Narrator: Here in the New Zealand countryside,
25,000 sheep are sheared in just 10 days.
But the cost to shave sheep has skyrocketed.
Groups of shearers, known as gangs,
have seen 20% hikes in their salaries.
Except many sheep farmers can't afford it.
Now, it's more expensive to shear the sheep
than wool is actually worth.
All of a sudden, a key revenue to their business
has just disappeared overnight.
And not only has the revenue gone,
it's actually turned into a cost.
Narrator: Even though farmers are losing
$1 per kilo of wool,
they still have to foot the bill for shearing,
because the sheep need that haircut.
Andrew Carpenter raises Romney sheep.
Their coarse wool is perfect for rugs,
and it has to be shared twice a year.
Tom: Without taking the wool off,
they do get dags and sort of dirty bottoms
and stuff like that, and that can attract flies.
And if they attract flies, flies can actually land on them
and lay their eggs, and that will actually kill a sheep.
Narrator: Also, think about how hot
a New Zealand summer is.
In 90 degrees Fahrenheit, that wool ...
Tom: It's like wearing a great, big, furry jacket
in the middle of the summer.
If they're really, really woolly,
when they lie down, they get stuck on their back,
and they actually can't stand up again, and they die.
Seriously.
Andrew: Made it in good time, because it's just starting
to warm up a little bit.
Narrator: They're all rounded up into the shed.
Andrew: So we're just at the back of the covered yards.
Last lot brought in from mustering.
And they'll be drafted into their different lines.
Drafting them off, separating.
Narrator: The sheep are separated into groups:
lambs, babies, and adult ewes, or female sheep.
Andrew: We've got the ewe's wool here, 36 micron.
It's a lot coarser and harder.
Narrator: So it's best used for flooring,
like carpets and rugs.
Andrew: And then lamb's wool, which is 29 micron.
It's a lot softer, finer.
Narrator: It becomes blankets and clothes.
Meredith: We're under the shearing shed right now,
which is pretty hot, noisy, and dusty.
And we're shearing about 2,000 sheep today.
Narrator: Since their inception in the 1800s,
gangs travel between different farms throughout the country.
And they bring their own tools.
Travis: What you've got here is pretty much the same
as what your barbers will have.
We call this a cutter at the top and the comb at the bottom,
which we put on every time.
It's just scissor action that goes across.
Narrator: One by one, Travis will pull a lamb out.
Travis: So you'll start off with the belly.
It's the easiest way, to get that out of the way.
And then it's just a rhythm that you kind of want to do
to get around the sheep, and it's a pattern.
But you're basically just taking off
as much wool as you can.
Narrator: That cutter will last only about 15 minutes
before it gets dull.
Shearer: Sharpened the gear
so you get a clean, clean cut on the sheep.
Narrator: Because shearers move so quickly,
there have been reports of sheep getting cuts or nicks,
but if they're doing it right,
shearing shouldn't hurt the sheep.
Tom: It is actually just a haircut for the sheep.
Travis: So you try and do every sheep the same.
It makes it easy on your body as well.
Makes the sheep comfortable.
And making sure that they're in the best state
when they go out, minimizing nicks
and controlling them properly.
Narrator: It's a tough job.
Shearing gangs work long hours in the heat,
wrestling with the livestock.
Tom: And it's a nightmare trying to keep the sheep still.
Andrew: Oh, you all right?
What did you get, a kick in the nose?
Just got kicked in the face.
Yeah.
Tom: They kick and wriggle and stuff like that.
A good shearer could shear a sheep in, like, one minute,
and to watch them do it is amazing.
They are so fast, and the sheep won't even wriggle.
It'll just sit there.
Travis: The more you do it, the more experienced you are.
But at the start, it's never easy.
It takes a big toll on your body and mind.
Narrator: These guys are so good at taming sheep,
they can shear over 300 in a day.
"Rousies" gather up the fleece,
and pressers squish it into huge bales.
Andrew: 200 kilos a bale.
Narrator: But the value of wool
has plummeted over the years.
In 2015, Andrew would have sold his stock quickly,
for $7 a kilo.
By 2021 ...
Andrew: I was just talking to the wool broker last night.
He sort of came back with this dollar, dollar-twenty.
I'm thinking, "Oh, God, this is not great."
Narrator: When you add in the increasing cost
of gang contracts, shearing now costs more
than farmers will get for their wool.
My farm, five years ago,
we might have been making net cost, $50,000 or $60,000 revenue.
So it's gone from making $50,000 to costing $30,000.
So it's an $80,000-a-year change.
It's soul-destroying to see the wool prices so low
when it's the most amazing natural product.
Narrator: But these sheep farmers haven't given up hope.
As demand grows for natural fibers over synthetic ones,
Tom hopes for a resurgence in the price of New Zealand wool.