Mobile ram shearing may be the future of the wool industry, according to a Victorian livestock contractor who specialises in shearing big sheep in a futuristic trailer.
Mildura's Vincent Madden said he was turning back farm jobs due to high demand.
"We're flat stick, we literally can't keep up," he said.
Mr Madden said despite the trailer being an elite service, many producers are choosing to have their animals shorn in this revolutionary way.
"As far as I know, I think there are only another four contractors in Victoria and one in South Australia," he said.
"I think [it's] partially the shearers' shortage that is out there."
Mr Madden said it was an occupational hazard to shear some of the feisty rams in the traditional manner.
"Some of them can be tipping in at 130 kilos," he said.
"They're a ball of muscle and you're expecting a hundred-kilo bloke to drag them out, and wrestle them when they're not real impressed about getting their wool taken off.
"It can be an OH&S issue with handpieces going flying, being kicked off the board, to even just holding them down so that you can shear them."
Parts of the trailer are like a collision of steampunk gadgetry and out-of-this-world futurism.
"I guess you could say it looks like a normal crutching trailer, but with a spaceship-looking piece of equipment on top," Mr Madden said.
"As the sheep walk up into the race, it clamps the rams and tips them over into a cradle where there are two sets of leg holders that hold the front and back legs.
"They can fight as much as they want. There's no issue to shearing them. We have our music going, we have our chats going. It's no dramas at all."
Mr Madden said the rams were safely secured so they did not injure themselves.
"The front and rear leg holders lock onto their legs and they're all air-operated — they're sort of half stretched out, but obviously not too far," he said.
"They're on their back and the cradle rolls with the sheep."
Ewes too
It is not only rams that are stepping into Mr Madden's visionary machine — some stud ewes are also taking the plunge into the future.
"We do a lot of ewes because some of them can be quite big and because they're such high-value sheep too. People like us take a little bit of care with them," Mr Madden said.
"We've been down at Netherby for about a week, me and another contractor, and we've shorn nearly 1,000 sheep down there.
"As I tell a lot of clients, these machines, they may not be quicker, but if you can go walk away at the end of the day and play a game of footy, then it's a good result."
Choosing trailer despite higher costs
Millewa sheep and grain producer Ian Arney prefers to get his large rams shorn in Mr Madden's contraption.
"It's gut-wrenching work and it's fraught with danger," he said.
"So, it's easier to actually have someone like Vinny to come along and walk the animal up the ramp onto the trailer.
"If the physical strain can be avoided by using a machine, that just takes some of that stress away."
