A new training programme for people in the shearing industry has a bigger focus than putting clean sheep down the porthole.
"We're training you to be a rural athlete - end of story," says Mark Barrowcliffe, president of the New Zealand Shearing Contractor's Association.
"It's the whole picture; of your body, of your mind."
Mark Barrowcliffe Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
The WOMO Life programme includes modules on nutrition, mental health, managing finances and physical well-being.
"It's about how your body is now and how it is going to be and giving you some tools to limit injuries," Mark says.
Since the wool levy was axed in 2009, the shearing industry has struggled to fund training, he says, and it's great to see WOMO Life being rolled out nationwide.
"You need your learners coming on otherwise when the old fellas fall off the cliff there's a big, big void left behind."
Cody Lambert is doing his first official training session.
He's thrilled to be making the transition from presser to shearer, and spent the morning focussing on his hips.
It's all about posture and bevel sizes in shearing gear, Cody says.
"Yeah, it's really complicated."
"When you are pressing you get to do little last sides... so at the end of a run, the boys will let me do a last side and eventually you get a bit more confident and do a full sheep and then after that you just want to be a shearer.
"Now I know how to shear a sheep, it's just cutting the blows down and making it simpler...filling the comb up so a lot less blows and a lot less cuts!"
Cody been working as a presser for four years, travelling between Australia, the South Island and back to Piopio.
"My family brought me into it. You get to meet a lot of new people and then you can make a bigger family, The whole shearing crew's pretty much a big family."
Sidney Baker Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Keryn Herbert Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Makayla Neil Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
