Three Shearers Have Made A Big Start To A World Record Taking Place In A Remote West Otago Woolshed

The shearers are Golden Shears and other multiple titles winner Leon Samuels, of Roxburgh, reigning national circuit champion Paerata Abraham, of Masterton, and Hunterville shearer and contractor Shane Ratima.

On the line at Wohelo Station, Moa Flat, is the three-stand, eight-hours strongwool lambs record of 1976 set in 2019 by Coel L’Huillier, Kaleb Foote and Daniel Langlands at Puketiti, near King Country township.

They started at 7am on the first of four two-hour runs, and with more than 250 shorn nearing the end of the first hour were on pace for a total of about 2030 when it ends at 5pm.

Samuels is a holder of the four-stand record of 2556 in which he sheared 648 in Southland in 2013 and a former holder of a solo strong wool ewes record shorn in 2017.

Abraham was involved in an unsuccessful two-stand lambs record attempt east of Masterton in December 2024 and Ratima was involved in an unsuccessful attempt on the three-stand record eight days later near Hunterville.

The record attempt is run under the auspices of the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, which has appointed six referees, convened by Queensland official Barry Hammonds, with New Zealand referees Bart Hadfield, Ronnie King, Alistair Emslie, Johnny Fraser, and Donald Johnston.

Hadfield, who farms north of Wairoa, is a former holder of the three-stand record, from when a tally of 1933 was shorn in 1997.

To enable the record attempt – four two-hour runs between 7am and 5pm – a sample shear of 20 lambs must average at least 0.9kg of wool per lamb.

Wohelo Station, about 120km west of Dunedin, has been used in the past for big shearing events, such as the Shear for Life 24-hour shearathons, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity.

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