TOP sheep shearers Matt Rowlands and James Lewis are bidding to set a new world record this weekend.
The pair are coming together to take on the task of shearing 3, 000 Romney lambs at Hall End Farm in Much Marcle in one 24 hour period.
Matt, from Holme Lacey and James from Newent are both experienced sheep shearers and have both completed “tours of duty” shearing sheep in New Zealand where they sheared thousands of sheep. .
The shearing event takes place at Hall End Farm on Saturday August 24 - Sunday August 25.
The Guinness World Records reveal the world record for shearing sheep in a 24-hour sheep- shearing marathon was Alan MacDonald and Keith Wilson who machine-sheared 2,220 sheep at Warkworth, Auckland Province, New Zealand on 26 June 1988.
Another sheep related record is the most wool sheared from a sheep in a single shearing is 41.10 kg (90 lb 9.76 oz) from Chris, an errant overgrown sheep rescued by animal charity RSPCA ACT (Australia) and sheared by national shearing champion Ian Elkins in Weston Creek, Australian Capital Territory, on September 3 2015.
The fastest time to shear a single mature sheep is 37.90 seconds by Ivan Scott (Ireland) in Castlepollard, County Westmeath, Ireland on 4 April 2010.
Matt and James will be trying their very best to set a new record this weekend.
But that is not everything going on at Hall End Farm. There is a whole load of fun activities taking place at the farm.
The Saturday evening will have a raffle, auction and home produced BBQ lamb.
The Sunday afternoon has children’s games, tombola, raffle and lots more.
The last sheep are shorn at 4pm on Sunday.
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