The fastest Loren Opstedahl has sheared four sheep is five minutes and 40 seconds. That's 20 seconds less than the six minutes contestants are allotted in a competition.

The record number of sheep Opstedahl has ever sheared in one job is 333 head in just less than eight hours.

His sheep shearing skill has won the Piedmont man the title of National Sheep Shearing Champion and a spot in the world championship in Norway.

"It's a pretty good feeling just being able to qualify for that world championship," Opstedahl said. "It's kind of an honor to be picked for that, just because there are two out of the whole country."

Opstedahl has been competing in sheep shearing contests for eight years; he won the national title in 2006 and again in January at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. He said that in competition, the goal is to not only sheer the sheep fast, but also do quality work.

"You don't want to knick them, and you cut the wool off in a good process to where it's worth value," he said.

The world competition will be held in Norway Oct. 2-6, and Opstedahl will be traveling there to compete in the machine-shearing division. There are six people on the United States team, divided between machine shearing, blade shearing and wool handling. Opstedahl said about 20 to 30 countries compete in the world championship.

"Hopefully, I can uphold the United States' name, but there's some really good competition over there," he said. "New Zealand and Australia's No. 1 industry is sheep, so they are going to be our No. 1 competitors. It's going to be pretty exciting."