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Trailblazing Tararua district shearer, farmer, and mum Laura Bradley is still looking for more challenges after becoming the most successful female competition shearer in the world.
The 27-year-old’s win in the New Zealand Shearing Championships senior final in Te Kūiti on Saturday was the 12th time she’d wonagainst the mainlymale opposition in the 2024-2025 season, and her 16th win in the grade, easily a record for a female shearer.
The wins this season include three national title events - on Corriedales, full-wooled ewes and Saturday’s second-shear - with only three other women having ever won any New Zealand national title events in the grade, according to Jills Angus Burney, one of that elite group.
A competition shearer since her early teens in 2013, Bradley is also the first to win either the intermediate or senior title at either the Golden Shears in Masterton or at Te Kūiti, where on Saturday she also won the junior woolhandling title.
Papatawa farmer, shearer and mum Laura Bradley winning the New Zealand Shearing Championships senior shearing final in Te Kūiti on Saturday. Photo / Doug Laing.
Now, with a special mix of quality and speed, enabling her to beat most of the opposition to the end on most occasions, Bradley becomes the first woman in the world to be promoted to the glamour open grade based on competition performances, a promotion achieved voluntarily by a small number of others based on their best woolshed tallies.
A shearing family, the Bradleys, after the big win in Te Kūiti on Saturday. From left, mum Helen, dad Wayne, senior final winner Laura, partner Cam Henson, and son Marshall. Photo / Jills Angus Burney.
Bradley was also Shearing Sports New Zealand’s No 1-ranked junior in 2015 and intermediate in 2018, when she was working for Paewai Mullins Partnership, and on Friday she added senior to the list, the first - male or female - to win the No 1 ranking in three grades.
She also completed a second Golden Shears and New Zealand championships’ women’s events winning double.
Fresh in from the family farm at Papatawa, between Dannevirke and Woodville, Bradley said on Tuesday that she’s keen to get a first look at the Merinos of West Australia in August, with her first transtasman trip claimed by including a circuit win at the Waimarino Shears in Raetihi last month. That’s among the prizes she’s amassed from 22 finals in 22 weeks, from Lumsden in the south to Pukekohe in the north.
And asked if she will tackle the multi-breeds national shearing circuit, with a national team place up for grabs (no female having ever shorn officially for New Zealand), she said: “I’ve never shorn a Merino. I definitely want to give the circuit a go. A goal would be to make the New Zealand team.”
Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman Sir David Fagan, knighted for his global successes in competition, said Bradley’s successes in 2024-2024 were even more “special” because it was one of the most competitive seasons he had seen in the grade.
It was highlighted at last month’s Golden Shears when she had to settle for fourth place in a 12-sheep senior final won by regular rival Bruce Grace, from Wairoa, and Bradley was also beaten by fellow prolific winner John Cherrington, from Ngāruawāhia, but based in Ōamaru. She beat both in Saturday’s final.
Managing 2-and-a-half-year old son Marshall has never been a problem in what is a shearing industry and sport family through-and-through, from dad Wayne and Welsh mum Helen to siblings Tegwyn, the No 1-ranked senior shearer in 2018, and sister Eleri, the Golden Shears Novice woolhandling winner in 2023.
Then there’s her partner and “rock”, Cam Henson, from Woodville, who learned to shear about 10 years ago but only started in competitions this year – “because he was there”. He has since won in the novice grade and been placed in the junior grade.
The competition scene is notable for its whānau and collegial environment, and Bradley said: “We are always discussing how we can improve on my performances”.
“My parents had my son so I was solely focused at the shows on competing. My bosses - Ninja and Leonie Manihera (of Pahīatua) were always understanding, supportive and pushing me every week to go and compete nationwide.”
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
