And that man turned out today to be Loren Opstedahl, who says not all sheep are created equal, and he had to be prepared to shear them all.The sheep shearing competition was sanctioned by the American Sheep Shearing Council.

Curtis Olson says, "This is the real deal, here. It was held in Denver. And then Denver lost interest in it. I told Ron, I said we got an opportunity to bring this here. We were having a shearing contest, I said, look, we can bring the National Shearing Contest here."

The actual first place winner of today's competition will not represent the U. S. at the world championships next year because that man is a Canadian.Don Metheral will represent Canada at the world sheep shearing competition in Gore, Ireland.

Al Van Zee