Four New Zealand shearers have made a strong start in their bid to establish a new world record.
They are out to register a four-stand, eight-hour lamb shearing record in Southland.
Golden Shears and current New Zealand open champion John Kirkpatrick is part of the team, along with fellow Hawke's Bay shearer James Mack and Southland shearers Leon Samuels and Eru Weeds.
The record-setting bid is happening at Centre Hill near Mossburn.
By the halfway stage they had shorn 1273 sheep before stopping for lunch on Tuesday and are aiming for a tally of at least 2700 by the time they knock of at 5pm.
It is the second of three world record shearing events in February.
Last week in Hawke's Bay, three shearers led by former world champion Cam Ferguson comfortably broke the the world three-stand record of 1784 lambs set by King Country shearers 14 years ago, ending with a tally of 2061 lambs.
However, their achievement won't make it to the record books, because the judges ruled that the sheep used in the event didn't all meet the specifications.
In the third attempt next week, King Country shearer Stacey Te Huia will tackle the ultimate target - the nine-hour ewe shearing record of 721, set by Hawke's Bay's Rodney Sutton in 2007.
