The Guts of it!

Maureen Chaffey has been no stranger to farming, growing up in Wairarapa on a sheep and beef farm her first jobs out of school was in the wool shed’s, wool handling, which led her to study at Massey University completing a ‘Diploma in Wool and Wool Technology’.

In what seemed a male dominated world at the time, when Jobs were readily available and wool prices were up, Maureen gained her first jobs straight out of Uni into the Wool store as a Junior classer at Wrightsons and soon moving her way through to Store Supervisor, Store Manager at Elders in Napier,  leading into a position she holds today as a Wool Representative for Kells Wool covering Hawkes Bay, East coast

Maureen’s normal day out on the road as a Wool Representative is attending to her clients at times of shearing and looking after the wool clip, that involves liaising with the farmers and the shed hands making sure the wool preparation is going to receive top dollar at auction, her idea of being the link between the shed hands and the buyers at the auction is the key factor in tying everything together and being communicative and more efficient rather than disjointed.

Ironically over all these years Maureen had never picked up a handpiece untill 2019 she was approached by ‘Colin Watson Paul’, Hawkes Bay’s Shearing Contractor, to join a team of ladies he handpicked to shear in a shearing competition (Women and Wool) to raise money for ‘Farmstrong (Rural Wellbeing) when Maureen was told it was for Farmstrong she could not turn it down as she  deals with farmers on an everyday basis, she was well aware of the struggles and circumstances that farmers are dealing with out of their control, like weather and new farming policy legislations being introduced.

The catch of the competition was she had eight months to learn how to shear and then had to compete at the Hawkes Bay show in a shearing competition against six other professional women, so Maureen being a competitive kiwi picked the best shearing tutors she could find.

For eight months Maureen watched other shearers, asked a lot of questions, and found as many sheep she could muster to shear, even shearing her own pet sheep multiple times, they soon knew the drill.

The night of the competition was hugely successful with Maureen winning the competition and the group raising $41,000 for ‘Farmstrong’ which has gone into Rural wellbeing workshops for farmers.

Maureen says “Although the win on the night was great the highlight and kudos goes to the group of ladies and the two main instigators of the fundraiser being Colin Watson Paul and Pura Smith, Sponsors and helpers, without their efforts it would not have been possible and such a success”!

Maureen said that learning to shear put a whole new perspective on her job and she takes her hat off to the shearers she works alongside every day in their strength, stamina, and the great art of shearing.

“It takes years to master the art of shearing and to get a bit of speed and keep it clean” she says, “its one career that you don’t have to have qualifications for but it’s one of the most physical, demanding and highly skilled occupations I know of, it’s one of the very few jobs you take a sweat towel to work and gallons of water”!

Maureen did not stop there with her new skill under her belt she thought she would try a few shearing shows and was hooked! Completing her first year as a Novice shearer in 2020 around the North Island shows with placings and moving up to Junior shearing grade in 2021.

With her shearing coming together she then went onto complete a four-day course in June 2021 with WOMOlife a new shearing course with trainers Justin Bell, Deano Smith, Laura Hancock and Carmen Smith to get her shearing to another level, she come away with a new level of shearing.

Maureen says “it seems you never stop learning there is layer upon layer with shearing, and you can’t jump from stage one to ten, it’s a gradual process with time on the handpiece.

Throughout the duration of Maureen learning to shear in her disappointment she realized there was no Women’s shearing jeans on the shelves and her only option was to wear the men’s sizes which she felt very uncomfortable in, so with that Maureen set to work investigating what would make a great pair of shearing jeans for all women out there shearing and farming.

She was determined to design a pair of workwear jeans for women to be comfortable in, suitable for the job and for women to feel good why they work.

Maureen says “it just evolved from learning to shear, it seems ludicrous that there was not a specialize pair of jeans to shear in for women and to tackle all the hard work on the farm, there are more and more women involved in shearing and farming now! I wanted to fill the gap and have something for us!

Maureen’s new Shearing/farmwear jeans are called Geo’s short for Geography which meaning is… the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth's surface and the human societies spread across it. ... Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time, it is a prefix used to describe ground, land or the earth. I combined Geo and Work wear for the name of the label, to reflect the concept of bringing the land where I work, and the clothing I work in, together. I believe the clothing I have designed will match the environment they work in.

“The jeans are very special, a lot of thought has gone into them, they are double layered on the fronts and back for shearing in with merino wool lining in the back to remove moisture and keep the lower back warm, they are made from stretch material with a higher waist and side pocket for cell phone or notebook. They are made strong with double stitching; my thoughts were if they are made strong enough to shear in they can tackle any job on the farm”

All the ideas that have gone into making the pants are ideas from Women working on farm and shearing.

Geo Workwear will be available to purchase before main shear and would like to continue to support Farm strong as this is how Geo Workwear evolved.