37-year-old Nikki Lyons from Yass is about to attempt a world shearing record.
“I learnt to shear at an Ag School in Western Australia in Year 12. From there I left school and went to AWI shear-ing school and I further learnt to improve those skills that I had learnt at school. From there I got my first stand and away I went.
“You pretty much keep practicing what you know and add on bits of information as it comes to you.
“There’s definitely a lot to learn very quickly. “I started shearing when I was 17, it was my first job when I left school. I shore for six years and then I stopped for ten and raised a family.
“When my son was two I decided to go back shearing and he came along with me.
“I came back during Covid and because the borders were shut, both international and state, shearers couldn’t travel, so there was work for me and that’s how I managed to get back into the game after hav-ing ten years off.
“We moved to Goodhope 13 years ago. We have about 100 acres and we have a White Suffolk stud there called “The Rocks”.
Nikki’s husband Fergus is also a shearer.
“We have four children, three girls and a boy, ranging in ages from 12, 10, 9 and 6.”
The family manages their busy lifestyle, chasing the fleeces around the countryside. Nikki’s age and her ability spurred her on to try and complete the record.
“When I was learning to shear I was shearing and there were people setting records and at that time it was only the men and it was mentioned to me that there were no women records here in Australia and I remember thinking that would be amazing to one day be able to set or even challenge or attempt a record and even ten years off having kids that dream just never went away and then when I came back shearing I thought it was now or never as I’m not getting any younger.”
Nikki has been conditioning her body through her regular work but also through a strict training regime.
“I have been training with a personal trainer and he is based in the UK and we catch up via Zoom calls and he puts all of my workouts onto an app so I can access them.
“I get up at 4am in the morning and get those workouts done and then go to work and shear for eight hours and get home and be a mum again.”
Nikki said that there are a lot of variables in setting the record and she will have an ‘army’ of volunteers there to support her on the day with the number that she may reach quite unknown.
“It’s one of those things, it’s so hard to plan. I really won’t know what I will be on for until next week when we do some sprints on lambs and get my gear and what the projected tally could be for the day.
“Even on some of your best day’s tallies you look at it and think oh gosh I had a massive catching pen, imagine what I could have done if the catching pen was smaller and I didn’t have to walk so far to catch the sheep all the time.
“There are so many variables and that’s why when it comes to a world record they take as many of those variables out as possible.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a female in Western Australia that goes to challenge my record they will still be under the same rules.”
The attempt will be held at Andrew Shannon’s property “Marilba” at Conroy’s Gap just out of Yass and Nikki said spectators are welcome to attend.
“We have a massive team of people that you need to get the job done on the day. It’s micro managed. You have one person doing your gear, another person does your hydration, another person flicks the counter. All these things that you would normally do for yourself are all managed on the day.
“I’m a little bit nervous now as I’ve never attempted anything like this before and at the same time I’m also really excited to see what I can do.
“I definitely don’t take it for granted that I’m in the position of being able to attempt the world record. It’s taken a lot of effort and I think it’s a privileged position to be in.
The attempt will be on Saturday, November 16, starting at 7:30am in the morning and finish at 5:30pm in the afternoon.
Nikki is being well supported by Jeanine Kimm (31) who set the record for Merino Ewes by shearing 358, making her average 80.8 seconds per ewe.
“She’s a good friend of mine and she will be there. I’m now in line to set the Merino lamb record.
“She is taking the week off before to help me prepare. She is amazing.”
Good Luck Nikki!
