Hawke's Bay shearer Rowland Smith has emulated older brother Matthew by smashing a World shearing record in England.
Finishing at 4am today NZST, the 30-year-old father-of-two shore 644 romney and crossbred ewes in eight hours at Trefranck Farm, near St Clether, in Cornwall, beating the previous record of 605 set by Invercargill shearer Leon Samuels in Southland on February 20 this year.
It was the latest in a string of World shearing records in the family, including the ultimate record of 731 ewes in nine hours by Matthew Smith at Tefranck on July 26 last year.
In January 2011, Rowland Smith, who grew up around Ruawai in Northland and now farms a small block at Maraekakaho, near Hastings, shore 562 in a two-stand eight-hour record of 1066 with second brother Doug at Waitara Station, between Napier and Taupo, and a year earlier Matthew had set a solo eight-hour record of 578 on the same property.
Rowland Smith's wife, Ingrid (nee Baynes) had also been in on the action in a King Country woolshed in January 2009 when she set a women's solo-eight-hour lambs record of 470 while also claiming a two-stand record of 903 with mother Marg Baynes, of Wairoa.