Business & Rural
11 October, 2025
Dry sheep pull full house at Speed Shear
IT WAS all about the local shearing talent over the weekend at the St Arnaud Show.
IT WAS all about the local shearing talent over the weekend at the St Arnaud Show.
On a day the local farmers would have possibly preferred an inch of rain - the weather gods decided to have a perfect day of about 30 degrees.
With perfect weather, the Sports Shear organisers had no trouble getting dry sheep this year - as has been a problem in previous years.
With a full house of entries across all the shearing sections and a large turn out in the wool handling, the day promised to be a great demonstration of the shearing and wool handling industry.
With local shearers in three of the four sections there was great reason for the St Arnaud community to get behind some local talent.
The first section being the Novice shearing, local shearer William Deason took to the boards and was one of four competitors.
When it come to the end of the day when the prizes were awarded, Mr Deason was at the top of the table and was the winner of a donated $1300 hand piece to add to his kit.
The intermediate section saw yet another local with Nigel ”Nudge” Greenaway representing the local area. This division was a large group with 11 competitors in total and the top four qualifying for the final.
Mr Greenaway entered the final in third position, needing to improve his score by eight points to top the group in the final. He did that and then some, improving his score by 17 points and winning from second place by seven points.
With the success of the previous two sections, the senior section also had a local shearer – Ben Lloyd representing Stuart Mill.
As in the previous section there was eleven competitors.
After shearing his three sheep in the heats, Mr Lloyd was positioned second in the top four and heading into the finals for his chance to join the other two local winners.
The four finalists in this group only had three and a half points between first and fourth so it was to be a tightly contested final.
Mr Lloyd was eventually the winner with a score of 74.95. Lachy O’Shannessy finished second with a score of 79.95.
The open section is always a great spectacle, where the top shearers in the industry vie for the first prize of $1000.
Open shearers were to shear six sheep with the eventual winner shearing his six sheep in 13 minutes 30 seconds. The competition was tight for the minor placings, with 3.5 points separating second and fourth.
But Sam Mackrill was the winner, with a score of 65.48, a massive 15.00 in front of second placegetter Glen Stephens.
In the open wool handling, Kirsty Bone won narrowly over Anne Maree Kahukura.
Holly Bryne and Anna Lowe placed first and second in the senior wool handling with Holly winning clearly by six and a half points. And in the novice wool handlers there was 0.73 points that separated first and second with Ally Tamblyn taking first and Kasey Griffiths second.
The St Arnaud Sports Shear committee was able to have two hand pieces to use as prizes.
James Murphy in the Open Section, was the lucky recipient.
Read More: St Arnaud