Top shearers will hone their skills at Omarama today, as a lead-in to the New Zealand merino shears at Alexandra on October 3 and 4.
The Waitaki Mackenzie Merino Shears was reinstated last year and is now the first competition on the season's calendar of shearing events in New Zealand.
President Greg Stuart, of Tara Hills, said on Thursday last year's re-launch of the event, formerly the Omarama Shears, had re-established the competition and this year more shearers were attending.
"Most of them use it as a lead-in to the New Zealand competition at Alexandra the following weekend," he said.
There are about 40 entries for the shearing events and between 40 to 45 for the woolhandling.
The shearing entries include James Fagan, of Te Kuiti, who is returning to defend his open machine shears title.
Other top machine shearers include Nathan Stratford, of Invercargill, and Tony Coster, of Rakaia.
One of the top entries in the open blade is Billy Michelle, who recently competed in the world championships.
The shearing heats start at 9am today at the Tara Hills woolshed.
The heats will be followed by the finals from about 1pm.
Wool handling heats are being held at Omarama Station at 9am while the finals will be held at Tara Hills.
