Mechanisms of selection and control are utilized in both farming and special education. In a nation where sheep outnumber the population at a ratio of 10 to 1, the processes of drafting and selection have been refined over 150 years of New Zealand focusing on its agricultural primary production. Practices of sheep farming offer an interesting analogy with policy and practice in special education as the aims of efficiency and effectiveness reshape the role of the good shepherd. (Contains 3 figures.)