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World shearing record
9 Oct 2002
Yesterday at Frances, on the eastern border of South Australia, Victorian farmer Trevor Bacon set a new world lamb-shearing record, shearing 471 lambs. He said he'd hoped to get to over 500 but they "struggled a lot", which normally doesn't happen when the shearing shed is held at 40 degrees to make them docile, a common practice. Mr Bacon, a professional shearer from Branxholme, said he's "pretty sore and tired" and will have a few weeks off now. You usually heat them up to slow them down - but that just didn't happen, he said. The lambs were unexpectedly frisky.
Mr Bacon beat the previous record set by Brett Cavanough in 1997 at a New South Wales station: 427 half-bred lambs in eight hours. The new record yesterday was monitored by officials from the World Sheep Shearing Records Committee.
Despite having spent 22 years as a full-time shearer, Mr Bacon trained for five months in the gym preparing for his assault on the world record. Unofficially, his own best record is 707 lambs in eight hours.
Herald Sun, 9/10/02, page 36.
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