New Shearing Record Holder Has Been Stacking Up The Numbers Since The Age Iof Seven

Australian shearer Ethan Harder has set the pace for a new World records season by adding 20 to a merino lambs record set less than a year ago.

From Bruce rock in inland West Australia,Harder put together the experience of more than a decade of shearing tallies achievement and coming short in a ewes shearing record bid at the age of 20 in February 2020 to shearer 624 lambs in eight hours yesterday at Woolakabin, about 160km southeast of Perth.

He was always ahead of the target of 604, the record shorn by New Zealand-born Australia-based Koen Black in West Australia last October, and had to overcome a knee injury over the last hour, completing the day from the 7.30am start with successive two-hour runs of 160, 156, 153 and 155.

It was done under the rules of the World Sheep Shearing Records Society overseen four judges convened by New Zealander Johnny Fraser and assisted by Australian jusges Mike Henderson, Ralph Blue and David Brooker.

At the wool-weigh before the judges on Sunday, 20 sample sheep from the flock were shorn at an average 1.062kg of wool per lamb, just edging over the minimum required for the record attempt to go ahead. Thus, more than 660kg of finewool was shorn during the day.

Observer and shearer Rocky Wegner, who spoke with Harder afterwards and said the outstanding feature apart from the obsession of Harders was the teamwork combining family, including brother Gage, and friends and workmates, who included woolhandler Janelle Hauiti, originally from Ohai, in Southland, and Elton Hokianga, from Hawke’s Bay.

Also big parts of the team were parents Suzie and Boof, present throughout in the woolshed throughout a day in which supporters and spectators grew to over 150 people.

Harder has been a goal-setter in the woolshed since he first picked-up a handpiece. He shore 100 lambs in a day for the first time at the age of 7, 200 at the age of 12, 300 at the age of 14, 400 at the age of 16, 500 at the age of 17, 600 at the age of 18 and 700 at the age of 19.

His record is one of eight notified to the records society for the 2023-2024 year, the first, in the UK last month, having missed a World record but having primarily targeted British records.

The seven others currently scheduled will all be in New Zealand, from December 15 to February 9, five of them targeting women’s records.

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