Working for Dannevirke contractors Sutton Shearing, the trio are targeting the 1611 shorn by Luke Mullins (554), Eru Weeds (539) and James Mack (518) at Waitara Station, Te Pohue, on January 17, 2017, 13 months after the previous record of 1347 was set, also in Hawke’s Bay.
Friday’s record attempt will, according to World Sheep Shearing Records Society rules, comprise four two-hour runs, starting at 7am and ending at 5pm, with half-hour breaks for morning and afternoon tea and a one-hour break for lunch.
Sheep must average at least 3kg of wool each, as determined in a sample shear of 10 sheep and wool weigh on Thursday, overseen, as will be Friday’s bid, by members of a five-man panel of records society referees, convened by Dave Brooker, of South Australia.
It is the seventh of eight record attempts scheduled in New Zealand for the 2023-24 summer, with all but one successful.
Of the three in Friday’s attempt, Braddick has been the most successful competition shearer, competing regularly and loyally in the open class, reaching numerous finals in the North and South islands over 10 years before a breakthrough win at Gisborne in October 2022. Kinsman had two wins in the junior grade in the South Island in 2011, and Harvey won the national fullwool final at the Northern Southland Community Shears near Lumsden in 2018.
Their attempt has been in the planning for more than a year, a “line in the sand” being reported by Sutton Shearing in February last year when Braddick did 170 in a two-hour run and Harvey did 169.
They’re in good hands, the record being managed by boss Rod Sutton, a Shearing Sports New Zealand master shearer who has held four world nine-hours strongwool records, including the glamour nine-hours solo ewes and lambs records.
