New Zealander knows how to shear

Allan Godsiff shearing Jumping Bean, a Suffolk ewe owned by PJ Gates.

Allan Godsiff was born and raised on the South Island of New Zealand, where the sheep easily outnumber the human inhabitants. His father was a sheep and cattle farmer, and Allan was drawn to the art of shearing from his boyhood.

"I would watch the shearers when they came each year to shear our sheep," said Godsiff. "It seemed a decent, if hard, way to earn a living."

When Godsiff turned 17, he got a job as a learner-shearer and gradually mastered all the tricks of the shearing trade. His shearing jobs during the summer financed his college courses, and after two years he earned a diploma in Farm Management.

"All I ever wanted to do was raise livestock," Godsiff said. "Even though my teachers told me it was a waste of a good brain, I disagreed and went ahead with it anyway."

Godsiff met his wife Kathryn while attending college. An Oregon lass, Kathryn came to New Zealand as part of a student exchange program with Oregon State University. Not long after they began dating, Allan invited Kathryn to help out in a woolshed where he was shearing.

"She seemed suitably impressed with my technique," Godsiff admitted.

Kathryn agreed. "Good shearers get into a rhythm, it is almost like a kind of dance. I loved watching Allan's grit and determination. It was awesome!"

Rhythm or not, according to Godsiff, shearing is hard work.

"It might look easy," he said, "but one university in New Zealand did a study and found that eight hours of shearing uses the energy equivalent of running two marathons back to back. Shearing hurts, so we do it by the clock. It is too daunting to face eight steady hours of that kind of work, so we break it into two-hour runs with tea and food breaks in between."

Godsiff uses a technique developed by a fellow New Zealander, Godfrey Bowen. Bowen traveled around the country as a young man and was able to observe a variety of shearing methods. He was then able to perfect a continuous shearing motion, which decreased the worker's energy output.

Bowen devised a new position for holding the sheep, which lightened the strain on the shearer's back. One of the greatest attributes of this style was Bowen's use of the non-shearing hand to stretch out the sheep's skin. This ensured a more evenly shorn fleece, a desirable quality for wool buyers. His technique has been adopted by shearers around the world.

"A lot of shearers come to New Zealand to learn the Bowen technique," said Godsiff. "But I never went to shearing school -- just learned as I went. I've probably shorn over 100,000 sheep since I started."

After Godsiff got his college diploma, he followed his American sweetheart back to the U.S.

They married in Oregon and managed a sheep farm in Clatskanie before heading back to New Zealand.

"I managed sheep and cattle farms in New Zealand until 1999," said Godsiff. "We decided to move back to Oregon then so Kathryn could be closer to her parents and our three sons could be Americans."

Although Godsiff is not currently managing a ranch -- he and Kathryn manage a resort in Camp Sherman -- he still finds an occasional sheep to shear.

"I do a bit of shearing of 4-H sheep and for anyone else who doesn't want to tackle the job themselves," said Godsiff.

He also shears goats. The Bible says that a lamb before shearers is silent -- but not goats!

"One time I sheared some young goats in New Zealand," he said. "They cried so loudly that they frightened the children who were watching my shearing demonstration. We stuck with sheep for demos after that."

Shearing doesn't hurt the animals in any way, although some breeds are less receptive than others.

"The worst sheep are the Border Leicester -- they actually blow snot at you as you shear them," Godsiff said.

"The average shearer does between 250 to 300 sheep a day," he said. "The world record is over 800 sheep in eight hours. Those top shearers actually have trainers to keep them in shape."

While Godsiff has never been a show shearer, his record is an impressive 400 lambs in one day.

"Shearing 400 lambs was quite a milestone for me," he said. "I knew each lamb was another kilometer closer to Kathryn and that was pretty motivating."