What if you lived in Australia?

[blondifan]

Originally Posted by loosegoose

Actually Tolkien is pretty good. I enjoyed all his books when I was a teenager.. It's Peter Bloody Jackson who's to blame.

I blame him for my nicoteen habit, also.

I remember the vistas that opened the second movie, in particular.

Years ago i went out with a kiwi (meant as a term of endearment as is common with most Aussies when refering to non-Māori New Zealanders). She showed some photos of a property she owned there that was extremely 'hilly', with large rock outcrops.
I remember thinking "No wonder sheep grazing is popular. You'd have no chance of cultivating." Her main method of traversing was a 4 wheel ATV.

When i knew her, she was over here selling real estate.

[trailmaster]

Originally Posted by palo5

That's ok. New Zealanders are passionate about sheep. I know because Trailmaster told me

Yea. Actually there are more sheep in New Zealand than there are people. New Zealand is being smothered by their sheep. Call Hiram Big and have him send over one of those mile long tanker ships and fill it with several million sheep and dump them on Australian shores!

[bloke57]

Originally Posted by loosegoose

Actually Tolkien is pretty good. I enjoyed all his books when I was a teenager.. It's Peter Bloody Jackson who's to blame.

No, honestly - I have tried to read the books but just not my cup of tea at all. I'm not a dragonny-dungeony/fantasy type person. I have no imagination whatsoever.

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by trailmaster

Yea. Actually there are more sheep in New Zealand than there are people. New Zealand is being smothered by their sheep. Call Hiram Big and have him send over one of those mile long tanker ships and fill it with several million sheep and dump them on Australian shores!

Do they eat their sheep?

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

Do they eat their sheep?

Frequently......the rest of them we either send to other people who do the same.....or shave them so the rest of you can ultimately buy nice carpets or expensive suits...

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by trailmaster

Yea. Actually there are more sheep in New Zealand than there are people. New Zealand is being smothered by their sheep. Call Hiram Big and have him send over one of those mile long tanker ships and fill it with several million sheep and dump them on Australian shores!

Not just more sheep-WAYYYY more sheep-immediately following school and for my undergraduate university years during the Xmas holidays I worked at an abattoir -colloquially known as 'freezing works' in NZ parlance. Very well paid job for the time. A typical season's kill at Pukeuri works where I was would be somewhere between 4 and 5 million sheep-with the season running from early November till about April-lambs at the beginning and tailing off into old ewes and rams at the end.In those days NZ had about 4 million people and 90 million sheep-we were the world's biggest producer of sheep meat bar none-and in the top three or four producers for wool worldwide....now nearly four decades on those numbers have altered to about 5 million people and about 60 million sheep-so about a 50% reduction in sheep numbers

[dwvbf]

Originally Posted by Dr Pepper

Not just more sheep-WAYYYY more sheep-immediately following school and for my undergraduate university years during the Xmas holidays I worked at an abattoir -colloquially known as 'freezing works' in NZ parlance. Very well paid job for the time. A typical season's kill at Pukeuri works where I was would be somewhere between 4 and 5 million sheep-with the season running from early November till about April-lambs at the beginning and tailing off into old ewes and rams at the end.In those days NZ had about 4 million people and 90 million sheep-we were the world's biggest producer of sheep meat bar none-and in the top three or four producers for wool worldwide....now nearly four decades on those numbers have altered to about 5 million people and about 60 million sheep-so about a 50% reduction in sheep numbers

Literally loving yer sheep to death.

[Arturo2nd]

Originally Posted by palo5

That's ok. New Zealanders are passionate about sheep. I know because Trailmaster told me

Folks in Montana ('where men are men and the sheep are nervous') are also reputed to be passionate about their sheep, whereas Turks supposedly prefer goats.

[Tmee2020]

I think the numbers might be a bit less than that now. A 2015 Guardian article I read recently quoted

"The latest national livestock survey showed flock numbers had dropped by 3.2% to 29.6 million, but sheep still outnumber people six to one.
Sheep numbers have been on a downward slide since 1982 where they had peaked at 70.3m."

In Australia it is a similar story of declining numbers:

The same Guardian article:

"Australia’s trends have also mirrored New Zealand - the sheep population there declined from 170m in 1990 to an estimated 72.2m in 2014."

This is from a few years ago:

Originally Posted by tmee2000

Did you know that China is Top Dog now for sheep population?

2008 Sheep numbers (million)

China 136.4

Australia 79.0

India 65.0

Iran 53.8

Sudan 51.1

New Zealand 34.1

Nigeria 33.9

United Kingdom 33.1
(FAO)

For 2009-10 the Aust number was even lower, down to 68 million, the lowest number since 1905.

I only found this out the other day and it's most annoying. Back in the 60's and 70's there were over 160 million sheep in Australia. We want our title back.



Good old sheep.

[dwvbf]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

Folks in Montana ('where men are men and the sheep are nervous') are also reputed to be passionate about their sheep, whereas Turks supposedly prefer goats.

I heard that the Welsh are also very passionate about their sheep, or at least that is what my English buddies are telling me.

Edit: According to Mr Google. There are 3m people in Wales and 10m sheep. So they love their sheep 10:3