Clipping cattle for a living is a job that offers travel and friendship as well as an artistic career that never fails to stimulate those who have been struck with the passion for excellence.
At the Sydney Royal Show the dairy sheds were home to several world class clippers, demonstrating their skills in preparing cows and heifers for the judging ring.
“It’s important to emphasise a strong back line and belly hair can help a heifer look deep and developed,” said Kelly Bleijendaal, born in Holland. She learned to speak English in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “It does a create an optical illusion, especially when cows are parading around the ring, as long as the job is blended in well.”
She grew up in town but learned to love agriculture after her family moved next door to a dairy farm where she gravitated towards the livestock, helping feed and milk.
Later Ms Bleijendaal undertook an agricultural degree but learned the art of clipping by “watching and practising”.
“I’d call myself an amateur”, says the veteran of shows all over the world – in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, her native Holland as well as New Zealand and Australia. She has even worked with the likes of Klussendorf-MacKenzie award winner Paul Petriffer, who lives under the shadow of the Italian Dolomites.
Mal Nikora was born in NZ but now lives at Colac, Victoria. He has done the job of cattle clipping full time for the last three years, after teaching himself through a DVD. He doesn’t come from a dairy family but passionately desired to do well in the job.
“It’s hard work if you want to be good,” says the veteran of tours to the US, Canada and New Zealand.
His fitting skills are required for sales and shows, or before photographs of bulls or their progeny and their daughters, with artificial insemination companies particularly keen on such services.
Along with the art of the clipper his tools must be good and Mr Nikora says that being able to sharpen your own blades can make a big difference to the quality of the job.
Andrew Cullen from Tatura, Victoria, has been clipping longer than anyone in the shed – almost a decade – and has travelled through the US, Canada and Europe. He is also from a dairying family with his parents milking Holstein and Jersey at Berry on the South Coast.
“Our job is to bring out the best to show these cattle with the minimum of faults,” he said. “And we’re fortunate to work with the best.”