Two brothers from the Collingwood area have taken first and second place at the Calgary Stampede’s sheep shearing competition.
Don Metheral of Dunedin beat his older brother Clifford on Sunday afternoon to take the top spot.
It’s Don’s fourth Stampede Championship.
The win’s worth two thousand dollars and a stampede buckle.
Cliff gets a thousand dollars for being runner-up.
The Stampedes shearing challenge is both a timed and judged competition, with judges docking points for second passes with clippers and later examining the animals for remaining ridges and tufts of wool and cuts or nicks in the skin.
The Stampede also adopted a new format in 2009, with competitors squaring off two at a time, trying to beat each other and the clock.
Both men are professional shearers, each clipping between 20 thousand and 25 thousand sheep a year, occasionally teaming up for big feedlot jobs.