Farmers are reporting delays of up to eight weeks in shearing schedules as a combination of the omicron wave and continued concerns over borders closing lead toSheep are at risk of fly strike or illness from having long wool over Australia’s current wet summer as a result, prompting shearers to keeping working even if they have COVID-19.
“The social pendulum has swung from being, ‘it’s not okay to work with COVID’, to being, ‘if we don’t have symptoms, who’s going to ask?’ Mr Storey, who farms sheep in Yass, said there was already a shortage of shearers before the omicron wave, as decades of drought saw people flee the industry as the sheep population dropped.