Amy Silcock has fallen short in her attempt on the women’s eight-hour strongwool ewe world record.
The Tiraumea shearer started the day at Ross Na Clonagh, near Pahiatua, needing an average of almost 93 sheep in each of the four two-hour runs to beat the record of 370 set in England last August.
But she was consistently behind the target, with runs of 87, 84 and 87 before finishing with 90 in the last two hours to the 5pm finish with 348 for the day.
It was a day on which little went her way on the big sheep, after a sample shorn for a pre-attempt wool-weigh on Thursday averaged 4.084kg of wool a head, well above the minimum requirement of 3kg.
World Sheep Shearing Record Society judges praised her for making the attempt and the tenacity in continuing when the target was out of reach.
Silcock, who is already in the books as a member of a four-stand women’s record-breaking crew, vows to learn from the experience and have another attempt in the future.
Meanwhile, Australia-based South Island shearer Aidan Copp is set for a Saturday attempt on a crossbred lambs record in Tasmania.
Record bid judging convenor Paul Harris, of North Canterbury, said the lambs shorn in a Friday-afternoon wool-weigh averaged 1.047kg of wool each, comfortably above the required 0.9kg.
Starting at 7.30am Tasmania time, Copp is targeting the eight-hour crossbred lambs record which has been in place just over two months, since Floyd Neil, from Taumarunui, shore 527 near his base in West Australia on November 13.
