Robotic wool harvesting or robotic sheep shearing is when a sheep is put into a restraining system and a robotic arm shears the sheep.
The Australian wool industry has been on a seeking to find an alternative to conventional shearing for decades.
The first Research started on robotic sheep shearing in 1974 at the University of WA.
Company's that make robotic sheep shearing plantsPeak hill industries make the shear-ezy this is properly the most common sheep shearing plant although it doesn't shear the sheep itself it restrains the sheep so the shear doesn't have to hold on to the sheep this makes a shearing a sheep quicker and a lot easier for the shearer. Other shearing machines include the shear express,Costs of robotic sheep shearersA shear ezy machine costs about $15000 but a full robotic sheep shearing machine costs a lot more.
Benefits of robotic wool harvestingThe benefits of robotic wool harvesting are that the amount of shears available for shearing is dropping every year and the cost of having shears is rising so having a robotic wool harvester the farmer could do the shearing himself and do the shearing at his own pace it is also less demanding than conventual shearing involves less skill.
Synthetic shearers moccasins
English: Shearing shed, meat house and shearers' q...
English: shearing a sheep at the Shearing Shed, Ya...Shearing is said to be one of the most physically demanding jobs and in the past five years 2798 shearing injuries have been repoted.
Acceptance of robotic wool harvestingRobotic sheep shearing is becoming more and more popular with the most popular types of farmers being the smaller farmers wanting to do their shearing themselves or larger farms that use lots of shearers and want to reduce the labour.
ConclusionRobotic wool harvesting is the way of the future and is need because there is not many people taking up shearing and farms will struggle to get shearer and the farms that do have shearers wont make much money because the will using all the money to pay for the shearing.
Bibliographyhttp://www.woolproducers.com.au/production.htmhttp://sj.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=43005http://www.peakhillindustries.com.au/SheepHandling/shearezy.htm
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