Shearing Record

Shearing Record

King Country shearer Stacey Te Huia has an uphill battle if he is to break the World shearing record he is attempting today in a Wairarapa woolshed.

Starting at 5am and needing an average of over 80 an hour to break the nine-hour strongwool ewes record of 721 set nine years ago by Hawke’s Bay shearer Rodney Sutton, Te Huia shore just 151 in the two hours to the breakfast break at 7am.

Te Huia, who holds three other World records but who has missed-out in two previous attempts at tally shearing’s ultimate challenge, was however relaxed as he breakfasted on the standard kiwi munch of sausages, eggs and bacon and was massaged simultaneously in preparation for the all-telling 1hr 45min second run from 8am-9.45am.

South Island contractor Dion Morrell, whose 1995 record of 716 has been bettered only twice, said the record was still do-able, but Te Huia had a lot of ground to make up.

The task is to average under 45 seconds a sheep, caught, shorn and despatched, under the watchful eye of three World Sheep Shearing Records Society judges, headed by Mark Baldwin, of Australia.

ENDS

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