SHEEP SHEARING [9062 NZ] Once the entire fleece has been removed from the sheep, the fleece is thrown, clean side down, on to a wool table by a shed hand (commonly known in New Zealand sheds as a roustabout, or rousie, katie's job). The wool table top consists of rotating steel pins spaced approximately 12cm apart. This enables short pieces of wool, the locks and other debris, to gather beneath the table separately from the fleece. The fleece is then skirted by one or more rouseabouts to remove the sweat tags and other less desirable parts of the fleece. The removed pieces largely consist of sweat-soaked wool and are still useful in industry. As such they are placed in separate containers and sold along with fleece wool. Other items removed from the fleece on the table, such as faeces, skin fragments or twigs and leaves, are discarded a short distance from the wool table so as not to contaminate the wool and fleece.
