Does wool still cover the cost of shearing in New Zealand?

For strong wool it is genuinely marginal and depends on the price of the day, the fleece weight and what the shed costs. Fine wool is a different market and generally clears its costs comfortably. The honest answer for any individual flock is arithmetic rather than opinion, which is what this page does: put your own fleece weight and the price you were actually paid against your own shearing, crutching and shed costs, and see what is left.

What costs go into getting a clip off?

Shearing per head is the largest, and crutching is charged separately and usually happens at a different time of year. Beyond the shearers there are shed hands, the presser, food and accommodation on a bigger board, and then cartage and the selling costs at the other end. Counting only the shearing rate is how a clip that loses money can look like it breaks even.

Is shearing worth it if the wool does not pay?

Shearing is an animal welfare requirement rather than an optional harvest, so the question is never whether to shear but how to structure it. Even where the clip does not clear its own costs, the shearing still has to happen, which makes the net figure a measure of how much the wool offsets a cost you were going to carry anyway rather than a profit or loss on a product you chose to make.

Wool Income vs Shearing Cost Calculator NZ

This puts what a clip earns against what it costs to get it off, and tells you what is left per head, per kilogram and across the flock. It also works out the wool price at which the whole exercise breaks even, which for strong wool is the number most worth knowing. The framing matters here more than the arithmetic. Shearing is an animal welfare requirement, not an optional harvest, so the question was never whether to shear: it has to happen whatever wool is worth. What the net figure actually measures is how much of a cost you were going to carry anyway the wool manages to offset, and treating a negative result as a loss on a product you chose to make gets the decision backwards. The costs to count are wider than the shearing rate. Crutching is separate and happens at a different time of year, and on top of the shearers there are shed hands, the presser, food on a bigger board, then cartage and selling costs at the far end. Counting only the shearing rate is how a clip that is losing money comes to look like it breaks even. No wool price is supplied here, because it moves constantly and by type.

Calculate.co.nz is proud to be partnered with Premium Homes, a recognised leader in eco-friendly, sustainable, and energy-efficient homebuilding. With a dedicated team and award-winning experience, they create homes that prioritise health, comfort, and long-term performance. Their founders, Andrew and Kelly, set out to raise the standard of residential construction in New Zealand by combining practical building expertise with a clear commitment to doing things better for homeowners.

Advertise on this page

Sheep shorn

Greasy fleece weight each

Wool price received

/kg

Shearing per head

Crutching per head

Shed hands, presser and food

Cartage and selling costs

$2,750.00

left after the clip is off and sold

Net per head$2.75

Wool income$11,250.00

Costs in total$8,500.00

Greasy wool4,500 kg

Shearing is an animal welfare requirement rather than an optional harvest, so this measures how much of a cost you were carrying anyway the wool offsets.

The price this breaks even at

At these costs and this fleece weight, the clip covers itself at $1.89 a kilogram of greasy wool. The price received is $0.61 a kilogram above that, so the clip is clearing its costs.

How it works

Income is the sheep count multiplied by the greasy fleece weight and the price a kilogram. Costs are shearing and crutching per head, multiplied out across the flock, plus the shed and selling costs entered as totals. The net is the difference, and the per head figure divides it back across the flock. The break even price is the total cost divided by the total greasy wool, which is the price a kilogram at which income exactly meets cost. Everything is greasy weight rather than clean, because greasy is what you weigh in the shed and what most people are quoted on.

What the break even price is good for

It converts every cost on the page into a single number in the same units as the market, so you can hold it against what wool is making this week without doing any further arithmetic. It also shows where the leverage is. Fleece weight sits underneath it as much as cost does: heavier fleeces spread the same per head shearing charge over more kilograms and pull the break even price down, which is why the same shearing rate is comfortable on one flock and marginal on another.

Worked example

A thousand sheep cutting 4.5 kilograms of greasy wool each produce 4,500 kilograms. At $2.50 a kilogram that is $11,250 of income. Shearing at $5.50 a head is $5,500, crutching at $1.80 is $1,800, and $1,200 of shed hands and food brings the costs to $8,500. That leaves $2,750, or $2.75 a head. The break even price is $1.89 a kilogram, so this clip is clearing its costs with room, but a fall to below $1.89 would put the wool underwater against a cost that still has to be paid.

Related calculators

Lambing Percentage: the other thing the flock produces.
Kill Sheet: what the lambs returned at the works.
Stock Units: what the flock costs in feed to carry.
Herd Replacement Rate: how many ewes turn over each year.

Data sources: no wool price, shearing rate or fleece weight is supplied here, because all three move constantly and differ by wool type, region and contract. Every figure is one you enter, from your own wool cheque and shearing invoice.