A SHORTAGE of foreign sheep shearers could cause major animal welfare problems this summer.

The British Wool Marketing Board said about 500 shearers from New Zealand and Australia normally shear wool off 5m of the UK’s 14.5m sheep.

But new identity laws mean only one Australian shearer has so far signed up to come to the UK.

Faced with the prospect of many sheep having to carry heavy fleeces through the hottest months of the year, farmers have now been urged to ask MPs to put pressure on the Government.

Frank Langrish, BWMB chairman, said the UK sheep sector relied on shearing gangs from the southern hemisphere.

“If they don’t arrive in the UK in the coming weeks, we are facing a very serious welfare situation for our flocks,” he said.

The problem has been caused by new £200 biometric identity cards introduced for foreign workers.

In Australia, workers must travel to Canberra for fingerprinting and photographic identity details.

The single shearer who has acquired one travelled eight hours for a three-minute interview.

Shearers have now been told it will take at least nine weeks to issue the cards – making it no longer viable for them to come to the UK this summer.

Rob Morris, a South-Eastbased sheep-shearing contractor, relies on New Zealand gangs to shear the fleeces off 35,000 sheep each summer.

He said: “This is bureaucracy taken to the extreme and will mean millions of our sheep will suffer this summer.

“We just don’t have a skilled labour force in sufficient numbers in the UK to get all our sheep sheared.”

The southern hemisphere gangs are among the world’s fastest – shearing 400 sheep a day.

“We are urging all farmers to put pressure on their MPs so that we can avoid a livestock catastrophe this summer,” he said.