A whole lot of wool

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While reading about Willow Springs, the sheep station in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, where we camped for a night or two, I came across an interesting fact. In 1990 Willow Springs made the Guinness Book of Records when a sheep was brought in that had escaped being shorn for an estimated 7 years. When the sheep are mustered for shearing sometimes one or two will miss getting brought in. These are known as ‘double-fleecers’ and will hopefully be picked up the following year. In this case the sheep had missed a number of years. The staple (length of a piece of wool) was 25” or 63cm and the fleece weighed 29.5 kilos (65 pounds). In those outback areas it isn’t usual to see a mob of sheep. They are mostly in much smaller groups and sometimes either on their own or with their lamb. This is because there is so little feed. The sheep have to spread far and wide to find enough to eat. We once found a sheep in the bush behind our property and brought it in to put with our own pets. We named her Petal (pictured). She had at least two years growth of wool but we didn’t think to measure the staple or weigh the fleece. I'm sure Petal and the Willow Springs sheep would have felt very light after being shorn.