Scot set new solo women’s nine-hour shearing record

Female sheep shearer Una Cameron from St Boswells in the Scottish Borders has set a new world record for a solo woman operating in a fixed nine-hour shift.

Starting at 5am at Matt and Pip Smith’s Trefranck Farm in Launceston, Cornwall on Wednesday (7 August), the 51-year old managed to defleece a total of 517 Romney ewes in the allotted time.

This eclipsed the previous record of 458 sheep, set by New Zealander Sacha Bond earlier this year.

Prior to that, the record had stood at 452 sheep in nine hours, set by Kiwi Kerri-Jo Te Huia at the inaugural event in 2018.

See also: Step-by-step guide to best sheep-shearing technique

Ms Cameron had got off to a flying start, having her second sheep on the board in under a minute.

Progress was slowed slightly by the cooler weather, making the ewes more tricky to shear. But by the time the opening run of two hours was finished, Ms Cameron had 113 fleeces on the counter.

This was followed by four successive 1hr 45min runs of 105, 101, 104 and 94 fleeces, each weighing a required 3kg or more.

The target of 458 fleeces was reached at 4pm, leaving another hour for Ms Cameron, who had been in training for the past year, to press on to a new “solo women’s nine hour strong wool ewe” record of 517.

“I had a wonderful team behind me and they believed that I could do it,” said an exhausted Ms Cameron, who also claimed a new British record. 

“I was focused on passing the 458 mark, but always wanted to shear 500. I can’t thank everyone enough, especially Matt and Pip Smith, who hosted the event.”

This was the sixth world sheep shearing record event the Smiths have hosted at their sheep and deer property in north Cornwall.