ShearingComp'11

It was a proud day for seventeen year old Josh Harman yesterday as he took home the title of Top Taratahi Shearer 2011. Over one hundred students and staff turned out to cheer on friends and fellow competitors at Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre’s woolshed on a hot Wairarapa afternoon. Taratahi has been offering agricultural training from its Wairarapa Campus for over ninety years.

“It’s been a great year, I’ve learnt heaps and there’ve been so many good things happen – this is just the best!” Josh said. He left his Auckland school last year and has spent his first year away from home studying the full-time Taratahi Certificate in Agriculture, at the Training Centre’s Wairarapa Campus. “I’ve always wanted to get into farming, I love shearing and winning this cup is the best.”

Thirty-three first year students took a crack at the title, with some stiff competition. Shearing Tutor Graeme Fair, known as ‘Grizz’ to staff and students alike, has patiently built the animal handling and shearing skills of these young farmers through the year. “There’s a lot to learn, it’s not all about strength. And it’s definitely not all about speed: learning to hold the animal correctly, keeping your feet in a good position and making some good first blows will all pay off with a job well done at the finish.”

“We’re teaching our students how to do the job right – the annual Taratahi Shearing Competition is a highlight for our ‘sheep’ students at the end of a year of learning a huge range of skills. It is a busy shearing time so the students get the opportunity for plenty of practice before the event, they are really competitive, girls as well as boys!”

Teaching means walking the walk at Taratahi. An accomplished shearer, Grizz competes alongside his students, at A&P shows around the lower North Island. Grizz and his wife Chrissy, also a Taratahi Tutor, have spent many a night over recent weeks coaching a team of ten up-and-coming shearers – after a full day’s work on the farm that’s definitely a demonstration of dedication to the spo

The main event, the International Golden Shears, held in Masterton in early March is ‘the big one’ they have all got their sights set on. The Taratahi Shearing Team will compete in the Novice Class. The 2012 competition is also the sports’ World Championships, a ‘not to be missed’ event for New Zealand’s rural community.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how the team goes, I know they’ll be going all out, that’s for sure. Although our students will have some time off over Christmas we’ll still have some time to get back into it at the start of the term. It’s amazing how far some of these young men and women have come in just a year. To see them so confidently competing today makes all the effort worthwhile. Even for those guys who didn’t make the final, they have achieved so much personally – there was some good, solid shearing done out there today – I’m over the moon,” says Grizz.

The Taratahi Shearing Competition values the input of Golden Shears Judges who make the calls on the boards. They are judging on quality of the first and second cut, although speed is taken into account. Graham McNae and Graham Saunders, both with many years of shearing competition behind them, judged this year’s competition.

Saunders presented the four finalists and the top female shearer’s prizes. He’s judged at three Taratahi competitions and declared this year to be the best demonstration of skill he has seen at the Training Centre’s woolshed, attributing the quality to the dedication of Taratahi’ shearing tutors under the leadership of Senior Tutor Nigel Tomlin. “There’s only one way to learn shearing and that’s by doing it. Some of these Taratahi shearers certainly won’t be out of their depth in the Novice Class of The (Golden) Shears,” said Saunders.

Taratahi Shearers Judged Very Promising