Fifteen-year-old Harry Strachan comes off a 40,000-acre spread between Pooncarie and Wentworth where three generations of his family have been running sheep and cropping cereals (mostly wheat).
This explains why he was so keen to put his hand up when Coomealla High School ag co-ordinator Michelle Graham announced an intensive, week-long training camp at Tapio Station.
Harry’s father Greg was a shearer in his younger days but although Harry has done his share of crutching (the family farm currently runs 3000 Dorpers) shearing hasn’t been his big thing.
“But in this case it has been something really good to learn and I have been able to get my shearing time on an adult ewe down to five minutes,” Harry says.
“They are pretty big wethers at Tapio.
“While they are easy to catch and drag when the holding pen is full, when you are down to the last couple they can be really hard to pin down.
“It’s not too bad, but I am not doing too many right now.
“I reckon if I started doing a lot my back might let me know about it,” he adds with a laugh.
Harry says one of his biggest challenges during the week has been mastering the position of his feet at the stand once he has the sheep on its back – and hanging onto it while he gets that right.
But on the upside he says he has been learning something new (and he might have mentioned getting a week off school at the same time, when all he would have done had he been there would have been to learn something new)
