Sheep shearer shortage worries Sussex farmers

Sheep will have to carry heavy coats throughout the hottest months of the year as new government regulations have discouraged shearers from coming to work in the UK.

Usually about a quarter of workers in the summer shearing season come from Australia and New Zealand.

Farmers and farmers' associations fear that sheep welfare will suffer and that the shortage will hit farmers in the pocket.

John Evans, rural projects manager at Business Link Sussex, said: “It will be a very serious problem this year as we are already coming up to the shearing season and only about three shearers have been allowed in.

“It will harm farmers' businesses and the poor old sheep will be stuck with their hot coats on. There is no way in hell they can get all the sheep sheared in time.”

Southern hemisphere workers have been put off by extra paperwork - each one has to go to Canberra, Australia's capital for fingerprinting – and a new £200 charge.

Farmer Frank Langrish, who is chairman of the British Wool Marketing Board for East Sussex, is also concerned about the shortage.

He said: “The UK sheep sector relies on the shearing undertaken by these very skilled gangs from the southern hemisphere. At a conservative estimate they shear about five million sheep in the UK.

“If they don't arrive in the UK in the coming weeks we are facing a serious welfare situation in our flocks.”

Because of the seasonal nature of the job there are not enough British shearers in the country to fill the gap.

Farmer Robert Morris wants the government to react to the potential crisis in sheep welfare.

He said: “The sheep will get shorn, albeit late in the summer and if this is the case, we shall encounter a lot of welfare problems such as blowfly strike and sheep getting on their backs with full fleeces and unable to get back on their feet and they will die within a matter of hours.

"We are urging all farmers to put pressure on their MPs so that we can avoid a major livestock catastrophe this summer."