Sheep-o: The Story of the World's Fastest Shearers

Reed, 1960. Dustwrapper chipped. Signs off water damage to top of book.

Who is, or was, the world?s fastest shearer? Is it Godfrey Bowen or Ivan Bowen, Trevor Brough or Percy de Malmanche-all of whom have claimed the world shearing record? Or is it one of the Australians, Johnny Howe or Ted Rieck? The likelihood is that the man best qualified to answer this question is A. R. (Bob) Mills, the author of Sheep-Of Mr 1ills, with a long background of farming and shearing behind him, believes that he has witnessed more world shearing record attempts than any other man and has seen more shearers in action than anyone except Godfrey Bowen. Moreover, he is an intimate friend of both Ivan and Godfrey Bowen, having toured the South Island with the one and the whole of ew Zealand with the other, arranging shearing demonstrations in every part of the country. Mr Mills? close acquaintance with many of today?s speed shearers led him to trace the story of some of the great shearers of yesterday, to look into the early history of shearing on some of New Zealand?s great sheep stations, to compare the various record attempts, to gather together a unique collection of historic shearing photographs, and to write this, the first book of shearing history and shearing records.

Here are eyewitness accounts of great feats of shearing, yarns of fabulous shearers of the past, amusing tales of the shearing shed and demonstration platform, stories of travel with the Bowens to almost every corner of New Zealand, and an exhaustive examination of the claims for the world record by the famous shearers of the present generation. This is a book that will intrigue every person connected with the great pastoral industry of Australia and New Zealand. For men and women of the shearing gangs it is a book of entertainment as well as the first historical account of their craft, in which speed, skill and stamina are combined in one of the most demanding of agricultural skills.

With 32 pages of photographs, including a sequence of 14 photographs showing the Ivan Bowen shearing technique which were taken especially for this book.