The skills of two young sheep shearers from Cumbria have been in demand in Iceland this winter after Icelandic farmers turned to the UK for experienced shearers to help with their annual winter clipping time.
Chris Hird from Wigton, near Carlisle and Gordon Nichol from Newcastleton close to the Scottish Border, spent two weeks in Iceland on a trip co-ordinated by North Yorkshire-based British Wool Marketing Board shearing instructor Richard Schofield from Tosside, near Settle and well known shearing equipment dealers William and Mary Horner from Clitheroe, Lancashire.
While it may seem unusual to be shearing sheep in November - and even more so given the severe winter weather in Iceland - the early winter clip is a traditional part of the country's farming calendar.
Chris Hird (20) and Gordon Nichol (21) - both from farming families - only returned to the UK for a few days before jetting off to New Zealand for a three-month shearing stint on sheep stations in North Island.
Chris Hird, who farms with his father David and brother Peter at Broomhill Farm, Wigton, has been shearing since he was 15 when he attended his first shearing course organised by the British Wool Marketing Board.
Having reached Gold standard - a top-ranking level in shearing skills - he is now shearing at the rate of around 50 ewes an hour.
And it was his capacity for throughput of ewes clipped combined with his high level of expertise that served him well during the two-week trip to Iceland.
marketing@alchempro.com
