No.8 Wire: A&P show draws TV crew

Eketahuna woolhandler Ngaio Hanson in action during the Central Hawke's Bay A&P Show last year. Photo / File

If it's not one show ... then it's another. The Central Hawke's Bay A&P Show at Waipukurau next Thursday-Saturday, might feature on an international stage.

A French TV crew plans to cover the popular shearing and woolhandling event, as part of a segment on two of the sport's identities. The crew followed the pair earlier in the week at work in King Country.

The opening day of the show will feature the first of two days of sheep dog trials and equestrian sports.

Primary sector awards

Entries for the Napier Port Hawke's Bay Primary Sector Awards opened a fortnight ago but aren't expected to start coming in till after Christmas.

Hawke's Bay A&P Society general manager Brent Linn said the society encouraged entrants to "get in early".

"But the reality is we don't really expect to see many entries until January, that seems to be the way these awards work," he said.

The awards, headed by the Silver Fern Farm Hawke's Bay Farmer of the Year Award, first held 43 years ago, were launched during the Royal Show in Hastings. Entries and nominations close on February 28, and the awards will be presented on April 21.

They also include the Laurie Dowling Memorial Award, for outstanding service to rural industry, the Lawson Robinson Hawke's Bay A&P Scholarship for emerging leaders, the Hastings District Council-sponsored Primary Sector Industry Leader award, the Pan Pac Hawke's Bay Farm Forester award, and the new Bayley's Hawke's Bay Primary Sector Professional award.

Shearing record

At least one shearing record bid is being planned or Hawke's Bay this summer, and it could take place before Christmas.

Shearing contractor Farrell Chrystal confirmed plans were being made for brother Errol, nephew Kaylyn and employee and workmate Shelford Wilcox to get into the books with the vacant three-stand, strongwool ewes record for eight.

They are preparing to tackle the record in the week before Christmas, or the first week of the New Year, at Big Hill Station's "back" shed, about 40 minutes from Hastings.

Also being planned are a third nine-hour ewes record bid by King Country shearer Stacey Te Huia in a Wairarapa woolshed, while Australian shearer Beau Guelfi is planning another solo record bid in Western Australia in February.

World Sheep Shearing Records Society secretary Hugh McCarroll said he had yet to receive official applications, which the society needs to organise qualified judges.

Beet that

Biosecurity outfits in Melbourne got in a bit of tizz when beetroot juice was discovered leaking from a package at Melbourne Airport. A hazardous materials team was soon able to identify the purple liquid as not hazardous, although the product had electrodes inside, which was "an issue", according to a report. The tins were handed over to the Australian Federal Police Bomb Squad to scan the tin, which had internal heat sensors inside.