THE region's wool producers could struggle to find shearers this Spring, due travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
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There will be fewer international shearing teams coming from New Zealand because of restrictions on overseas travel, which means local shearers will be in high demand.
Shearing Contractors Association of Australia secretary Jason Letchford said the region's shearers may be persuaded to fill the void left by the imports in places like Victoria and South Australia.
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"Something we must add to this year's equation is we have identified that traditionally there is a minimum of 480 workers that would be due to arrive in Australia in Spring from New Zealand," Mr Letchford said.
"You could be looking at between five million and seven million sheep that those seasonal shearers would shear in a year.
"We've got a national flock of around 65 to 68 million sheep at the moment, so you are talking about 10 per cent of the nation's sheep that won't be shorn by the workforce we'd normally have here to do them.
"That knocks on to every other state and every other region because those affected regions might draw down shearers from places like Northern NSW, where they might not normally draw them from.
"There's certainly incentives there to jump in your car if you don't have COVID-19 and get down there to try and fill that void."
NSW Farmers northern regional manager Michael Collins said many farmers across the district were concerned by the potential lack of shearers.
"I've certainly been hearing about the shortage around my area," Mr Collins said.
"The wool industry has taken a lot of strong steps forward here in the North West and out further west as well.
"It experienced some tough times during the drought, but it's certainly rebounding now and a shearer shortage would be the last thing recovering wool producers would want."
Mr Collins said he would like to see more incentives for young people to join the shearing industry.
"Shearing is part of the Australian psyche and has been around since day dot," he said.
"I think it's certainly something you need training in and could certainly be something the state and federal governments could look into trying to help fund in the future."