The Spanish city of Pamplona is noted for its Running of the Bulls but a novel twist is planned by farmers at Barmera in the Riverland of South Australia.

Rather than bulls, they will set hundreds of sheep loose to run down the main street.

The Running of the Sheep will be held for the first time as part of annual sheep dog trials.

Organiser Bob Clark hopes up to 400 sheep will race.

"What we'll probably do is we'll put a decoy sheep down the other end and we'll just see which is the brightest one to pick them up and with a bit of luck he'll lead the rest," he said.

"They don't want to be left behind so they should start galloping when the rest take off."