A NEW Zealand-South African partnership has set a new world two-stand shearing record of 970 fine wool Merino lambs in nine hours in South Africa.

New Zealand-born shearer Aidan Copp managed 523 lambs and South African contractor Tienie du Plessis recorded 447 lambs shorn to World Sheep Shearing Records Society Inc standards at Teebus Waters, near Steynsburg, inland Eastern Cape yesterday.

According to Shearing Sports New Zealand media manager Doug Laing, the mammoth effort means Copp, 39, is the first shearer to set world shearing records in three countries.

Mr Laing said it was the first world shearing record attempt in South Africa since 2006 and featured four referees from South Africa and Australia. There was no previous mark for the category, which is one of more than 40 overseen by the World Sheep Shearing Records Society, he reported.

Copp shears mainly in Australia and is based in Yass, New South Wales, but grew up on a lifestyle block at West Melton, near Christchurch, and Tienie du Plessis, 38, comes from Steynsburg, in inland Eastern Cape.

The solo nine hour Merino lamb record is 664, intact for more than 20 years since being shorn by New Zealander Dwayne Black in West Australia in 2004.

Mr Laing said the last world shearing records in South Africa were the solo and two-stand Merino lamb marks set by South African blade shearing pair Samuel Juba and Bangali Joel in Victoria West, Northern Cape Province, in February 2006.

The only other record on the continent was the three stand machine tally of 1208 Merino lambs in eight hours near Tromsburg, about 180km north of Steynsburg, in February 2003, of which 456 were shorn by Ken Norman, who learnt to shear in New Zealand and later settled with his family farming near Pahiatua.

Copp, who has been shearing since the age of 16 and has shorn around the world, including teaching shearing in the Himalayas, is the current holder of an eight hour crossbred lamb record he first set in 2019 with a tally of 524 in NSW and reclaimed with a new tally of 605 two years ago. In New Zealand in 2015, he shore 586 strong wool lambs in a five stand, eight hour record of 2910 in a Southland woolshed that was broken last year.