Shearing world record attempt: Nine-hour, five-stand strong wool lambs

The Fagan Shearing record-bid team. Delwyn Jones (left), Llion Jones, Jack Fagan, Reuben Alabaster and Kelly Brill. Photo / Supplied

A start has been confirmed for a world lambs shearing record bid this morning after a qualifying preliminary wool-weigh in a remote Central North Island woolshed.

The 20 lambs shorn at Te Pa Station, between Ohakune and Raetihi produced 18.76kg of wool, meeting the World Sheep Shearing Records Society threshold of an average of at least 0.9kg per lamb for the record attempt to go ahead.

Watch the attempt live on Facebook here.

The Fagan Shearing crew of Delwyn Jones, Llion Jones, Jack Fagan, Reuben Alabaster and Kelly Brill is targeting the to-date unclaimed nine-hours, five-stands strong wool lambs record.

The shearing is taking place at Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation's Te Pa Station and kicked off at 5am this morning.

The attempt will end at 12pm, with breaks for breakfast, lunch and morning and afternoon smoko.

The runs are 5am-7am, 8am-9.45am, 10-15am-midday, 1pm-2.45pm and 3.15pm-5pm with up-to-date tallies posted at the end of each break.

The seven judges – one watching from his home in Wales – will be keeping a close eye on quality and the wellbeing of the young sheep, with authority to reject any lambs not shorn up to standard and stop any shearer not consistently meeting the benchmark.

With the station still in the red zone of the Covid-19 traffic-light protection framework, there will be no public admission, but live-streaming is available on the attempt's Facebook page.