SHEARING brothers Louis and Jim Brown, with cousin Imran Sullivan, on Saturday shattered the previous world three-stand, eight-hour Merino lamb shearing record by a massive 395 lambs.
Louis Brown, 34, Jim Brown, 38 and Imran Sullivan, 32, raised the world three-stand Merino lamb shearing benchmark to 1603 in the Pech family's shearing shed at Wansborough near Tambellup, part of their North Stirling Downs wool, prime lamb and cropping operation producing about 12,000 medium wool Merino lambs a year.
The previous record of 1208 Merino lambs had stood for 19 years.
It was set in South Africa by Ken Norman, Charles August and Patrick Malgase with respective individual totals of 456, 377 and 375 Merino lambs.
But on Saturday that previous record was dispatched to history within the opening two minutes of the fourth and final two-hour run by Louis, Jim and Imran.
From there on it was simply a matter of pride for the three, who have been shearing together for Andrew McFarlane at Frankland River Shearing Services, and how far they wanted to stretch the record.
Cheered on by a crowd of about 60 family, friends and shearing industry acquaintances, the trio continued to push hard, with Imran finishing with his best run of the day of 142 lambs and Louis knocking out one more for his second best run of the day at 143.
Louis, who also holds the world eight-hour Merino ewe shearing record at 497 and became the first shearer to average less than a minute per sheep in setting that in 2019, set the pace for the day.
His run tallies were 135 lambs first run, 133 second run, 144 third run and 143 for an eight-hour total of 555 lambs.
His total was matched by his cousin, who grew up on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, where his father is a shearing contractor - both the Brown and Sullivan families come from around Napier on New Zealand's north island.
The two sheared lamb-for-lamb in the first run, then Imran pushed ahead of Louis in the second run with 137, but came back to him with 141 in the third and 142 in the final run.
As the 'senior' team member Jim shore 133 lambs in the first run and 126 in the second, but the pressure of keeping pace with the two younger shearers started to tell after the one-hour lunch break, with his tallies slipping to 120 for the third run and 114 for the final run with the record already smashed.
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But all three shearers maintained their rhythm and pushed as hard as they could right to the end, each changing cutters on their 10-minute schedule within the last few minutes and grabbing another sheep each with less than 30 seconds remaining.
Louis on the centre stand finished his last sheep first, stood up, stretched his back, then walked back to hug his second Cartwright Terry and pen team members.
Then he returned to the board to be first to congratulate Imran as he straightened after shoving his last sheep down the chute.
Louis then walked across to Jim who had also finished and was being congratulated by his second Michael James 'MJ' Terry and his pen team.
The three had plenty of shearing record experience on their teams advising them, with brothers Cartwright and MJ Terry still holding the world two-stand Merino ewes shearing record of 924 set in 2003 and Imran's second Kelvin Walker from New Zealand breaking the two-stand strong wool ewe shearing record in 2017.
Judges who watched each lamb being shorn and confirmed the world record were Ronnie King, convenor, from New Zealand, Mike Henderson, Dongara, Grant Borchardt and Dave Grant, both from Queensland, and Ralph Blue, New South Wales.
They knocked back two of the lambs shorn by Louis but Imran and Jim went clear.
The eight-hour individual tallies of 555 lambs by Louis and Imran fell short of the new world eight-hour Merino lamb shearing record set nine days earlier by Keon 'Kojak' Black, 26, who broke his older brother Dwayne's 20-year-old record when he shore 604 lambs.
Resting up Monday before returning to work on Tuesday, Louis revealed the three were "very proud" of their achievement and had concentrated on smashing the three-stand record rather than chasing individual glory.
"I sort of felt responsible for the other two because it (record attempt) was my idea in the first place, so I thought I might have to try to look after them a bit (with the pace)," he said.
"But Imran was right with me all day, he pushed hard.
"Jim was with us in the first run but something went wrong with his preparation in the morning before the start, he basically took too many magnesium tablets and his team kept giving them to him during the day and that affected his last three runs."
Shearers take magnesium tablets to boost energy and minimise muscle cramps, but an overdose can have an unfortunate side effect of producing the type of 'runs' a shearer does not want when racing the clock.
The new record holders had celebrated with their families - the Brown brothers and their partners each have two children and their parents have long been resident in Australia and attended and Imran's parents flew over from Kangaroo Island - and their teams at the Cranbrook Hotel on Saturday night.
"It was a full house, there was a lot of family," Louis said.
On Sunday they went back to the shearing shed to help with the clean up.
"None of us really wanted to bend down to pick anything up off the floor yesterday," he said.
Louis said it had been both Imran's and Jim's first attempt at a shearing record.
He also thanked Ray Sharp who ground cutters during the day for the three who changed them out every 10 minutes for the eight hours.
"Ray's done the cutters for all my record attempts, he's a wizard when it comes to sharpening," he said.
With two current world shearing records with his name on them, Louis revealed he might have his eye on a third.
"There's one my team are already looking at it, but I just want to enjoy this one first," he said.
Wayne Pech, North Stirling Downs, said the world record attempt was "two years in the making" and the logistics involved "have been substantial".
"This event would not have been possible without various sectors of agriculture coming together - the shearing industry, suppliers and North Stirling Downs staff - I feel privileged having Lou, Jim and Imran and their support staff on our property showcasing the industry," Mr Pech said.
"Shearing is the most physical, technical and repetitive profession in the world.
"Until there's a better alternative agriculture must do everything it can to support the shearing industry," he said.
On Saturday Shear Pride shearing contractor Floyde Neil, 29, Boyup Brook, will attempt to set a new eight-hour crossbred lamb shearing record at Slab Hut Grazing, Algar Road, Kojonup.
The current record of 524 was set by Aidan Copp in NSW three years ago.
