Shearing - Best practice guideline New Zealand shearing industry
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References / other publications of interest
- Prevention and Management of Discomfort, Pain and Injury for Shearing and Wool Handlers (ACC)
- A Guide To Health And Safety In Employment Act 1992 (Department of Labour)
- Guidelines for the Provision of Safety, Health and Accommodation In Agriculture (Department of Labour)
- Health and Safety Recommendations for Fasting Sheep Prior to Shearing (Department of Labour)
- Your Safe Driving Policy (Land Transport New Zealand and ACC)
- Safety and Health in Shearing - A Guideline for Industry (Australia)
- Code of Practice for Clip Preparation (New Zealand wool industry)
- Health and safety manuals (New Zealand Shearing Contractors' Association Inc.)
- Tectra shearing industry handbooks
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:
- Actual or potential
- Physical (e.g. moving machinery, electrical, burning, rotating, environmental, and ergonomic conditions)
- Biological (e.g. inhaling dust or poisonous vapours, touching toxic chemicals or products)
- Behavioural (e.g. temporary conditions induced by stress, fatigue, shock, alcohol or drugs)
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;
- 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.
- Amputation of body part.
- Burns requiring referral to a specialist medical practitioner or specialist outpatient clinic.
- Loss of consciousness from lack of oxygen.
- Loss of consciousness, or acute illness requiring treatment by a medical practitioner, from absorption, inhalation or ingestion of any substance.
- 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