Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the veteran Scottish sheep shearer who beat a world record

A veteran Scottish shearer who is the only woman to qualify in the top 30 at the Golden Shears in Masterton has shattered a world record set by New Zealander Sacha Bond just six months ago.

Shearing at Trefranck Farm in Cornwall, 51-year-old Una Cameron was chasing Bond’s solo women’s nine-hour strong wool ewes record of 458 and finished at 4am today (New Zealand time), with a new record of 517.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, well, Jamie McKay, obviously as the host of the country.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hey Jamie, Hello, woke cousin, Heather. I was listening to
you between four and five. I didn't realize you were
woke congratulating.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
No, nor did I, nor did many of us. But anyway,
we're going to take that one. We're going to roll
with it because that's something to show off, isn't it. Hey,
And wonder you can be too, Jamie. The milk price
is looking a little better, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, it is. We may not have enough natural gas
and electricity to run our dairy factories, Heather. But look,
the milk futures price is looking pretty good for the
twenty four to twenty five season, the one we've just
started on. It's currently sitting at eight dollars sixty one.
After that good GDT auction Wednesday morning, our time. The
volumes are up big time for whole milk powder up

(00:43):
sixty percent, so we got rid of those. There's going
to be increased volumes in September. China came in and
played a more dominant role. If they continue that and
we can get through this peak production hump, things are
looking pretty positive for twenty four to twenty five. So
this season, the one we've just finished twenty three twenty
four looks pretty much locked and loaded for Fonterra at

(01:05):
about seven dollars eighty The futures market's it's got it
at seven eighty seven. Interestingly, twenty five twenty six, Yes,
they do go out a year and a bit is
sitting at eight fifty five. It's also worth looking back
twelve months to mid August twenty twenty three, whole milk
crashed eleven percent, and at that stage we were looking
at a six dollars seventy five milk price, Sojeries certainly

(01:26):
turned a corner.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Oh thank goodness. Now have we had our own record,
like the world record and sharing set by New Zealander
smashed by a.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Scott Yeah, yeah, And this is a great story. A
veteran Scottish shearer who's incidentally the only woman who's qualified
in the top thirty at the Golden Shares in Masterton.
She shattered a world record set by one of our guns,
because we've got a couple of guns here in this country.
Sasha Bond held the nine hour record, Meghan Whitehead the

(01:55):
eight hour one. So this woman by the name of
Una Cameron. I hope I've got a name right, fifty
one year old Heather. That's older than you. That's way
older than you. So she smashed the existing nine hour
strong WALLU record of four hundred and fifty eight. She
sure five hundred and seventeen sheep and nine hours. And
I know you go to the gym, Heather, and I
know you fit. But there's no way you could drag

(02:17):
out five hundred and seventeen sheep and nine hours, let
alone share them. Geez.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
But I mean, Jamie, the difference between like, let's say,
four hundred and sixty and five hundred and twenty is massive.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, it is. And that's where it becomes a wee
tricky because all these records are now or it looks
like they're almost all being set in the UK. The
sheep are easier sharing over there. They do have to
have a minimum wall requirement for the U sharing record
of three kilograms per sheep, but they're just easier sharing. Incidentally,
there's sort of a very collegial attitude to sharing because

(02:51):
in her corner was a former world record holder from
New Zealand here by the name of Amy Silcock, who
was helping out the back of the pens. The sheep
were shorn at a property run by a guy by
the name of Matt Smith. He's also a world record
holder and he's the brother, wait for it, of our
world championsharer Roland Smith. So yep world record to a

(03:14):
fifty one year old. I might even have a crareck myself, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Thanks very much, Jamie Mackay, host to the Country.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
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