WA’s best preparing for string of world record shearing attempts in Boyup Brook, Kojonup and Cranbrook

Three world record shearing attempts are set to take place in WA after nearly three years of delays caused by COVID-19 travel restrictions preventing overseas referees attending.

Shearer Koen Black will attempt the eight-hour Merino lamb record at Boyup Brook on October 26.

This will be followed by top-gun speed shearer and world record holder Lou Brown, along with his brother Jim and cousin Imran Sullivan, making a three-stand attempt on the eight-hour Merino lamb record at Cranbrook on November 5.

On November 12, Floyde Neil will attempt the eight-hour crossbred lamb record in Kojonup.

All three attempts will be guided by the New Zealand-based World Shearing Records Society, which ensures all record attempts are scrupulously fair to past and present shearers and the sheep they shear.

The referees for each attempt will include one New Zealand representative and three to four Australians.

The solo eight-hour Merino lamb record that Black will be going for will also be in the sights of the Brown brothers and Sullivan as they try to double up on both solo and the three-stand records.

The current solo record holder for Merino lambs is Dwayne Black, who shore 570 lambs at Badgingarra in 2002.

The three-stand world record for Merino lambs was set in 2003 by South Africans Ken Norman, Charles August and Patrick Mulgse shearing 1208 lambs in South Africa.

Lou Brown is the current solo world record holder for Merino ewes after shearing 497 in 2019.

“This will be my first attempt at a lamb world record,” he said.

“The challenge will involve shearing lambs that meet the criteria of having wool weights of at least one kilograms.”

Lou said his team all worked together for shearing contractor Andrew McFarland in Frankland River.

“This record is achievable — I been working on this my whole life, training with past record holders, quitting the bad habits and working on the nutrition side,” he said.

“This record attempt is our lifelong goal for all of us.

“We each have individual goals, but we will be working as a team.”

Lou is 34 and said it would have been good to attempt the record three years ago when he was younger, but he was feeling fit and ready.

Neil was all set to attempt the solo world record for crossbred lambs in 2020 when COVID hit.

“I trained right up until about two weeks out and then my first attempt was cancelled because we couldn’t get the (World Sheep Shearing Records Society) judges into WA,” he said.

Now determined as ever, Neil is fit and ready to take on the world record of 524 crossbred lambs set by Aidan Copp in NSW in 2019.