Colin (35), Charlie (34), Kevin (25), Shaun (23), and Jockie (21) O'Neill joined forces at Jim Hore's Stonehenge merino stud at Patearoa, having offered their shearing services at a fund-raising auction to help their sister's hockey team compete at the national championships in Auckland in late September.
Mr Hore said he had never heard of five brothers all working together in one shearing shed at the same time before.
"It must be some sort of a record, I would think," he said.
Yesterday's assignment - the brothers shore 500 merino wethers - had its beginnings when their sister Atiria Cooney (27) was selected to play for the Central Otago women's hockey team (they eventually finished fifth) and needed to raise money to help pay for the Auckland trip.
Brother Colin had come up with the idea of auctioning the quintet's shearing services to the highest bidder.
"It was a way the family could get in behind her to support her," Colin said.
Mr Hore and shearing contractor Peter Lyon, who employs the brothers in different gangs, made the successful bid of $2600.
"Quite a few of the hockey teams' families are our clients and we thought it only fit that we should contribute a little bit to a good cause," Mr Lyon said.
The cost of shearing 500 merino wethers was usually about $2500, he said.
All the brothers are well known in shearing circles.
Charlie has shorn in Europe and Colin and Kevin recently returned from a shearing stint in Wyoming.
