Two-Stand U.S. Shearing Record Set

Wade Kopren and Matt Smith geared up to set an eight-hour, two-stand, U.S.-lamb shearing record and that is exactly what they did. Together they sheared a total of 787 sheep and raised more than $6,000 for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Kopren is from a sheep ranch in Perkins County, S.D., and operates a shearing business that serves sheep ranches across the northern plains. Smith, who is from New Zealand, shears on Kopren's crew from March through May.

One of Kopren's goals was to bring shearing and the sheep industry to the rest of the world. He and his crew shear about 150,000 ewes a year.

He said, "You go to a big city, yeah they might know the wool comes from a sheep, but they don't know how it comes off."

Through this event, Kopren is working to educate people about the sheep shearing industry.

Reprinted in part from KFYR-TV