It may have stood for 16 years but on Wednesday a world shearing record fell, in front of a frenzied crowd, packed into a King Country woolshed near Benneydale.

In a long day's work, Stacey Te Huia from Te Kuiti, and Sam Welch of Waikaretu,  beat the longstanding, two-stand, nine-hour, ewe-shearing record, set by Southlanders Darin Forde and Wayne Ingram in 1996.

There were just six ewes in it, the previous record of 1335 topped by a combined tally of 1341 ewes.

Stacey Te Huia was credited with 674 sheep and Sam Welch, 667. Only two sheep were rejected.

Towards the end of the competition Stacey Te Huia was said to be flying, fleecing ewes in as little as 30 seconds each.