December 21, 2015.
Heat wave for shearing record in Hawke’s Bay
Three Hawke’s Bay shearers are angling for a new World record in a remote woolshed west of Hastings tomorrow (Tuesday),
on one of the area’s hottest days of the year.
Metservice forecasts the temperature in Hastings will hit 31deg.
But it’s expected to be even hotter in the generator-powered Big Hill Station woolshed where Errol Chrystal, nephew
Kalin Chrystal and workmate Shelford Wilcox hope to shear over 1500 sheep in a three-stand strongwool ewes record over a
standard shearing shed day of eight hours.
Kalin Chrystal and Wilcox have each shorn over 600 in a day in the past and with everything going right could challenge
the solo record of 603, but all three will be under the wathful eye of five World Shearing Records Society judges on
hand to make sure the quality is up to the mark – an call it off the standards aren’t being met.
The first test will come this afternoon (Monday) when the judges, including one from Australia and one from the South
Island, will watch a shear of 10 sheep sampled from the target flock, with an average of at least 3kg of wool per sheep
needed for the record to go ahead.
The men’s target is one of the few unclaimed shearing records, and the attempt is the first of at least five plans over
the next few weeks.
The shearing starts at 7am, with four two-hour runs, separated by half-hour breaks for morning and afternoon smoko and
an hour for lunch. It will finish at 5pm.
ENDS