Shear dedication gets Duncan tallies 626 lambs

Marlborough shearer Duncan Higgins’s hard work and training over the past few months has paid off as he successfully topped his personal best.

Duncan, alongside a strong support team helping him throughout the day for the marathon effort at the Schollum’s Howard Valley farm.

Aiming to join an exclusive club of shearing more than 500 lambs in one day, Duncan managed an impressive 626 lambs.

On his Wednesday 15 January tally day, Duncan dug deep to set an even higher standard than he believed he could do going into the day.

With the tally day shearing requiring a combination of speed and tidiness, Duncan had shorn 155 animals after the first run, 310 by lunchtime, and 469 before an afternoon break before finishing on 626.

“I really just took it run by run, and I asked the timekeeper just to give me an idea of how I was going at the end of each run and then set a high tempo to start,” Duncan explains.

“After the first run, sitting at 155 and then doing the same for run two I was feeling in a really good position especially because I didn’t have the pressure of having to play catchup and actually had a buffer of a few animals if I needed it.”

As the day went on, the physical test of the tally day started to kick in for Duncan who started feeling the burn in the legs and thighs while getting in to run three.

“Run three became physically taxing, because the body’s getting tired, but you have to stay active and adaptable to deal with the sheep individually.

“Around the end of run three and through run four you’re just emptying the tank,” Duncan recalls.

He says that’s where having the support crew really helped kick in with motivating words, hydration and assistance helping move the sheep into pens to make Duncan’s final run smoother.

“It was a massive help having the support behind me, whether it was my trainer Matt Luxton on the leadup from the UK or the team on hand on the day- I wouldn’t have done nearly as well without their support.”

“We enjoyed a few well-earned beers afterward, and I had the next day off so that gave me a good chance to relax the sore legs.

“But honestly, I could have worked it if I had to.”