Shrek the sheep1/19/2023 The missing sheep are “paper sheep.” A certain percentage of paper sheep is expected in traditional farming in Australia. In fact, missing sheep are such a common occurrence that a farming term exists to describe the difference between the number of sheep a farmer expects to be in the flock and the number of sheep that are actually mustered. It is not surprising that when large flocks graze largely unsupervised over vast, often rugged terrain the odd sheep is able to avoid mustering for a while. But for other folks, it might be helpful to provide a context for this phenomenon of the Lost Sheep. We take the vastness of our country and our cultural farming practices rather for granted, as the way things are. To many Australians, it is probably not surprising that sheep become separated from their flocks and lost for a time. Read more in an excerpt from her article “Australia’s History of Lost Sheep.” In Spin Off Summer 2016, contributor Rebecca Marsh examined the phenomenon of Shrek, Chris, Sheila, and other ultrawooly ovines who evade the clippers for years and capture the imaginations of spinners everywhere. One ewe, Sheila, escaped shearing for about four years and had about 30 kilograms of wool shorn off. Several sheep from Australia and New Zealand have become media darlings when they were caught after several years without shearing.
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