The Sheep Shearing Contest

To obtain wool, you have to process woollen fleece. To get woollen fleece, you have to shear a sheep.

Sheep shearing is a process wherein a professional worker called a shearer removes the woollen fleece off sheep with a shearing device. Typically, an adult sheep's fleece is removed annually in a shearing shed, a facility designed for this purpose. In full production, the facility can shear hundreds or even thousands of sheep per day. However, sheep shearing is not just a job. It is also a sport in many countries, particularly New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Because sheep shearing is a laborious task, contestants are often very fit, strong, and well trained.

The contestant is first provided an uncut sheep. At the start of the bell, the shearer quickly takes the sheep from his pen and starts taking off the fleece with machine shears that are analogous to human hair clippers. It sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, sheep feel uncomfortable when sheared; the feeling is somewhat like you being tickled by someone else. Thus, the shearer has to wrestle the animal to keep it steady while he or she clips off the white fleece. The fastest contestant is the winner, and professional ones can even do this in less than two minutes!

Sheep shearers from all over the world go to New Zealand to participate in the Golden Shears Championship, New Zealand's biggest and most important sheep shearing contest, which was first held in 1961. Presently, it is held in March every year in Masterton. During the competition, the finalists must shear three types of sheep—fine wools, long wools, and second shear. The one who can shear the quickest, of course, is the winner.