2 days Ago By Shawn McAvinue
Bidr Lower South Island territory manager Sam Murphy inspects Angus bulls at a sale in North Otago earlier this month. PHOTO: SHAWN MCAVINUE Bidr Lower South Island territory manager Sam Murphy was born and raised on a sheep farm in Waimate. He is the son of shearing contractor Dick Murphy and he grew up working in shearing sheds.
After leaving Waimate High School, he did a year working in shearing sheds and studied history for a year at the University of Canterbury before heading on his OE to press wool in the United States. On arrival, the contractor asked him if he could shear sheep instead. He accepted and shore sheep in Colorado, Nevada and Wyoming.
Then an experienced alpaca shearer, a New Zealander settled in the US, offered him a job. Alpaca shearing took Mr Murphy to 46 states in a 12-year period. "It was awesome.
I once travelled 36,000km in two months and would shear every day," he said. The largest alpaca herd he helped shear was about 1500, but more of the work was for lifestylers. He used to work in the United States for about five months and spend the rest of the year travelling.
When the work began to give him back pain, he decided to study for a bachelor of arts at the University of Otago, in Dunedin, during the spring and summer. His major was music and he also studied media and communications. He would leave Dunedin in autumn and winter to shear in the US and raise money for his university fees.
Shearing alpacas felt like a lifetime ago, he said. After grad.
