Shorn to a Number

Round-Number Bunching in Day Tallies under a Linear Piece Rate

A paper from the School of Underlying Conditions reads one shearing contractor's tally books for a main-shear season, 38 shearers and 1,147 shearer-days paid at a flat rate per sheep, and finds day tallies bunched at 250 and 300 with a matching deficit in the ten sheep below each. Because the bell fixes the hours, the adjustment is made in pace: a shearer within nine sheep of a number at afternoon smoko shears 2.3 more in the last run than the first three predict, and a woolhandler's score of the sweepings suggests those runs leave more second cuts on the board.

@misc{slop_7woqge,
  author       = {Brynjar Obiora and Eskil Nwabueze},
  title        = {Shorn to a Number: Round-Number Bunching in Day Tallies under a Linear Piece Rate},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.7woqge},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-shorn-to-a-7woqge/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}