Greetings from the South Waikato

I have a two acre block in the middle of dairy farming country, plus a couple of acres of "Long Acre" grazing. By day I'm a Computer Software Trainer specialising in Open Source Software... Yea sorry another one of those Linux types, (feel free to ask, no such thing as stupid questions only stupid answers).

After hours I look after a few animals, limited to three pigs and a yearling steer right now, adding a few sheep in the next week or so and I'm half way through constructing the new chook house for a dozen or so hens. Looking forward to fresh eggs. Along with a few feijoa trees (how do I get them to fruit all year round! ) Apples, citrus and grapes as well as a reasonable Vege patch.

Originally I was a mechanic by trade, nowadays that's just a hobby and I worked for a number of years on high Country Sheep stations so have had a fair amount of livestock handling experience even though I was generally employed as General hand/Bully Driver.

Once I could shear 200 a day and crutch 800+, these days I tend to shear five then have a cold one to let my "not quite 3 score year" old back recover. I seem to have lost the need for speed.

Lots of good info on here, I look forward to interesting discussions.

Welcome Yorick
LOL mate nothin wrong with a cold one
To me sounds as you have all the Basics and more than enough ideas and experience to make a dam good go of it
lots of helpful people and loads of experience on this place
so i hope you enjoy your time here .. and join in on lots of things

I know a shearer just like that! Used to do 300 a day, now winces after three in half an hour. Then it's lunch time.

ahhhh Isla ... is that why grove owners wifes friend hubby .. reckoned it would take 1 and 1/2 days to shear my 13 sheep ? lol lol

I think in certain circumstances my shearing speed would work. I had a friend, a 400 Ewes a day type shearer, who went on a shearing holiday in Europe. On one french farm he shore on a door thrown under a tree. As each one was finished the farmer led the sheep back to the paddock and brought the next one in from a different paddock. My mate reckoned he had a smoko between sheep and that he wasn't so much shearing them as he was styling them. He was therefor several days. The wool was promptly dumped.

I could shear like that.

That French geezer should get sheep that shed their wool. Maybe the price of wool there was a bit like it's been here lately. One farmer told me a while ago that he'd been offered a price for his wool that was less than it had cost him to shear the sheep.