Megan Whitehead is coming for the record she used to hold.

The Southland shearer will attempt to break the women's world solo nine-hours strongwool lambs shearing record on December 18 at Grant Brothers' 'Tin House' property on Otapiri-Mandeville Road near Gore — the same property where she set her eight-hour solo record just last year.

She is targeting 720 lambs, the mark set by Sacha Bond at Centrehill near Mossburn on December 19, 2023 — a record shorn just five days after Whitehead herself posted 686 at the same Gore property to claim the eight-hour solo title. That is a phenomenal number by any measure.

World Sheep Shearing Records Society secretary Paul Harris confirmed an application has been received for the attempt. Harris has taken on the role from long-serving Hugh McCarroll.

Only four women have ever held the nine-hour record, and all four marks were set in New Zealand. Jills Angus Burney started it all near Bennydale in the King Country in January 1989 with 541. Emily Welch pushed it to 648 at Waikaretu near Port Waikato in November 2007. Then Whitehead took it herself — shearing 661 at Craigellachie, Croydon Bush, on January 14, 2021, as part of a two-stand record of 1283 alongside cousin Hannah McColl. Bond then surpassed her two years later.

Whitehead also holds a share of the women's four-stand nine-hours record of 2066, shorn near Turangi in January 2020, where she personally contributed 608.

The nine-hour format runs from 5am to 5pm, with three hours of scheduled breaks — one two-hour run and four runs of one hour 45 minutes each. It is a long, grinding day, and 720 is a target that demands close to one lamb every 45 seconds across the working time.

The attempt is just under six months away. Southland has produced every holder of this record. Whitehead will be hoping to keep it that way.

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