Shearing doesn’t have to be a drag
Perkinz, a New Zealand farming brand owned by EB Engineering in Dunedin, has just released a new shearing system called ShearMaster that not only makes a tough job easier, but faster.
SHEARING IS RECOGNISED AS ONE of the toughest professions in the world and is one of the few occupations where workers take a sweat towel to work.
Perkinz, a New Zealand farming brand owned by EB Engineering in Dunedin, has just released a new shearing system called ShearMaster that not only makes a tough job easier, but faster.
It replaces the traditional catching pens with a race delivery system that saves space and significantly cuts the distance a shearer must drag each sheep.
Physics dictates that it takes less time and energy to drag a sheep 0.5 metre than 3–4m.
Shearing 250 sheep a day that average 80kg each in a traditional shearing shed, a shearer has to drag 20,000kg about 3–4m. The ShearMaster reduces that to 0.5m. Perkinz installed a five-stand ShearMaster system in Tasmania in July 2023 and owner Wayne Perkins flew there for its first day of operation.
The first order for a six-stand unit was placed the next day by a farmer who was watching the system in action and talking to the shearers and farm owner.
“It’s taken a hell of a lot of work and many a sleepless night, but it’s great to see products made with Kiwi ingenuity, which is the hallmark of the Perkinz brand, being manufactured in New Zealand and the Aussie farmers embracing them.”
