"Our Golden Fleece" - Card 5 - Godfrey Bowen

Card number 5 of 20. Text say:

Godfrey Bowen
(Courtesy: NZ Wool Board)
Godfrey Bowen and Prince, his famous Merino ram, pictured at the Agrodome in Rotorua. Godfrey Bowen is renowned for having developed the Bowen shearing techniques now taught and adopted the world over, It emphasises economy of effort and a minimum of discomfort for the animals.

Its hard to emphasise exactly how much difference Godfrey Bowen made to the efficiency of sheep shearing. Before his techniques became widely adopted, a shearer who could complete as many as 300 sheep a day was uncommon.

In 1960 Bowen was awarded an MBE at Buckingham Palace for his services to the sheep industry. As if to prove his worth for the award, a short time later he shore 559 Welsh mountain sheep in nine hours, one of his most famous and remarkable feats.

The following vid seems to be a good demonstration of many techniques pioneered by Bowen, shot from a couple of angles.