Mongolian herders gain Kiwi nous

Published date24 May 2023
Publication titleWhanganui Midweek
The four Mongolians herders arrived in New Zealand in early January having done all their previous shearing using scissors, a time-consuming practice which limits the number of sheep that can be shorn in a day to about 30. When they returned home in mid-April, each of the herders was shearing competently using an electronic handpiece and all four had achieved shearing personal bests of more than 250 sheep in a day

The visit to New Zealand was undertaken as part of the Share Mongolia programme, an initiative to introduce modern shearing techniques and equipment into Mongolia that took flight after a chance encounter involving Rabobank agribusiness manager Paul Brough in 2019.

“While I was trekking through Mongolia in 2019, I came across a group of farmers who were shearing a herd of about 900 using scissors and they told me it would take them about a month to complete the job,” Brough said. “This really blew my mind given how much quicker this can be done with electronic equipment, and I thought to myself, there must be something I can do to help. So, once I got back to New Zealand, I had a few discussions with some work colleagues and clients, and we looked into running some training that would help develop skills with modern equipment.”

The Share Mongolia initiative was established in 2020 and an initial idea hatched to run some courses with visiting Kiwi shearers in Mongolia.

“These courses first took place in 2022 and worked out pretty well, and then we figured it might also be of benefit to get some of the Mongolians over this way,” Brough said. “With funding support from the Rabobank Community Fund, we were able to get the four herders over here and tee them...

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