- SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - Australia's legendary sheep shearers may
soon be replaced by the latest creation of scientists -- self-shearing
sheep. A product being brought to the market this year will use biotechnology
to transform the age-old process of manual shearing, its backers say. Called
Bioclip, it injects sheep with a naturally occurring protein that causes
their fleece to drop out, or be brushed out by hand, a week later. The
vast outback shearing sheds are still buzzing, but Australia's $2 billion
wool industry is struggling and anything that can save money is welcome.
``Any innovation we would support,'' said Greg Evans, executive director
of grower group Wool Council of Australia. Australian shearers have progressed
beyond the romantic late 1800s image of bush poets and Hollywood film makers
who portrayed them as tough, independent souls. Now they are a major cost
factor in an industry where a 40-percent drop in wool prices since 1990
has pushed many growers to the brink of financial disaster. ``Without a
doubt wool harvesting is a major cost to the industry and the extent any
innovation can reduce (costs) we would welcome,'' Evans said. Australian
shearers are paid 90 cents per sheep, typically processing about 120 sheep
a day at an average of three to four minutes per sheep. Shearing also requires
shed staff to clear shorn wool, classers to grade the fleece and cooks
for meals. The firm that will market the new process, Bioclip, is not revealing
how much it will charge, whether gathering the wool will be quicker than
shearing or other details. Managing Director John Le Breton would not even
say who owns the firm.
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- SCIENCE TRANSFORMING FARMS
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- But the main players in Australia's wool
industry describe Bioclip, based on a process developed by scientists at
the government-owned Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization,
as a world first. ``(It) introduces a totally new concept in wool harvesting
to an industry which has been using mechanical techniques for more than
5,000 years,'' CSIRO, the Woolmark Company and Australia's Minister for
Industry, Science and Tourism John Moore said in a joint statement. The
injected protein -- neither Bioclip nor the CSIRO will give its scientific
name -- causes a break in fleece fibers, shedding the wool into nets and
special coats strapped to the sheep. The fiber break follows a slowdown
in cell activity for a brief period after the injection that slows wool
growth. After a week, the fleece simply falls out or can be removedby brushing
by hand -- ``a very neat little process,'' said CSIRO spokeswoman Pat Wilson.
Gene technology is not involved. Neil Evans, technical director of Australia's
Woolmark Company, the former International Wool Secretariat, sees Bioclip
becoming a significant method of removing wool from sheep in the next five
to 10 years. It improves quality through producing wool of more uniform
length than shearing and reduces use of pest-control chemicals by causing
sheep skin to shed lice and to reduce dermatitis.
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- SHEEP STRESS REDUCED
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- The process also eliminates or reduces
other problems of mechanical shearing including second-cuts, or second
attempts by a shearer to fleece the sheep, skin pieces that end up in the
shorn wool and wool waste that falls away during combing.And it reduces
sheep stress and injury, Bioclip says. The process has been tested on more
than 15,000 sheep over 20 years including a flock in Yass, in New South
Wales state, that has been treated annually for the past seven years. ``Revolutionary
processes do not happen overnight,'' CSIRO's Wilson said. Monitoring shows
that the injection elevates the protein in the sheep for 24 hours, after
which wool begins to grow again. Sheep can be sold for meat seven days
later, the CSIRO said. Australia's gene technology and animal rights watchdogs
are keeping an eye on the process but have made no objections yet. Australia's
wool industry has been trying to reduce its reliance on shearers since
long before Bioclip, mainly through mechanization aimed at minimizing ``shearers
tossing sheep around,'' Greg Evans said. But it is unlikely that shearers
will be out of a job -- even if some are transformed into modern-day pluckers.
Farmers wanted Bioclip initially only for the top 15 percent of their flocks,
where best prices can be obtained from the better finish the protein process
produces, Wilson said. Shearers would also have a major part to play through
pre-injection trimming of peripheral areas of sheep, which produce hair
rather than wool. They could also be used in harvest teams of three to
five people without the occupational health and safety issues of normal
shearing, Wilson said. The Australian Workers' Union has yet to come to
grips with Bioclip, although a top official said the union would resist
any move to cut job numbers. ``Anything that takes away from shearers'
jobs, we wouldn't be very happy about,'' AWU officer Lauren Godfrey said.
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