The weighting is over and it's all systems go for Hawke's Bay shearer Rowland Smith who will tackle the World solo eight-hour strongwool ewe shearing record in England tonight (NZST).
A sample of 10 of the romney and crossbred flock, which has been drawn from four properties, have met the required threshold of an average of at least 3kg of wool a sheep in a pre-record wool-weigh in front of four World Sheep Shearing Record Society judges at Trefranck Farm, near St Clether, in Cornwall.
Shorn about 4am (NZST) the 10 sheep yielded 33.7kg of wool, the green light for the attempt to start at 6pm today (NZST) - 7am in the UK - before judges Eddie Archur, of Spouth Africa,, Johnny Fraser, of New Zealand, and Welsh officials Arwyn Jones and Martyn David.
Shearing four two-hour runs, separated by a one-hour lunch-break and half-hour breaks for morning and afternoon smoko, Smith is attempting a record of 605, which was set by Southland shearer Leon Samuels in a woolshed north of Gore on February 20 this year.
It will require an average of at least 75.75 sheep an hour, or a sheep caught, shorn and despatched about every 47 seconds, in the same shed as Smith's brother, Matthew Smith, who farms at Trefranck, set the ultimate nine-hour record of 731 on July 26 last year.
