The state and federal governments might have reined in the worst of the coronavirus pandemic outbreaks, but strategies around labour shortages are still few and far between.
We saw late last year how contract pickers were able to dictate what size berries they would harvest, based on how quickly they could fill their buckets.
In a system that pays by the bucket this has therefore become a deciding factor on which farms they now stop at and pick and is also influencing the varieties some farmers are growing.
In the wool industry, there is a push to increase the price per sheep, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.
This contract "harvester" issue also takes in distance, shed and accommodation facilities, size of sheep, and the complexity of organising the contractor's team months in advance.
It is therefore not the extra cost that's shaping up to be the real issue.
Even where they have gone above award rates, it's not guaranteed that the contractor can come when they want.
This is disrupting on farm breeding and production programs, and even has some producers questioning whether to stay in wool.
The contractors - and skilled staff to fill their teams - are getting fewer and farther between and they also have the complexity of planning a schedule around a year's worth of sheds.
This makes it harder for them to also get back to an area they might have been a few months earlier, should a grower want to have split, or six-month shearings.
With The Land's staff having been spending a bit of time at the flock ewe competitions this past few weeks, they've been hearing the issue raised a lot in conversation, and at some places the shearing sheds and their facilities are getting almost as much attention as the sheep.
One comment from Lake Cargelligo flock ewe judge Richard Chalker, from Darby's Falls, put the situation around the facilities into context.
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"Some fellows say that sheds are only used for a couple of days a year, but looking around today, if we all said that there'd be three months work lined-up," he said.
The reality is that in some places, there already is three months work backed up.
Productivity gains in areas like twice-a-year shearings are also being undone, and we're only at the beginning of this challenge.
Andrew Norris
Editor at The Land
Editor at The Land
