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Sacha Bond established a new eight-hour strongwool lambs record of 601 last February. She has two more records lined up for the summer ahead.
Seven shearing record events will occur this summer and eight people from Southland will try to break five different records.
Shearing Sports New Zealand spokesperson Doug Laing said Megan Whitehead and Hannah McColl would attempt the solo and two-stand strongwool lambs records in Southland on December 15.
“Four days later near Mossburn, Sacha Bond will attempt to add the women’s solo nine-hour strongwool lambs record to the eight-hour record she set last summer,” he said.
Bond’s eight-hour record was 601.
Laing said on January 14, a Forde Winders Shearing crew would bid for the men’s five-stand eight-hour strongwool lambs record.
Bond would also attempt the women’s nine-hour strongwool ewes record in February, he said.
The seven applications were the most in New Zealand in any season in the 55 years since the first official recognition of eight-hours and nine–hours shearing records in 1968.
Society secretary Hugh McCarroll, of Tauranga, said the latest application was from Pahiatua shearer Amy Silcock, who will attempt the women’s solo eight-hours strongwool ewes record at Ross Na Clonagh Farm, near Pahiatua on January 7.
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.
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’s attempt will be followed on January 10 by Catherine Mullooly’s attempt on the women’s solo eight-hours strong wool ewes record attempt in the King Country.
The society’s 2023-2024 year got under way on Friday with Herefordshire farmer Steve Rowberry falling short of King Country shearer Jack Fagan’s world eight-hour solo strongwool 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 Lambshearing Championships Junior final, including 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.
As well as the record attempts in New Zealand, McCarroll is anticipating there will also be several attempts in Australia during the southern summer, mainly merino or Australian crossbred tallies, but no applications had been received by Monday this week.
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