Ohai woolhandler Janelle Hauiti was part of a team assisting Australian shearer Ethan Harder set a world record by shearing 624 merino lambs in eight hours in Western Australia.
He beat the previous record set in October last year by 20 lambs.
The tallies to break the record were four successive two-hour runs of 160, 156, 153 and 155.
Under the rules of the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, the record attempt was overseen by four judges and convened by New Zealander Johnny Fraser.
Days before the record attempt, a sample of 20 sheep in the the flock were shorn and produced an average 1.062kg of wool per lamb, slightly more than the minimum required for the record attempt to proceed.
More than 660kg of finewool was shorn during the record-setting performance.
Observer and shearer Rocky Wegner said an outstanding feature was the team work including brother Gage, and friends and workmates, woolhandler Hauiti among them.
More than 150 people watched the record attempt in the woolshed, he said.
The event was one of eight notified to the society for the 2023-24 year, including seven scheduled in New Zealand between December 15 and February 9, five of them targeting women’s records.
