Shear joy of a global market

THE motto used to be "join the army and see the world" but a new version is "shear some sheep and see the world."

Colin McGregor, the British Wool Marketing Board's shearing training manager, said yesterday that there had been a very big turnout at all shearing training days held this year. "Sheep shearing is a valuable skill that many young people are now realising can open up many opportunities both here in the UK and across the world."

But it is not all one way traffic, with around 500 shearers - most from either New Zealand or Australia coming into the UK to help shear the wool from around 15 million sheep.