A record number of record attempts for Kiwi shearers

Sacha Bond during her world eight-hour strong wool lambs record of 601 last February. She has two more records lined up for the summer ahead.

A wave of shearing record attempts in the New Zealand summer means a record has fallen even before the shearing has started.

The World Sheep Shearing Records Society has now received seven applications for challenges in New Zealand from December 15, 2023, to February 14 2024.

This is thought to be the most in New Zealand in any season in the 55 years since the first official recognition of eight-hour and nine–hour shearing records in 1968.

Society secretary Hugh McCarroll, of Tauranga, said the latest application was from Pahiatua shearer Amy Silcock.

Three of the record bids will take place in the 10 days before Christmas, starting on December 15 with Megan Whitehead and Hannah McColl attempting the solo and two-stand strong wool lambs records in Southland.

Four days later near Mossburn, Sacha Bond will attempt to add the women’s solo nine-hour strong wool lambs record to the eight-hour record she set last summer.

Then in a Wairarapa woolshed on December 23, Paerata Abraham and Chris Dickson will attempt the men’s solo and two-stand lambs records for eight hours.

Silcock will attempt the women’s solo eight-hour strong wool ewes record at Ross Na Clonagh Farm, near Pahiatua on January 7, one of five big days out for women’s record attempts.

She first attempted the record last February, when she shore 348 ewes which averaged over 4kg of wool a sheep – more than 1kg over the minimum requirement.

It fell 22 short of the mark set by Marie Prebble in England the previous August.

Silcock’s attempt will be followed on January 10 by Catherine Mullooly tackling the women’s solo eight-hour strong wool ewes record in the King Country.

The remaining two are both in Southland, on January 14 when a Forde Winders Shearing crew will bid for the men’s five-stand eight-hour strong wool lambs record, and on February 14 when Bond will attempt the women’s nine-hour strong wool ewes record.

The society’s 2023-2024 year got underway on Friday with Herefordshire farmer Steve Rowberry falling short of King Country shearer Jack Fagan’s world eight-hour solo strong wool lambs record of 754, but shearing a new British record of 706.

Rowberry had shorn in Hawke’s Bay as a 21-year-old and won the 2010 New Zealand Lamb Shearing Championships junior final, which included Fagan, at Raglan.

British records rules take into account the lesser wool of the UK breeds, with a minimum wool-weight average of 0.8kg per lamb, compared with 0.9kg for World Records.

At a pre-record wool weigh the day before the attempt, the wool from 20 lambs averaged 0.982kg per lamb.

As well as the record attempts in New Zealand, McCarroll anticipated there would also be several attempts in Australia during the southern summer, mainly Merino or Australian crossbred tallies, but so far no applications had been received.