they were able to put together a full replacement team within hours.
"We referred to it as the dream team- most of them had been through the schools and just wanted to show their appreciation," he said.
The Shearing Contractors Association of Australia are the training provider for SA and state coordinator Josh Sneath says the school at Pandurra has been booked out for at least four months.
He says it is great to have a woolgrower like Bruce Nutt so committed to training shed staff and offering sheds in the pastoral areas.
"It gets kids out of their comfort zone and away from Mum and Dad but there is also a lot of support with the trainers working side by side with them," he said.
"Many are starting off on the stand at 80 to 100 a day but they soon get to the next level of 140 or more and from there they keep going when they leave the school."
Mr Sneath says interest in their training remains strong and in the first half of 2023 alone they expect to have 40 learners and 30 improvers attending schools across the state.
For Zak Pearce from Naracoorte it will be a great experience being back at Pandurra as the wool classer after attending last year's school as a shed hand.
The 18-year-old gained his classer's stencil in mid last year and is excited about the challenge of classing his biggest clip yet.
"It is a great opportunity and will help me if I want to class a big shed in the future," he said.
Mr Pearce dropped out of school at 15 years of age but has found his calling in the sheds.
"It is not the perfect job for everyone, you need to not mind early mornings, the heat and long days but it is interesting and it pays well," he said.
