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They lost a few livestock, their shearing shed, and all but 30 of their 2,000 acres was burned.

With tens of thousands of animals descending on a single shearing shed, like another in China Creek, coordination is essential.

Mr. MacLean, who owns more than 5,000 sheep, shares a shearing shed with seven other families who bought the building from a large ranching conglomerate in the 1950s.

On a rainy day in February, George spent the morning in the shearing shed wrangling shorn sheep that had accidentally mixed in with the untrimmed ones.

He is even considering using sheep manure from under his shearing shed as an alternative to peat, which is burned to impart a smoky flavour to the whisky.