Saturday afternoon saw a trio of New Zealand-born shearers take the world merino lamb shearing record title, in a record-breaking attempt two years in the making.
Brothers Lou and Jim Brown, alongside cousin Imran Sullivan hit the clippers at 7:30am for a long eight hours of shearing with a few breaks in-between.
The men smashed the previous record of 1,208 lambs shorn set in 2003, with their total of 1,603 lambs to become the new three-stand eight-hour merino lamb shearing record holders.
About 10 litres of water each and a couple of handfuls of jellybeans served as fuel in the lead up to an emotional finish.
This was the second shearing world record set in Southern WA for the fortnight, with Koen Black breaking the single eight-hour merino lamb shearing record on October 27.
The raw emotion
"It's always been in the back of the mind to do something like this, and this record was up for grabs … everyone's come from far and wide, people I ain't seen in ages, so it's pretty cool," Imran Sullivan said.
"I didn't think it'd be that mentally tough, but it is because it's just different. It's not like shearing every day at work," he said.
There was a lot of support behind the men on the day, with Jim saying it was friends and family that got him over the line.
"They saw how hard I was doing it, and they would egg me on. I hit a wall," he said.
"[I was] thinking of everyone, what they had done for me, family, just respect, couldn't let anyone down."
Hundreds of kilograms of wool were collected, while music pumped in motivation.
"You just take it as it comes and just keep going, keep digging," Lou said.
For him, the aftermath was surreal.
"It hasn't really sunk in … it's sort of just numb all over," he said.
Plenty of prep
The trio travelled to Cranbrook for the big day, where Wayne Pech agreed to host the event at his shearing shed, supplying his lambs.
Mr Pech said the record attempt was about two years in the making, but due to COVID travel restrictions for judges it had been delayed.
"I think it's a really great initiative to have Lou, Jim and Imran approach me for this record attempt and to be able to showcase a lot of the good aspects of the sheep industry," Mr Pech said.
Mr Pech had to prepare enough lambs for the men, keep the livestock well fed and in good condition.
"It's amazing, the help from my staff, and the help from other people in the shearing industry, the amount of work that's been involved in preparing the sheep," he said.
"It's just great to see all all aspects of the sheep and agriculture industry come together, and have some great shearers that want to want to have a crack at this record attempt."
The support team
Although the shearers are working the hardest, there is a whole team on the floor and behind the scenes to keep the flow.
Among the crew was rouseabout Maisie McFarlane from Frankland River Shearing Services.
Her role was to collect and sort the wool that was clipped from the sheep.
"I was actually honoured to be a part of the whole record," she said.
She said the wool was coming off quite clean, which made her job easier.
"It's amazing how quick and efficient they can be. We have hardly any skin coming out, which is awesome."
"I don't know how they're doing it but they're pumping way harder than I've seen ever, so pretty proud of the way they're actually working," Ms McFarlane said.
Shearing record rules
To qualify, each sheep had to produce a kilogram of wool after shorn.
Sheep were disqualified from the count for sloppy shearing, such as leaving open wounds.
One of the official judges for the day, Ronnie King, said not many lambs were discounted overall.
"These guys do know that when they're doing it, what the standard should be, and they try to keep within that realm," he said.
