An Aussie sheep to rival Shrek

New Zealand's Shrek toured the country with farmer John Perriam before his fleece was shorn. Here he is at Waitangi in June 2010. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A sheep in eastern Australia is leaping about more lightly after being sheared of its massively overgrown fleece.

In a social media post that has gone viral, farmer Graeme Bowden shared pictures of the sheep he dubbed "Shrek 2".

He said a friend found the sheep with several years of growth, which he sheared to produce 30kg of wool - more than six times greater than the average fleece.

Posted by ABC Western Plains on Thursday, 19 July 2018

"He cut 30 kilograms of wool, which was 13 inches long", Bowden said in his Facebook post, adding that the fleece was unbelievably clean.

"Anyway he's light footed now, would be nice at the moment with the price of wool to have about 2000 of them, gee I'd be able to buy some hay," Bowden finished his post by saying.

Australian wool prices have been running at record highs this year.

Bowden is a farmer in Coonabarabran, a town in the state of New South Wales, about 450km northwest of Sydney, local media said.

Shrek the Sheep with his full fleece before he was shorn.

Image 1 of 3: Shrek was discovered on Bendigo station after 6 years of eating alpine plants while hiding in caves to evade winter weather. Photo / Supplied

The original Shrek was a hermit sheep from Central Otago in New Zealand who gained international fame in 2004 when media reported on him being shorn of his 22kg of fleece.

He became the subject of three books and featured prominently in a fourth, raising several hundreds of thousands of dollars for the charity Cure Kids and a local school, and lifting the profile of the wool industry at the same time.

The well cared for sheep died at Bendigo Station, owned by John Perriam, in 2011.