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AWI puts brakes on shearing shed on wheels
5 Jan 2004
Field trials of the ShearExpress sequential shearing system have fallen short of meeting commercial targets. Australian Wool Innovation has now announced that sequential wool harvesting is not a commercially viable proposition, after investing $6 million on a prototype and then conducting field trials.
Despite performing a quality shearing job and providing occupational health and safety benefits, the 14-man ShearExpress system proved to be too slow. It did not exceed 700 sheep in a 10-hour shift during trials, which was well below the required benchmark of 1,200 sheep/day.
AWI‘s CEO Len Stephens said ShearExpress‘s sequential nature was its biggest downfall: when one station stopped, every station stopped. But AWI will continue to research improved shearing methods, he said.
Queensland Country Life, 25/12/03.
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