Watching sheep shearing in Kaikoura
Driving north from Christchurch we made a stop in Kaikoura to see The Point Sheep Shearing Show, which I had been looking forward to for quite some time because I had heard that they always have lambs that you can meet. And I really, really wanted to meet a lamb.
It was a rainy day, but luckily the sheep shearing was taking place inside the barn, so when we arrived a few minutes early, we had a place to stand inside to wait. We looked at some of the sheep that were in stalls at the back of the barn, and I got a little nervous because there weren’t any lambs to be seen. As we were waiting around, the farmer was coming in and out to get ready for the show, and I some point I heard a tiny little baaa — I looked at Scott immediately with a huge, hopeful grin on my face. Turns out, we got to meet, feed and hold a “wee lamb” (as the farmer called it) that was only three weeks old. It was ridiculously cute. We also got to meet and feed a ram, watch the farmer shear a sheep and see some of the sheep dog’s skills. From the photos, the sheep looks rather pathetic and uncomfortable, and it did in real life too, but the shearing didn’t look inhumane in any way (which it may have in the past before improved tools came around). It actually reminded me quite a bit of how Tiger acts sometimes when we try to trim his claws and he isn’t in the right mood ;)
A few facts about sheep in New Zealand:
- There are about 39 million sheep total today, a number that is decreasing
- For the particular type of sheep that the farmer sheared, the farmer only makes about 12NZD a year from the wool
- The shearing record in NZ is around 800 sheep shorn in one day
https://youtu.be/GUVpDlBpwKU&rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0
$12/year from the wool, $12/person to watch it being shorn? Not too bad of an increase….
Yeah, this particular place only keeps sheep for this show now. It’s way more lucrative. That figure is for carpet wool though – I imagine merino gets a better price. But it still sounds like you need to have 5-10k sheep before you can really make a living.
I read a couple of books written in 1870 or so about trying to make a living from sheep farming in New Zealand – sounds like even then you really needed big numbers to make it worth it. I guess that’s why that farm at the end of the lake by Queenstown is so big!
So cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh! The wee lamb!!! That is adorable!
:)