The Forde Winders record tally board. Image – Shedtalk Facebook.

FIVE New Zealand shearers new to attempting shearing records and comparatively unknown in the competition circuit have shorn 3236 lambs in eight hours to smash a world record by 246 lambs in Southland yesterday.

The Forde Winders Shearing crew of Trevor Holland, of New Plymouth, Max Winders, of Colac Bay, Trent Hewes, of Tuakau, Ben Boyle, of Invercargill, and Josef Winders, of Tussock Creek, sheared an new world five-stand eight-hour strong wool lamb record of 3236.

The previous record of 2910 was shorn in a King Country wool shed nine years ago by the Barrowcliffe shearing crew of Ringakaha Paewai, Willie Hewitson, Aidan Copp, Jock MacDonald and George Parker.

The crowd filling the Grant Brothers Campbell’s Block wool shed in the Hokonui Hills for the five-stand shearing record in which 3236 lambs were shorn in eight hours. Photo – supplied.

The Forde Winders crew shore four two-hour runs at the Grant brothers’ Campbell’s Block in the Hokonui Hills, west of Gore, starting at 7am and finishing at 5pm. They were under the watchful eyes of six World Sheep Shearing Record Society referees, a board, pen, gear and diet and nutrition crew of more than 50, and more than 100 onlookers, urging them past the old mark and the 3000 lamb milestone. In the quest for a personal milestone, Holland recorded a personal tally of 701 for the day.

The shearers needed a combined average of at least 727.75 per run to break the record and they were always comfortably ahead of the required pace. They tallied 816 in the first run from 7am to 9am, 811 in the second run from 9.30am-11.30am, 809 in the third run from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, and 800 in the last from 3pm to 5pm.

The referees, convened by Scots official Andy Rankin, on Saturday oversaw the pre-record wool-weigh in which the nature’s great fibre from 20 sample sheep totalled 23.708kg, an average of 1.1854kg a lamb and safely over the minimum requirement of 0.9kg of wool per lamb.

It’s estimated more than 3.8 tonnes of wool was shorn during the day – more than 20 bales added to the country’s fleece of the great natural fibre.

Organisers paid particular tribute to the farmers for getting the sheep together for what is understood to have been the seventh-biggest tally in an official world record attempt for any number of shearers.

Individual tallies were: Trevor Holland, of New Plymouth (172, 179, 172, 178) 701; Max Winders, of Colac Bay (161, 161, 166, 162) 650; Trent Hewes, of Tuakau (164, 161, 167, 159) 651; Ben Boyle, of Invercargill (168, 159, 153, 150) 630, Josef Winders, of Tussock Creek (151, 151, 151, 151) 604.

There have now been four successful record attempts in New Zealand this Summer. The next record attempt will be that of the Sutton Shearing crew of Hemi Braddick, Ray Kinsman, and Flynn Harvey on the three-stand eight-hour lamb record of 1611 at Pohuetai Station, 516 Otope Road, Dannevirke, on Friday.