Saturday afternoon was what Robertson farmer John Mauger, of Mauger's Meats, described as an "odd" day at the farm.
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It started out normally enough, with Mr Mauger spying sheep on the wrong side of a fence.
The animals were using the space opened up by a wombat hole to slip through, so he brought a load of rocks over to block it.
That's when he heard a faint "baaaa".
"I looked down the hole and didn't see anything," said Mr Mauger.
"But then I heard another 'baaa'.
"I couldn't see it because it ended up being between four and five metres into the hole, and about two metres underground.
"I don't know how it managed to get its way down there."
With 400 other sheep to worry about, one sheep lost down a long wombat hole seemed too much trouble, but as Mr Mauger drove back to the house he decided to have a crack with the tractor.
"My wife Vicki and I went back in the tractor with a measuring tape," said Mr Mauger.
"We worked out he was further in than the tractor bucket, so we could dig without hurting him.
"I dug down as far as I could with the tractor, then with a shovel, and shone a torch down - I could see him further along in the hole.
"So I had another go with the tractor bucket, then dug a pilot hole, and there he was."
Mr Mauger dug the hole out further and then reached in with Mrs Mauger holding his legs, but couldn't budge the sheep.
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"I'm getting on a bit, so I wasn't strong enough to pull him out," he said.
So he grabbed his son Mat, who was watching cricket in Robertson, and put his height and strength to good use.
Four hours or so after he first heard the "baa", the sheep was dragged out into the light.
"He was covered in red dirt, and it took him a while to get his bearings because he'd been in dark so long," said Mr Mauger.
"He went over to the other sheep and they took off - they didn't want to know him.
"But I checked him yesterday and he was eating fine - it's just going to take him a few days to get over it."
Maugers Meats pride themselves on a stress-free environment for their animals, so Mr Mauger said he was keen to look after the lost sheep.
"We had to have a go, we couldn't just leave it laying there - it would have been a pretty cruel death," he said.
"In the end, they're food, but we do try to take care of them while they're with us."
