Justin Bell (left) monitors the time and target as he helps Simon Goss break the record. Photo: Supplied/Ariana Aspinall
Another long-standing world record in sheep-shearing has tumbled in a Central North Island woolshed.
The duo of Simon Goss and Jamie Skiffington have shorn a combined 1410 strongwool lambs in eight hours, to break the record of 1406 set 20 years ago by another New Zealand pair, Justin Bell and Sean Edmonds.
They worked from 7am until 5pm yesterday, with breaks only for a morning and afternoon smoko, and lunch.
The record attempt was held in a historic woolshed at a Mangamahu Valley property in The Shades, north of Whanganui.
Simon Goss, 26, and Jamie Skiffington, 32, have shorn 715 and 695 lambs, respectively.
Record-breaking shearer Simon Goss (left) and Jamie Skiffington with the evidence of their triumph on Wednesday. Photo: Supplied/SSNZ
Each had one fleece rejected by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society judges in attendance, headed by the Scottish official Andy Rankin.
Rankin said it was a significant achievement as the previously held record was very tough to beat.
"It's been an absolute privilege to be here to watch these guys go through hell to achieve it," he said.
Shearing Sports New Zealand spokesperson Doug Laing said with wet weather having dominated the region, as evidenced by the multiple cleared slips on Mangamahu Road and the erosion in the surrounding hills, 1660 lambs were penned undercover overnight.
It was possibly the biggest day in the history of the Mangamahu woolshed, understood to have been built a century ago and extended in the 1950s, he said.
A bit of professional advice as Simon Goss' record-breaking progress is watched by sister, women's rugby star and former shearer Sarah Hirini. Photo: Supplied/Ariana Aspinall
Goss' attempt doubled as a fundraiser for the Heart Foundation, in memory of his mother, woolhandling champion Ronnie Goss, who died of a heart attack at a shearing contest she was competing in during 2021.
It was the third world record shorn in Aotearoa in 15 days, after teenager Reuben Alabaster cracked the decade-old solo benchmark with 746 strongwool lambs in late December, only to see that felled by Te Kuiti gun Jack Fagan with 754 lambs, just two days later.
Four more world shearing record attempts were currently scheduled to take place in New Zealand and Australia over the next eight weeks.
