Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Shearing: Te Huia in record attempt

By Doug Laing
Hawkes Bay Today·
15 Jan, 2015 02:59 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Stacey Te Huia will make another attempt on Hawke's Bay shearer Rodney Sutton's world record of 721 for strongwool ewes next week. Photo / File

Stacey Te Huia will make another attempt on Hawke's Bay shearer Rodney Sutton's world record of 721 for strongwool ewes next week. Photo / File

Like most sports, it will be a game of numbers when Te Kuiti shearer Stacey Te Huia tackles the ultimate shearing record next Thursday - Hawke's Bay shearer Rodney Sutton's 721 strongwool ewes in nine hours set eight years ago.

The record attempt, originally set for Waitara Station, north of Te Pohue, but now taking place at Te Hape, east of Bennydale, starts at 5am, and comprises five runs separated by meal and smoko breaks. The runs are 5am-7am, 8am-9.45am, 10.15am-midday, 1pm-2.45pm and 3.15pm-5pm.

Sutton's record at Mangapehi, between Bennydale and Te Kuiti, on January 31, 2007, started with 158 in the first run of two hours to breakfast, and was followed by successive 1hr 45min runs of 140, 142, 140, and 141.

The suspense was there all day. The now South Island-based Sutton securing the record only when he made the record-breaking catch from the pen just four seconds before the chief judge called time.

The previous record of 720 held by Southland shearer Darin Ford had been unchallenged since it was set in a shed near Tuatapere on January 28, 1997, starting with an imposing 161 before breakfast, still a record for any two-hour run in a ewes record attempt.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Te Huia will have to average more than 80 ewes an hour. While the required rate is a sheep every 44.875 seconds, that does not take into account the catching time of about five seconds per sheep, and the regular gear maintenance - a change of cutter about every 15 minutes, taking 10-15 seconds, and quick zaps on the juice, mean the average shearing time will be under 38 seconds a sheep.

There have been four successful bids over 700, the first being on February 23, 1994, when King Country shearer David Fagan shore 702 at Brunel Peaks, Southland.

Te Huia, based mainly in Bathurst, NSW, first tackled a record when he was 20 in 1999, and currently holds two of the World Sheep Shearing Record Society's records.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He set the eight-hour record with a tally of 603 shorn at Moketenui, Bennydale, on December 22, 2010, with tallies of 146, 152, 153 and 152, over the four two-hour runs of that day, an average of a sheep every 47.761 seconds

Along with Sam Welch, of Waikaretu, he also shares a two-stand nine-hours record of 1341, shorn at Te Hape three years ago on January 17, 2012, when he shore a then personal best of 674, with run tallies of 149, 133, 131, 133, and 134.

Just over a year later, he made a first attempt on Sutton's record, but little went right from the start on the day and, with just 149 in the first run again, the target was never going to be seriously challenged. Hopes of a record were abandoned after the fourth run and the judges withdrew, but Te Huia shore on for a new personal best of 703.

Te Huia's fitness levels established in the shed, on the roads, in the gym and in the pool and the ocean will be put to good use again soon. He returns to Australia next month and tackles a finewool record on the merinos around Dubbo, NSW.

Discover more

Dry spell moves record attempt

22 Dec 12:30 AM

Fire rips through woolshed, trees blaze

05 Jan 07:11 PM

Paewai bounces back for record

08 Jan 07:00 AM

Ferguson back in form with a triple

21 Jan 04:00 PM
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Why Hawke's Bay households will pay more for water by 2026

09 Jun 02:22 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Napier man named as Canterbury river victim

09 Jun 12:36 AM
Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

2.2 million gone: Sheep numbers almost half what they once were in Hawke's Bay

08 Jun 06:00 PM

Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Why Hawke's Bay households will pay more for water by 2026

Why Hawke's Bay households will pay more for water by 2026

09 Jun 02:22 AM

Separate water bills will replace current rates bills.

Napier man named as Canterbury river victim

Napier man named as Canterbury river victim

09 Jun 12:36 AM
Premium
2.2 million gone: Sheep numbers almost half what they once were in Hawke's Bay

2.2 million gone: Sheep numbers almost half what they once were in Hawke's Bay

08 Jun 06:00 PM
Catherine Wedd: Govt invests in learning support, promises aid for students in need

Catherine Wedd: Govt invests in learning support, promises aid for students in need

08 Jun 05:00 PM
Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
sponsored

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP