September 2, 2026 • 6 mins
Inventor, innovator, farmer, and the brains behind the portable shearing "Handy Piece", and how demand has grown, and his Lamborghini replica project.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
David Rabb, short out of the Manawatu. Rabb, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Very good, Hayne.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
How are you? Yeah, no, no, I'm keeping well. How's the.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Of course, you're famous for many things, actually, but we
won't go into those on the radio today. But the
handy piece, of course, the portable mobile shearing handpiece.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How is that world treating you?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Very good, Hayne, very good. Look, I tell you what,
we've actually had a boomer of a winter too because
our orders... Over to the UK, I've sort of doubled.
And the reason for that being, I rang up the
guy that sells them over there and he says, well, look,
you know, our guys are getting up to nine pounds
a kilo for their lamb. So, you know, we would
(00:43):
have doubled our sales over there in the last 12 months. And,
you know, that's flowed through to New Zealand. So I
was thinking about it just the other day, you know,
the contrast between now and two years ago, you know,
like two years ago, it would have cost you 12 lambs,
good lambs for a handy piece. Now you're talking six.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
So guys with the more disposable cash have got it
and they want something that's, you know, obviously very handy
to have, but they might have been just a little standoffish.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
They're in like Flynn now.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, I would say that. Well, you know, we've got
20,000 of them out there now, Haynes. So, you know,
most people who are buying them off us now have
already had one and they're just upgrading. I mean... You know,
there's some tigers out there. We get some sent back
that'll be 15 years old, and, you know, it's pretty
worn out, and I'll ring them up and say, hey, look,
you know, have you thought about upgrading? You know, our
(01:41):
new model one's got three times more power than the
old one. Oh, well, as soon as you tell them that, then,
you know, providing they're not thinking of getting out of farming, but,
you know, it's been pretty good. We've got some new
stuff with it. Lately, we've just brought into our... list
of stuff that we sell with it. We've got a
(02:02):
car charger. Now, that's mainly for guys who go around
sharing lifestyle blocks. We've got two or three hundred out
there in New Zealand alone. For guys, it's just so
easy to bowl into a paddock, flip the sheep over,
especially if someone's only got five. And a lot of them,
what they were doing, they'd end up buying four or
five batteries off us, and then we had to get
(02:24):
a special charger made so now they can charge while
they're on the run.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And the other thing is our batteries. We've just had
a new mould made for our batteries, so it's basically
pretty water-resistant. We were having trouble with dairy cockies getting
a lot of water in the cow shed, and they
were sort of creeping into the battery. So, yeah, it's
good times. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Oh, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
And you raise an interesting point about how far the
handy pieces come from when you started to what it
is now. I mean, my one, which is, you know,
I haven't had a chance to be Auckland's sort of
share five sheep guy because it's a loner and I
haven't seen it back.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
But that's all right.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
How far have they come in that time?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
You talk about battery, the car charger.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, we've done probably four different models since I won
the innovation thing in 2007 at Mystery Creek. So the
latest one is the best because it's all this drone technology.
We've got a motor off basically a drone helicopter. So
it's got heaps of torque. It's got no brushes to
wear out. And, you know, it's variable speed. So we
(03:29):
make ours. We can go from... 2.6, which is sort
of clipper speed if you want to do alpacas and
that sort of thing, right up to 3.6. So it's actually,
we found that like a normal overhead runs at 2.5, sorry, 3.5.
We found that 3.6, they actually just run a little
bit smoother. We had guys trialing them and they said, no,
(03:50):
it's the way to go. But yes, look, long may
it continue. I just, I have to say, you know,
I'm what you'd call a small hobby farmer, which I
have Now, I've got 300 acres, but we still test
a few hand pieces out here if we get the
odd one and we can't work out what might be
wrong with it. And the other day, I had some lambs.
(04:13):
I realized I've just had my ankle replaced, so I've
had a bit of staff in helping me. And this
guy called me up, and he said, you better come
down and have a look at these things. They're a
bit overcooked. So we stuck a few of them into
the field and sale on the Monday, and $ 367, Hayne.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, you know, I can just, how wide was the smile?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I mean, I visualise every other week the Warwick Clausen
and Richard Osborne and, you know, all you townie farmers
in there, you know, with the big smiles.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's good though, isn't it? Oh, mate, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
We just have to hope that in November, come November,
that Chloe or Chippy don't get too near the old
decision-making table, really.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yes, well, I can't possibly comment on anything like that, Rab,
but you're perfectly entitled to, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Now, look, I just want a couple of, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Anything else you're sort of tinkering around with in the
engineering world or?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh, well, many, many years ago, I used to build
Lamborghini replicas. So I've been trying to make one of
those up to race. But the only problem with that
is I've got old while I've been doing that. So
every time my wife looks out into it and sees
something flash getting bolted onto it, she says, you're too old.
You're too old for that.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Well, I tell you what, if you needed sort of
a promotional one to run around the leafy berms of
the eastern suburbs of Auckland, you've got to volunteer here.
You know, the Mackay's and the Shorts, we've always been
very close. I mean, I was just thinking about this
before we talked, and I'm going to mention this, because
I was reading an article on Murray Ball the other day,
and I think your dad, Tony, played with Murray, didn't he,
for a few years?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Were they in similar teams?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And I'm going to say this, my dad would always
say to me that your dad, Tony Short, was one of.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
The most beautiful rugby players he ever saw. And, of course,
he was, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Unfortunately, as you know, it just didn't get passed down
to his offspring.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Oh, I wouldn't say that because I played with you
and your late brother, Tim, and you were both pretty
bloody handy footballers, eh?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, we were all in team together, I think, at
one stage back in the day. Hey, Rab Short, all
the best.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Good to hear. Great to chat. All the best. There
we go. That is David Rabshort out of the Manawatu.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
And, of course, he makes those wonderful handy pieces that
are gangbusters in the UK.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
The orders have doubled. See, it is a great New
Zealand story.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
As he said, it's 2007, nearly 20 years since he
won the big award at Mystery Creek.
David Rabb, short out of the Manawatu. Rabb, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Very good, Hayne.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
How are you? Yeah, no, no, I'm keeping well. How's the.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Of course, you're famous for many things, actually, but we
won't go into those on the radio today. But the
handy piece, of course, the portable mobile shearing handpiece.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How is that world treating you?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Very good, Hayne, very good. Look, I tell you what,
we've actually had a boomer of a winter too because
our orders... Over to the UK, I've sort of doubled.
And the reason for that being, I rang up the
guy that sells them over there and he says, well, look,
you know, our guys are getting up to nine pounds
a kilo for their lamb. So, you know, we would
(00:43):
have doubled our sales over there in the last 12 months. And,
you know, that's flowed through to New Zealand. So I
was thinking about it just the other day, you know,
the contrast between now and two years ago, you know,
like two years ago, it would have cost you 12 lambs,
good lambs for a handy piece. Now you're talking six.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
So guys with the more disposable cash have got it
and they want something that's, you know, obviously very handy
to have, but they might have been just a little standoffish.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
They're in like Flynn now.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, I would say that. Well, you know, we've got
20,000 of them out there now, Haynes. So, you know,
most people who are buying them off us now have
already had one and they're just upgrading. I mean... You know,
there's some tigers out there. We get some sent back
that'll be 15 years old, and, you know, it's pretty
worn out, and I'll ring them up and say, hey, look,
you know, have you thought about upgrading? You know, our
(01:41):
new model one's got three times more power than the
old one. Oh, well, as soon as you tell them that, then,
you know, providing they're not thinking of getting out of farming, but,
you know, it's been pretty good. We've got some new
stuff with it. Lately, we've just brought into our... list
of stuff that we sell with it. We've got a
(02:02):
car charger. Now, that's mainly for guys who go around
sharing lifestyle blocks. We've got two or three hundred out
there in New Zealand alone. For guys, it's just so
easy to bowl into a paddock, flip the sheep over,
especially if someone's only got five. And a lot of them,
what they were doing, they'd end up buying four or
five batteries off us, and then we had to get
(02:24):
a special charger made so now they can charge while
they're on the run.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And the other thing is our batteries. We've just had
a new mould made for our batteries, so it's basically
pretty water-resistant. We were having trouble with dairy cockies getting
a lot of water in the cow shed, and they
were sort of creeping into the battery. So, yeah, it's
good times. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Oh, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
And you raise an interesting point about how far the
handy pieces come from when you started to what it
is now. I mean, my one, which is, you know,
I haven't had a chance to be Auckland's sort of
share five sheep guy because it's a loner and I
haven't seen it back.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
But that's all right.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
How far have they come in that time?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
You talk about battery, the car charger.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, we've done probably four different models since I won
the innovation thing in 2007 at Mystery Creek. So the
latest one is the best because it's all this drone technology.
We've got a motor off basically a drone helicopter. So
it's got heaps of torque. It's got no brushes to
wear out. And, you know, it's variable speed. So we
(03:29):
make ours. We can go from... 2.6, which is sort
of clipper speed if you want to do alpacas and
that sort of thing, right up to 3.6. So it's actually,
we found that like a normal overhead runs at 2.5, sorry, 3.5.
We found that 3.6, they actually just run a little
bit smoother. We had guys trialing them and they said, no,
(03:50):
it's the way to go. But yes, look, long may
it continue. I just, I have to say, you know,
I'm what you'd call a small hobby farmer, which I
have Now, I've got 300 acres, but we still test
a few hand pieces out here if we get the
odd one and we can't work out what might be
wrong with it. And the other day, I had some lambs.
(04:13):
I realized I've just had my ankle replaced, so I've
had a bit of staff in helping me. And this
guy called me up, and he said, you better come
down and have a look at these things. They're a
bit overcooked. So we stuck a few of them into
the field and sale on the Monday, and $ 367, Hayne.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, you know, I can just, how wide was the smile?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I mean, I visualise every other week the Warwick Clausen
and Richard Osborne and, you know, all you townie farmers
in there, you know, with the big smiles.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's good though, isn't it? Oh, mate, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
We just have to hope that in November, come November,
that Chloe or Chippy don't get too near the old
decision-making table, really.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yes, well, I can't possibly comment on anything like that, Rab,
but you're perfectly entitled to, of course.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Now, look, I just want a couple of, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Anything else you're sort of tinkering around with in the
engineering world or?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Oh, well, many, many years ago, I used to build
Lamborghini replicas. So I've been trying to make one of
those up to race. But the only problem with that
is I've got old while I've been doing that. So
every time my wife looks out into it and sees
something flash getting bolted onto it, she says, you're too old.
You're too old for that.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Well, I tell you what, if you needed sort of
a promotional one to run around the leafy berms of
the eastern suburbs of Auckland, you've got to volunteer here.
You know, the Mackay's and the Shorts, we've always been
very close. I mean, I was just thinking about this
before we talked, and I'm going to mention this, because
I was reading an article on Murray Ball the other day,
and I think your dad, Tony, played with Murray, didn't he,
for a few years?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Were they in similar teams?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And I'm going to say this, my dad would always
say to me that your dad, Tony Short, was one of.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
The most beautiful rugby players he ever saw. And, of course,
he was, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Unfortunately, as you know, it just didn't get passed down
to his offspring.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Oh, I wouldn't say that because I played with you
and your late brother, Tim, and you were both pretty
bloody handy footballers, eh?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, we were all in team together, I think, at
one stage back in the day. Hey, Rab Short, all
the best.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Good to hear. Great to chat. All the best. There
we go. That is David Rabshort out of the Manawatu.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
And, of course, he makes those wonderful handy pieces that
are gangbusters in the UK.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
The orders have doubled. See, it is a great New
Zealand story.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
As he said, it's 2007, nearly 20 years since he
won the big award at Mystery Creek.
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