Assumption is risky, ‘ewe’ know
Released 22 Jan 2012
Bruce Wills is the President of Federated Farmers and a version of this was printed in the Sunday Star Times on 22 January 2012
Last week I compared my shearing ability as a jogger to Olympians. Jeanette Maxwell, our Meat & Fibre Chairperson, then suggested shearing could become a demonstration sport at a Commonwealth Games, if not, the Olympics. That sentence went global. Yet it is the local reaction that saw the editor of the Southland Times write of shearers, "anyone of them could, after a day's extravagant exertions, flex their tormented frame and in that moment, look any cereal box Olympian square in the eye".
We New Zealanders, for all of our many positive traits, risk world leadership in cynicism. A degree of skepticism is healthy because it keeps organisations like us on our toes. Yet instead of ‘why not?' we seem to increasingly use ‘not'. BusinessNZ's Phil O'Reilly sensibly called for our mineral wealth to be harvested. It's a reasonable thing to ask if we want to build wealth for the future like Norway has done. Nothing in life comes without risk but it's how we overcome risk that defines us as a people. O'Reilly's call generated a lot of naysaying doom but I doubt Mâori, before their great feat of navigation one thousand years ago, would have pushed off if they'd compiled a full risk assessment. As for Sir Ed and Tenzing conquering Mt Everest, forget it. If forty years ago you'd said ‘BMX will be in the Olympics,' the reaction would have been, ‘what's BMX?' The bike was yet to be invented. Why shouldn't we push something we're good at, especially when shearing is more global than many people believe. The world's big eight sheep growing countries after all are China, Australia, India, Iran, Sudan, New Zealand, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
How many people know the names Ivan and Godfrey Bowen? These great Kiwi innovators developed a technique to get a ewe's fleece off in just 55 strokes. This week Stacey Te Huia and Sam Welch broke a world record of 16-year's standing. In nine-hours, these two shore 1,341 ewes, with each ewe weighing in at 65 kilograms plus. As the Southland Times commented, "former record holder Darin Forde was gracious, records are made to be broken he said. Dead right. But they also need to be acknowledged." Aside from helping to explain why New Zealand's agricultural labour productivity is 61 percent higher than Australia's, our shearers and indeed everyone involved with our primary industries, join the All Blacks as being global champions.
There's another positive but serious dimension from Jeanette's call. Unbelievable as it may sound to Kiwi ears, some consumers overseas believe wool is like fur, that sheep have to die for wool to be harvested. By talking to media overseas about shearing, shearing sports and New Zealand in general, Jeanette helps to clear up a dangerous misconception. Linking wool and fur shows how risky assumption can become. This is why Federated Farmers Farm Day is back for 2012.
To be held on Sunday 18 March, Farm Day is our invitation to eyeball farming and farmers. To ask questions and have them answered. While activities are still being planned, www.farmday.org.nz lists most of the venues with details being added in the coming weeks. Given Christchurch's tumultuous year, we are close to confirming a venue there giving Christchurch residents a chance to see the ‘Farmy Army' in its natural setting. At the end of the day we can all but try with Farm Day. Try is what out shearers did in breaking world records and try is what every good farmer does every day.
For more information:
Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers President, 06 834 9704, 027 234 1516
