World record for Kiwi shearer
The Smith brothers have got something few other siblings can boast after Hawke’s Bay shearer Rowland Smith matched older brother Matthew by claiming a world shearing record in England.
Rowland shore 644 romney and crossbred ewes in eight hours at Trefranck Farm, near St Clether, in Cornwall, to beat the previous record of 605 ewes set by Invercargill shearer Leon Samuels in Southland in February.
It was the latest in a string of world shearing records in the family, including the ultimate record of 731 ewes in nine hours by Matthew at Trefranck last year.
Rowland, a 30-year-old father-oftwo grew up around Ruawai in Northland and now farms a small block at Maraekakaho, near Hastings.
Smith averaged 44.72 seconds for each sheep caught, shorn and sent downthe chute, and with cutter changes every 15 minutes, managed a shearing time of under 35 seconds.
He shore 562 ewes in a twostand eight-hour record of 1066 with second brother Doug at Waitara Station, between Napier and Taupo, and a year earlier Matthew had set a solo eight-hour record of 578 ewes on the same property.
The records are not restricted to the Smith males. In 2009 Rowland’s wife, Ingrid, set a women’s solo-eight-hour record of 470 lambs in a King Country woolshed and also claimed a twostand record of 903 lambs with mother Marg Baynes, of Wairoa.
The record-breaking family members were present as the latest milestone unfolded in England with two-metre-tall Rowland always comfortably ahead of the target as he shore four consecutive two-hour runs of 161 ewes each. The previous record for a two-hour run during an eighthour record was 153 ewes, shorn by Samuels before lunch and by Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia postlunch when he set a record of 603 ewes in 2010.
Smith averaged 44.72 seconds for each sheep caught, shorn and sent down the chute, and with cutter changes every 15 minutes, managed a shearing time of under 35 seconds.
Each sheep carried more than three kilograms of wool.
Half-hour breaks were taken for morning and afternoon tea and an hour for lunch during last week’s successful record attempt.
Five months ago Samuels shore successive two-hour runs of 149 ewes, 153, 151 and 152, averaging 47.6 seconds a sheep.
The New Zealand shearing team ended an otherwise triumphant year on disappointing note at its month-long tour of Scotland, England and Wales.
At the Corwen Shears in Denbighshire last Saturday, new world champion John Kirkpatrick and Smith were beaten by Wales for the fourth time in a row.