Chess versus shearing

I spent today at the Carcoar Show, which has been running for 140 years (BTW Carcoar is a small village in country New South Wales). I had all the attractions of a country show, including wood chopping, whip cracking, sheep dog trials, and sheep shearing. I'd always assumed that these events were about pride (and maybe a trophy), but I discovered there is some serious money in some of them.
Looking at the regional newspaper, I saw a competitive sheep shearing event to be held in the town of Young. While not surprised by the existence of the competition, the $16000 prize pool was surprising. This is greater than most chess events in Australia, and a reasonable sized prize pool for many events around the world. I have no idea what the size or quality of the field will be (or even if there is a professional competition shearing circuit), but I guess that you can pretty much make a contest out of anything!