Edsel Forde Lifestyle Block Bloke

Former top shearer and Golden Shears champion Edsel Forde has set himself up as “the Lifestyle Block Bloke” on a small property between Cambridge and Hamilton.

His customers are the small block owners dotted around this part of the Waikato, doing everything from shearing pet lambs to fencing, topping and grazing management.

Edsel grew up in Tuatapere – deep Southland. He’s the eldest of 10 kids ( 7 boys 3 girls ). Edsel struck out shearing fairly early on, took over a local shearing run, and generally lived off the sheep’s back for most of his life.

Included in that 30 year stint of shearing was a Golden Shears and a National shears title, several lamb records and 10 years commuting with his wife Marg between New Zealand and Europe, with a hand piece hidden in the luggage.

Marg and Edsel have been together since the 1980s. They travelled the world together and delayed children until they were ready to settle down back in NZ.

They now have two teenage boys – Rory and Paddy.

Marg has trained as a journalist and also keeps Edsel’s business in line by taking orders, sending out invoices etc etc.

About 10 years ago, Edsel, who was into his mid 40s, decided to start toning down the shearing schedule and started looking to develop the idea of setting up a business that looked after lifestyle block people. He and Marg got rid of their shearing run in Otorohanga and moved up country.

The bought a 13.5 acre property midway between Hamilton and Cambridge, set up a sign in the front paddock, stuck an advertisement in the yellow pages and waited for the work to start rolling in.

Edsel always had shearing to fall back on – and initially there was a fair bit of that. More recently he’s had to turn down the bigger shearing jobs to concentrate on a growing list of clients ( around 250 of them ) who want everything from their pet lamb shorn, right through to topping, fencing, grazing.

In many cases his customers don’t want the wool, so he picks up that up as a bonus..

Edsel says he loves his lifestyle and it also means he has time for his family such as running his children to school and being there at the end of their day.

Much of the work is weather-dependant, something not all “life stylers” understand. Edsel fences on the wet days’, checks water troughs, fixes leaks.

He says his days are not always planned and so he doesn’t always know what he will be doing from one day to the next. Of course there are always the big shearing jobs, which have to be booked in a head of time.

In many cases Edsel says the customers are busy, both working, with a bit of land that needs a tidy up. He’s often in a position to buy stock, bring them onto a property for grazing and then move the stock onto another block before selling them.

He says many of the larger contractors in the region don’t want the small clients and he believes there is a huge niche for small hay bale contractors, grass topping, weed spraying and so on.

He says that in his shearing days you turned up on the farm, connected up the gear and went for it. On a lifestyle farm you may have to catch your sheep first – in many cases they’re overweight – sometimes flyblown – and the owner hasn’t given much thought to what they might do to help Edsel out.

Before moving stock onto a property he usually does a scout around – checking the standard of the fences and making sure there’s water for the stock.

Edsel says he’s now at a point where he is wondering what to do with the business. He says he doesn’t really want to hire people.

Shearing taught him that he’s most comfortable in an environment where people are paid according to how hard they work. He says he doesn’t like the idea of people working for him that just turn up….and eat their lunch.

His thinking on the business now, is that he would like to develop a franchise which he can market around the Waikato region. My own feeling is that he might struggle to find people who have his skill set ….

Edsel also travels to Australia regularly to help with the research and development of a “table shearing”. It is the brainchild of a New Zealander Peter Black, who is based in Australia. The idea is to set up a table, which is at waist height, which holds the sheep while you shear it. He says it is pretty hush hush at the moment.