Kristin Murdock, Naracoorte Community News
A new approach to managing shearing teams is paying dividends in the Mid North of the state and helping address the skills shortage which is being felt by the entire livestock industry.
When Sarah-Jane Abley’s shearing team steps onto the boards of shearing sheds around South Australia, out goes any hierarchy and instead the team just gets to work. It is all part of a new approach to her shearing contracting business run with shearer husband Ben Ker, offering new ideas to help maintain quality staff and address a nationwide shearer shortage.
“We work as a team, no one is above anyone in the shed, no shearer, no classer, no cook, everyone is the same including myself and Ben, so we all go into the shed and work together,” Sarah-Jane said.
And their staff know their expectations. There is random drug testing, with zero tolerance for drug use.
The fresh approach has been well-received by her clients, pushing the contracting business from strength to strength since Sarah-Jane started it two years ago. She has 12 staff – up to 50 in the main shearing season from July through till Christmas – with the team travelling mainly throughout the Mid North of the state, across to Ceduna and through the pastoral areas.
After working for 15 years in the corporate world, Sarah-Jane needed a change of pace and packed her dog in the car, drove across the border and found a job working in shearing sheds, where she met Ben. Returning to SA, the couple found it difficult to find regular work together – Sarah-Jane working on the boards and Ben shearing – and it was then that they decided to “freelance”.
“I started this business seeing a void in the professionalism in the industry,” Sarah-Jane said.
“My main focus, in the beginning, was always animal welfare, ensuring my staff and the farmer are working together, that the working conditions in the sheds are adequate, and that all my staff are getting their entitlements.”
It is her first-hand experience and insight into a corporate work environment that has led Sarah-Jane to try new things and stabilise employment for her staff.
“We pay above award, but one initiative I’m trialling is paying full-time wages to some of my staff,” she said. “This industry makes it really hard for people to get bank loans because they’re casual or seasonal workers.
“In anything that you do, if you don’t give it 100 per cent you’re not going to succeed,” Sarah-Jane said. “The shearing industry can be a great career, just see where it takes you, give it a go.”
This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.
