Shearing Them Around: 11 Shearing Records In 2024

A record year of World sheep shearing records has ended with Australian shearer Nicki Guttler’s breaking of a new mark that had been in place just 35 days.

Guttler, who was third in a women’s event at the Golden Shears in Masterton in March, shore 450 merino lambs in eight hours on Saturday at Parkdale Merino Stud, near Dubbo, New South Wales – the 11th successful record bid in 2024.

It put 55 on top of the mark of 395 shorn by fellow Australian shearer Nikki Lyons in establishing a record for the category on November 16, also in NSW.

It is one of 42 men’s and women’s records, from solo to eight-stands, currently recognised by the World Sheep Shearing Records society and shorn in New Zealand, Australia, England and South Africa on different classes of adult sheep and lambs in the standard work days of eight or nine hours.

Two of the records set in 2024 were broken later in the year, and Guttler’s 450 is one of 11 records in the solo eight-hours category, including a men’s merino lambs record of 624 set in West Australia in September 2023.

Starting at 6am, an hour earlier than most eight-hour record attempts, to avoid some of the worst of temperatures soaring to the high 30s later in the day, Guttler started with her best run of the day - 116 in the two hours to the morning break at 8am. She followed with runs of 112, 112 and 110 through to the end at 4pm.

In her record five weeks earlier Lyons had runs of 97, 98, 102 and 98, falling five short of a goal to shear 400 or more.

Guttler has harboured the dream of a World shearing record for several years, but it hasn’t stopped her keeping-up appearances on the competition scene, in which she she was 23rd of 54 on the less-familiar strongwool ewes of the Golden Shears nine months ago..

Having been working for contractors Prime Shearing and Abraham Shearing in Wairarapa, where the Golden Shears have been held annually for more than 60 years, Guttler was second of just four women in the event.

It included beating former New Zealand lower-grades No 1-ranked shearer Laura Bradley, who later won the women’s event.

After a succession of wins this season, Bradley is on the verge of becoming the first woman to reach Open class based on competition results. Shearers can also be upgraded on the basis of best tallies in the woolshed.

Guttler first shore in New Zealand in June 2019, for New Zealand merino shearing legend and former World record holder and national circuit champion Dion Morrell, based out of Lawrence, in Otago.

The following March she “ducked over” for the Golden shears in 2020, doing a pre-Shears school focusing on competition shearing and finished 14th in the Intermediate class.

During her two months in New Zealand earlier this years she was sixth in the Senior final at Shearing Sports New Zealand A-grade show the Rangitikei Shearing Sports, in Marton, while in Australia she won the 2023 NSW Senior title and represented the state at the Australian national championships.

In the Open class he has recently finished second at the Cowra show, third at Walbundrie, and fourth at Culcairn.

After a busy 2024, just one record attempt is currently on the records society books, being Rotorua shearer Jamie Skiffingon’s attempt on the ultimate goal, the men’s solo nine-hours strongwool lambs record of 872, held by now Hastings-based English shearer Stuart Connor in Cornwall four years ago.

Skiffington will make the attempt at Waewaepa, south of Dannevirke, on January 20.

Successful World sheep shearing records in 2024:

January 7: Solo women’s eight-hours strongwool ewes, 386, Amy Silcock, at Ross Na Clonagh, Pahiatua, NZ.

January 10: Solo women’s eight-hours strongwool ewes, 465, Catherine Mullooly, at Nukuhakari Station, King Country, NZ.

January 14: Five-stands men’s strongwool lambs: 3236 (Trevor Holland 701, Trent Hewes 651, Max Winders 650, Ben Boyle 630, Josef Winders 604), at Campbell’s Block, Hokonui Hills, Gore, NZ, January 14, 2024.

January 19: Three-stands men’s eight-hours strongwool ewes, 1745 (Hemi Braddick 599, Flynn Harvey 581, Ray Kinsman 565), at Pohuetai Station, Dannevirke..

February 9: Solo women’s nine-hours strongwool ewes, 458, Sacha Bond, at Centre Hill Station, Mossburn, NZ.

April 12: Solo men’s eight-hours merino ewes, 500, Luke Vernon, at Thornton Park Grazing, Hastings, West Australia.

May 4: Solo men’s eight-hours merino ewes (women), 358, Jeanine Kimm, at Daleith, Cassilis, NSW, May 4, 2024.

August 3: Solo men’s eight-hours strongwool lambs, 764, Nick Greaves, at Amerton Meadows Farm, Staffordshire, England.

August 7: Solo women’s nine-hours strongwool ewes, 517, Una Cameron, at Trefranck Farm, Cornwall, England.

November 16: Solo women’s eight-hours merino lambs, 395, Nikki Lyons, at Marilba’ Bowning, NSW.

December 21: Solo women’s eight-hours merino lambs, 450, Nicky Guttler, at Parkvale Merino Stud, Dubbo, NSW.

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