Record breaking shearers Flynn Harvey, Hemi Braddick and Ray Kinsman in a wool shed in the days leading up to their attempt on the world three stand strong wool ewe record near Dannevirke in New Zealand

THREE New Zealand shearers have set a new world record of 1745 strong wool ewes shorn in eight hours.

The new tally set last Friday at Pohuetai by Dannevirke-based shearers Hemi Braddick, of Eketāhuna, Flynn Harvey, from Kaitāia, and Ray Kinsman from Fairlie, broke the previous record of 1611 set seven years ago.

With each of the three shearers averaging more than 70 sheep an hour, they passed the 1611 target 35 minutes before the last sheep went down the chute just after 5pm.

The new record of 1745 ewes was confirmed by World Sheep Shearing Records Society refereeing panel convenor Dave Brooker, of South Australia.

Click this Shedtalk Facebook link to see the latest run of the record attempt.

Attention over the last half-hour focused on Braddick’s bid for a personal tally of 600, having shorn successive tallies of 151, 148 and 150 in the first three of the four two-hour runs. He missed by one, finishing on 599. Harvey sheared 581 and Kinsman 565, with a small number of shorn sheep rejected from the tallies.

The successful record attempt was the seventh of eight attempts in New Zealand from mid-December to mid-February, in the standard wool shed days of eight or nine hours and guided by sheep age and wool-weight requirements set by the records society.

Among those present at the Dannevirke event was shearer Luke Mullins, who had the highest tally (554) when the previous record was set at Waitara Station on January 17, 2017. Also present were Gisborne farmer and shearer Catherine Mullooly, who sheared a women’s solo record of 465 last week, and Rowland Smith, of Maraekakaho, who sheared the men’s solo record of 644 in England in mid-2017.