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Kiwi shearers help Mongolian herders scale up wool industry www.stuff.co.nz
Kiwi shearers helped more than 100 Mongolian herders sharpen their shearing skills during a five-week visit in several locations across Mongolia earlier this year.
Rabobank agribusiness manager Paul Brough, who helped form the Share Mongolia Programme, said the 12-strong touring party was made up of a mix of Rabobank staff and farmers from Waikato, King Country, Taranaki, Marlborough and South Canterbury regions.
The entire New Zealand group had significant shearing experience, Brough said.
The programme was set up in 2020 to introduce modern shearing techniques and equipment into Mongolia, he said.
Shearing training courses in Mongolia were first trialled last year, with four Mongolian herders recently spending three months in New Zealand to work with shearing gangs, Brough said.
Brough said the team split into three groups and delivered seven five-day training courses to a total of 112 Mongolian herders across seven different provinces in five weeks.
The majority of the herders had little or no experience with machine shears having previously done their shearing with scissors.
After the course most could shave a sheep in around five minutes, much faster than the 25 minutes they were taking when they first used an electric shear.
Brough said course participants in each area have been left with five shearing machines and a grinder so they could put their new skills into practice.
“These are usually left with a local co-op to share amongst the participants as they see fit,” he said.
While delivering the training the New Zealand touring party lived with local herders.
A recent United Nations Industrial Development Organisation report found up to 4000 jobs could be created in Mongolia by machine shearing, and that 9000 tons of Mongolian wool was wasted each year because of limited resources and capacity.
The Mongolian wool industry had huge potential, with some locals who attended the training starting their own businesses.
“Nearly 45% of the 67 million livestock in Mongolia are sheep, estimated to be around 30 million head, with the ability to produce about 30,000 to 35,000 tonnes of wool annually,” he said.
“There is huge scope for improving economic income by sharing the knowledge and expertise of New Zealand farmers with Mongolian herders.
Brough said the Share Mongolia Programme attracted the interest of overseas companies keen to source Mongolian wool.
“We’ve had a few international carpet manufacturers taking an interest. And we’ve also had a pharmaceutical group from Europe get in touch and ask us to help source Mongolian wool,” he said.
The four Mongolian herders who attended training in New Zealand earlier this year acted as interpreters and assistant trainers on the most recent trip, Bough said.
“It was great to see Budee, Baaska, Ama and Khanda again and to have them help with the training,” he said.
“At this stage, they need someone with a bit more experience to guide them through the training, but with a bit more time, the plan is to have them running the courses by themselves.
“The new skills and money they acquired during their trip to New Zealand had a huge impact on their lives and they are now wealthy people by local standards.”
“Two of them have started a commercial shearing business together utilising one of the mobile shearing trailers we set them up with, while the other two are also working as shearers in their local regions.
“They’re all shearing up to 200 sheep a day, as opposed to the 25 sheep a day they were shearing prior to their New Zealand visit, and this makes a massive difference to the income they can generate.”
Brough said there was demand for future training courses that also covered topics like wool handling and animal health practises.
“If we can raise the funding, it’s possible we could have up to 10 herders heading over this way [New Zealand] early next year,” he said.
The training was funded by the United Nations, the New Zealand embassy in Beijing and the Rabobank Community Fund.
Published Date:2023-07-27
