Shearing Sports New Zealand’s busiest weekend of the season coming up

Mataura shearer Brett Roberts, who will be competing at both national title events in Southland on Friday and Saturday. Photo / Pete Nikolaison

More than 200 shearers and woolhandlers are expected to be in action during the busiest weekend on the Shearing Sports New Zealand calendar from Friday to Saturday.

The competition will be spread the length of the country, with Kaikohe in the north, down to the Northern Southland Community Shears’ New Zealand Full Wool Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in a woolshed near Lumsden on Friday and the Southland Shears’ National Crossbred Lambs Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the Winton A&P Show on Saturday.

There are also the shearing-only events on Saturday, at the Kaikohe, Wairoa and Golden Bay shows, and the Horowhenua Shearing Championships in Levin on Sunday.

Shearers will also compete at several speed shears in Southland, and in the North Island at the Wairoa Shears at Kauhouroa on Friday evening, and on Saturday at the new YMP Sports event at Paroa Station, near Raupunga.

The busy weekend will be followed on Monday by an attempt on the solo men’s nine-hour lamb shearing record by Bay of Plenty shearer Jamie Skiffington at a woolshed in southern Hawke’s Bay.

It’ll be a weekend of contrast in Southland, from the shearing of ewes carrying as much as a year’s wool at the full wool championships on Friday, to 30-32kg lambs with barely six months’ wool at Winton the next day.

Shearing Sports New Zealand Southland-Otago delegate Michael Hogan said there would be particular interest from the open-class competitors, who start protracted shearing and woolhandling series next month to decide the New Zealand team members for the 2026 World Championships in Masterton.

The series includes next year’s Lumsden and Winton event and competitors will want to familiarise themselves with the types of sheep being shorn at the shows and gain an edge for what he expects to be an even more competitive schedule than usual.

Hogan said the vagaries of the season meant that young sheep, such as the 1150 lambs crutched and ready for Winton, are behind average growth for the time of year, with less weight and wool.

But the shearing season is in full swing in the area, which could impact the numbers competing at the shows if they put work ahead of the sport.

He said as much as 50% of the shearers working in the region were from the North Island or overseas.

“With two shows in two days [and national shearing and woolhandling titles available from junior to open class] the turnout can be good,” he said.

“But they’ve only had 10 days back at work, and they haven’t got sick of it yet.

“Give them another week and they might be looking for an excuse to take the day off.”

Last year, the major open-class titles were shared.

Alexandra woolhandler Pagan Rimene, who last year won the national crossbred lambs open woolhandling title at Winton for a seventh time. Photo / Pete Nikolaison

In the shearing, Invercargill’s Nathan Stratford won the full wool title at Lumsden for a seventh time since 2002, while Masterton shearer Paerata Abraham won his first the lambs title, at Winton.

Two-time world champion Joel Henare, from Gisborne, also won the Lumsden woolhandling title for a seventh time, while Pagan Rimene won the Winton lambs title, also for a seventh time.

The biggest of the other competitions is expected to be the Wairoa Shears, which have for the second year in a row been moved from the town’s A&P Show because of the impact of bad weather — about 500mm of rain in the last five weeks — making it difficult for sheep-truck access.

The shears will take place in the five grades from novice to open at Kauhouroa Station, between Frasertown and Marumaru, with up to 100 shearers taking part, including many from the UK.

It includes the first round of the new Te Whiringa Senior Shearing Circuit, aimed at strengthening numbers in the senior grade in the North Island, with 10 competitions in nine weeks and a final at the Waimarino Shears in Raetihi on March 15.

By contrast, the Kaikohe show shears will merge novice, junior and intermediate shearers into one event, with handicaps based on the number of sheep to be shorn per grade.

Most shearers and woolhandlers competing in Southland will compete on both days, while some of those competing in the North Island will shear at the Wairoa Shears and then travel about 360km to shear in Levin the next day.