Green light for overseas sheep shearers to work in the UK

International sheep shearers are set to return to the UK in numbers not seen since before the Covid-19 pandemic after the Home Office granted a special visa concession at the eleventh hour.

The National Association of Agricultural Contractors (NAAC) has been negotiating with the Home Office to extend a concession that had been in place since 2021 to allow shearers to work in the UK for up to three months.

This had lapsed and was only granted on Friday 26 April, with shearers from New Zealand and Australia planning to arrive this week.

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There is no limit on the numbers that can come to the UK, but the process is controlled, with every shearer required to have a contract of employment in place, to only remain here for three months, and for the Border Agency to be informed of their arrival and departure.  

NAAC chief executive Jill Hewitt said it had been a “nerve-racking” few months securing the agreement.

The NAAC had spent the weekend helping its members with the necessary paperwork to allow the shearers they have hired to enter the UK, she added.

Covid rules in different countries had meant that, since 2020, sheep farmers have had to rely on the UK workforce to get their flocks shorn – a situation helped by the recent succession of dry summers which limited the days when the job couldn’t be done.

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, said that without overseas shearers, it would be a struggle to get all flocks shorn this year given the wetter conditions the UK is experiencing.

“It is welcome that the concession has been granted. There are going to be a lot of farmers calling out for their sheep to be shorn on time to prevent fly-strike,” he said.