I heard on the BBC this morning that Australian sheep are now being injected with a protein that causes fleeces to be shed when the new one grows, so all the shearers have to do is cover the sheep in a large hairnet, and wait for the old fleece to fall off. It was claimed that this benefits both the sheep (who aren't damaged by shears) and the shearers (who no longer have to break their backs shearing). But when I mentioned this at work a descendant of Jackie How (not sure if I spelt that right) said it has decimated the shearing business in Australia.

Oh, the shearing's not for you......