THE waiting and the weighing is over and it’s all systems go for  New Zealand shearer Rowland Smith, who will tackle the world solo eight-hour strong wool ewe shearing record in England today.

The record will be live-streamed at https://agricamera.co.uk/sheep-shearing-live-stream/, officially starting at 7am in the UK, which is 6pm New Zealand time today or 4pm Australian Eastern Standard time.

A sample of 10 of the Romney and crossbred flock sheep, drawn from four properties, have met the required threshold of an average of at least 3kg of wool a sheep in a pre-record wool-weigh in front of four World Sheep Shearing Record Society judges at Trefranck Farm, near St Clether, in Cornwall.

The 10 sheep shorn yielded 33.7kg of wool, giving the green light for the attempt to start at 7am in the UK, before judges Eddie Archur, of South Africa,, Johnny Fraser, of New Zealand, and Welsh officials Arwyn Jones and Martyn David.

NZ shearer Rowland Smith in action earlier this year. Picture – Shearing Sports New Zealand.

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Shearing four two-hour runs, separated by a one-hour lunch-break and half-hour breaks for morning and afternoon smoko, the Hawke’s Bay shearer is attempting a record of 605, which was set by Southland shearer Leon Samuels in a woolshed north of Gore on February 20 this year.

It will require an average of at least 75.75 sheep an hour, or a sheep caught, shorn and despatched about every 47 seconds, in the same shed as Smith’s brother, Matthew Smith, who farms at Trefranck, set the ultimate nine-hour record of 731 on July 26 last year.

In his record, Samuels shore runs of 149, 153, 151 and 152, beating by just two sheep the previous record of 603 set by Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia in 2010. In his record a year ago, Matthew Smith opened with a record two-hour run of 164.

Sheep on their way to the Rowland Smith strong wool ewe shearing record attempt. Picture – Shearing Sports NZ.

Based on the standard eight-hour day as shorn in New Zealand woolsheds, the record attempt runs tonight will be from 6pm to 8pm (7am-9am UK), 8.30pm to 10.30pm (9.30am-11.30am UK), 12.30pm to 2.30am (12.30pm-1.30pm UK), and 2am to 4am (3pm-5pm UK). Take two hours off the NZ time for the AEST run times.

Facebook footage of the wool-weigh at Rowland Smith’s 8-hour StrongwoolWorld Ewe Shearing Record Attempt is courtesy of Ingrid Smith.

Source: Doug Laing, Shearing Sports New Zealand.