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Shearing - Best practice guideline New Zealand shearing industry

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References / other publications of interest

Definitions

Bungy

A sprung back aid that reduces the load on harm Illness or injury or both; it includes physical the back from a shearer's upper body weight and mental harm caused by work-related stress

Catching pen

A small pen from which a shearer hAZArd Any activity, situation or substance that catches each sheep can cause harm. Hazards can be:

Chute

A slide or race between a porthole and a Actual or potential count out pen Physical (e.g. moving machinery, electrical, burning, rotating, environmental and ergonomic

Count out pen

A pen where shorn sheep are put for counting.

Down-tube

A tube hanging from a shearing motor to drive a hand-piece

Draft

Separate different categories of sheep

Employee

Separate different categories of sheep for a principal OR for a shearing contractor who contracts to a principal.

Employer

When the principal (farmer) employs a contractor, the contractor becomes the employer of woolshed staff. If the principal directly employs staff, they are also an employer i.e. an employer is the party responsible for paying employee's wages

Harm

Illness or injury or both; it includes physical and mental harm caused by work-related stress

Hazard

Any activity, situation or substance that can cause harm. Hazards can be:

Loaned employees

Where an employer places employees at the disposal of another employer, the legal obligations and responsibilities rest with the employer who is responsible for paying the employee's wages or salaries

Must

Used to show that it is necessary, or very important, that something happens in the present the party responsible for paying employees' wages or salaries

Pen stain

Dung stain on wool

Place of work

A place (building, structure or vehicle) where any person works, or may work, or must pass through to reach a place of work, or is under the control of the employer

Porthole

A hole at each shearing stand through which shorn sheep exit

Practicable

"All practicable steps." Economically and socially feasible steps that can be done or put into action. These steps are what a prudent person would have or should have knowledge about

Principal

A person who, or organisation that, engages any person (other than as an employee) to do any work for gain or reward

Principle

A moral, rule or standard of good behaviour

Presser

A wool handler responsible for compacting wool into bales

Run

A period of the workday. Normally either 1.75 or two hours

Season

The period of work that is relative to a time of year i.e. December/ January/February, summer, main shear season, July/August/September pre-lamb season

Self-employed

Woolshed staff who work directly for a farmer. "Open operators."

Serious harm

Death or;

  1. Any of the following conditions that amounts to or results in permanent loss of bodily function, or temporary severe loss of bodily function: respiratory disease, noise-induced hearing loss, neurological disease, cancer, dermatological disease, communicable disease, musculoskeletal disease, illness caused by exposure to infected material, decompression sickness, poisoning, vision impairment, chemical or hot-metal burn of eye, penetrating wound of eye, bone fracture, laceration, crushing.
  2. Amputation of body part.
  3. Burns requiring referral to a specialist medical practitioner or specialist outpatient clinic.
  4. Loss of consciousness from lack of oxygen.
  5. Loss of consciousness, or acute illness requiring treatment by a medical practitioner, from absorption, inhalation or ingestion of any substance.
  6. Any harm that causes the person harmed to be hospitalised for a period of 48 hours or more commencing within seven days of the harm's occurrence

Shafting plant

Older-fashioned shearing motor system. One motor drives all stands with one long steel shaft

Shall

Used to say that something certainly will or must happen, or that you are determined that something will happen

Shearer

A person who undertakes shearing of sheep

Shearing

The removal of wool from a sheep. Can also be used to describe the whole process of the removal, processing and packaging of a fleece into

bales

Shearing Board

The space in which actual shearing takes place

Shearing contractor

An individual who organises, pays and supplies shearing teams to farmers. Is legally responsible for employing people

Sheepo

A person whose job is to move sheep forward inside a woolshed and fill the catching pens should Used to state what is the correct or recommended thing to do

Stand

A shearing position on a shearing board. Each stand is equipped with overhead gear so the hand-piece may be attached, a holding pen for the unshorn sheep and a "porthole" or exit for the shorn sheep to leave the shed

Sub contractor

A person engaged (as an employee) by a contractor to undertake paid work

Wool Bale

A package of wool. Average weight of 160 to 180 kilograms

Wool handler

A member of the shearing team who handles wool. This includes its removal from the shearing board, and the skirting (pulling away the dirty and uneven edges of the fleece to give a clean, even appearance) and classing (sorting of the fleece by length, colour, quality, soundness and condition)

Wool press

The machine used to compress wool into bales

Wool room

The space in which sorting and pressing of wool take place

Woolshed

A farm building that is usually specifically designed and designated for the shearing of sheep

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