Thargomindah hosts shearing shindig speed shear titles | Photos

More than 100 shearers from across the state and from as far away as Germany and New Zealand gathered to battle it out in the annual speed shear competition.

Judges assessed each competitors time to shear a lamb as well as accuracy with all three of the open, intermediate and women's competitions going down to the wire.

New Zealand native Tuhoe Lingman took out the open competition and the $8500 cash prize for shearing a lamb in 25.11 seconds ahead of second-placed Imran Sullivan, who recorded a time of 27.60 seconds.

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Australian Wool Innovation shearing and wool handling trainer Trevor Bacon said the event had something for everyone.

"The community got behind it and there was a lot of different activities like pig races and things like that going on throughout the day," Mr Bacon said.

"I'd never actually seen Tuhoe in action before so it was really good to see him put on such a strong performance.

"To be honest, the quality of the competition was really high and I think anyone of the entrants could have walked away with the win.

"The judges are quite critical of not just the time but also the quality of the cut, so the competitors know they really need to be on their game because any of their opponents could knock them off on any given day, which I think adds a lot of interest to the competition."

The intermediate and women's competitions also delivered blistering times with Shane Bingley and Ema Makere both taking home first place trophies

"It's amazing the amount of women who have wanted to become shearers and competitions like this give them a really good platform to do that," Mr Bacon said.

"There is a lot of really talented female shearers out there at the moment and it's great to see them come out to events like this and really put on a show.

"Who knows, seeing them compete may inspire some young girls to give it a go themselves."

Saturday's competition came off the back of a hotly contested speed shear event in Wagga Wagga earlier in the month and was one of two events held across the weekend, with the other being hosted in Nyngan.

"A lot of these guys and girls come from interstate and follow the circuit around because there is pretty good money in it these days," Mr Bacon said.

"For example, Ethan Carter competed in Thargomindah before travelling down and winning the other speed shear event in Nyngan.

"He comes from Western Australia and he is one of several shearers that will make the trip over to compete in a handful of these events.

"It adds a really good dynamic to these events, which I think the big crowd in Thargomindah really enjoyed."