Mrs Down's Diary

According to Farming Today, our wake-up call each morning at a quarter to six, sheep shearers are in short supply.

"No wonder," said John. "You get paid a pound a fleece and it is hard work. Unless you are regularly clipping like the travelling gangs from the Antipodes, the money is just not in the job."

When John was a younger man, he was in a clipping gang. They travelled all over, four of them, and had a regular round of sheep farms. If things were set up right with the sheep all in under cover and dry, with a team to feed the sheep to the shearer and then take the fleece and sheep away after the clip, he could get through up to 30 sheep an hour.

Now he is down to ten or 12. And unless I am involved, he is catching the sheep himself and rolling up the fleece and stuffing it into the wool sack on his tod as well. Mind you, his hands are lovely and soft after clipping. All that lanolin.

Over the years he has gradually stopped clipping on other farms. Now he only does it for a few friends who keep hobby sheep and for whom the clip is more of a social occasion than a job.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette July 2