New South Wales shearer Nikki Lyons has set a women’s world record by shearing 395 merino lambs in eight hours.
In a shearing shed in Bowning near Yass, in southern NSW, surrounded by dozens of supporters, locals and judges, Ms Lyons managed a running average of 72.3 seconds per lamb.
The 37-year-old is the first woman globally to set a record for shearing merino lambs, and only the second Australian woman to set any shearing record, after Jeanine Kimm claimed the class for most merino ewes in eight hours earlier this year.
Dozens of people packed the shearing shed to watch history in the making. (Supplied: Camilla Duffy )
A dream 20 years in the making
Ms Lyons started shearing at the age of 17 after learning the basics while attending an agricultural college in Western Australia.
She decided to spend a gap year shearing before going to university, but fell in love with the industry, and instead spent the next six years travelling around Australia cutting fleece.
Ms Lyons shore 395 lambs in eight hours, making her average 72.3 seconds per lamb. (Supplied: Camilla Duffy)
“I really enjoy the physical challenge, I like moving my body. I could never do an office job,” she said.
“I enjoy the people I work with. You’re always meeting new people and, regardless of your circumstances, you always seem to find a laugh.
“It’s a different class of people that seem to congregate in the shearing sheds.”
Setting down roots at Good Hope near Yass where she met her husband, Ms Lyons then spent 10 years away from the clippers as a busy mum raising her four children.
When borders closed during the pandemic and there was a shortage of shearers, Ms Lyons headed back into the shearing shed during school hours.
“It’s not until I left [shearing] and I was at home for 10 years with my kids, that I realised, ‘This is me, this is who I am’,” she said.
Dwayne Black became Ms Lyons’s coach after first inspiring her 20 years earlier. (Supplied: Camilla Duffy)
That’s when she decided to go for the world record and “see what she was capable of under pressure”.
“I decided that this was something I’ve always wanted to do; it was now or never,” she recalled.
The desire to chase a record began 20 years earlier, when she heard of shearer Dwayne Black setting records in WA, and how there were no female merino world records.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, it would be amazing to set one of those one day, or even attempt one’,” she said.
“I never lost hope of wanting to do that.”
Fittingly, Mr Black became her shearing coach for the record attempt and was alongside her all the way.
Extensive training and preparation
Preparations for the record attempt started 18 months ago, with Ms Lyons working with a personal trainer, nutritionist, mindset coach and shearing trainer to ensure she was at her peak, both physically and mentally.
“It’s just as much mental as it is physical, so that’s why it was important to work on my mind,” Ms Lyons said.
“It’s a hard job, so there’s that quitting factor. When the day gets hard, you can’t just be like, ‘I’m done with this today, I’ll call it an early day’. You’ve got to keep going.
“Sheep are not always easy to shear, they have different personalities, different body shapes, require different gear, there’s definitely an art to it.”
A victorious Nikki Lyons with her family and support crew. (Supplied: Camilla Duffy )
Up at 4am six days a week to do her strength, cardio and mobility training, Ms Lyons was determined to ensure her body — including her arthritic knees — had the strength needed to shear hundreds of sheep in one day.
“It’s definitely been a very big team effort. By the time you get up there, you’re not just representing yourself, you’re representing an entire team,” she said.
Setting a record in a ‘dying art’
Strict rules — overseen by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society — must be followed during a record attempt. (Supplied: Camilla Duffy)
Shearing records are classed based on sheep type, an eight or nine hour work day, and gender.
Ms Lyons’s 8hr merino lamb record attempt mirrored a standard shearing work day consisting of four 2hr-runs with breaks in between.
Records are completed through the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, an organisational body that oversees all record attempts to ensure the strict rules and guidelines are adhered to.
“The idea is so that for anyone attempting a world record, it is fair and consistent,” Ms Lyons said.
Nikki Lyons is awarded the women’s 8hr merino lambs record. (Supplied: Camilla Duffy)
Four referees were in the shed on Sunday to scrutinise Ms Lyons’s record attempt and award her the women’s solo 8hr merino lamb title.
Ms Lyons now joins fellow Aussie shearer Jeanine Kimm, New Zealanders Catherine Mullooly and Sacha Bond, and Scotland’s Una Cameron in the current record books.
Looking back over her time in the industry, Ms Lyons said she realised how lucky she was to be given a chance as a young female shearer 20 years ago.
“It is still very much a male dominated industry, especially on the shearing side of things, but there are more and more women taking it up, and they’re very good at it,” she said.
She said her record attempt was a way to give back to the industry that had given her so much.
“Shearing is becoming a dying art; more and more farmers are getting out of sheep,” she said.
“I hope that my record can give some publicity to Australian wool, in particular merino, and hopefully get more people wearing wool.”
