The world record for the most number of sheep shorn in a day stands at 731, held by a shearer from New Zealand, but a 17-year-old Western Australian has cracked a personal milestone by shearing 500 sheep in one day.

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Bruce Rock's Ethan Harder first mowed through 200 sheep when he was 13, and by 16 had upped the ante to 400.

So when Ethan told his father Paul on Saturday he was aiming for 500, there was little doubt he would at least have a good crack.

"He's had his sights on this for a while," Mr Harder said.

"So when he told me he wanted to do it, I asked the farmer to set aside 505 sheep because he was that keen, I thought he might have wanted a couple extra just in case."

Day fuelled by base of pasta

Fuelled by a solid breakfast of pasta, Ethan sheared 133 sheep in the first two hours and a further 134 after a short break.

Like most good shearers, Ethan refuelled with a couple of steaks before working his way through the final 233 by 5.10pm.

"Technically he still had 20 minutes left in the working day," Mr Harder said.

"He had all the shearing team egging him on throughout the day, but to be honest I knew he had it in the bag after the first run."

While he was aware of his son's intention, Mr Harder said Ethan had not wanted an official judge monitoring proceedings.

"He just wanted to do this for himself," Mr Harder said.

"But having said that, he's said he wants to have a go at 600 next year, so you can bet I'll be getting a judge in for that."

World record smashed in UK by Kiwi

Mr Harder said Ethan had honed his craft, which he picked up aged six, with a stint shearing in New Zealand last year.

Often the butt of sheep-related jokes, a New Zealand shearer again broke the world record with an amazing 731 sheep shorn in nine hours at a televised event in England.

Matt Smith achieved the feat by shearing a sheep every 44.9 seconds, breaking the previous record of 721 held by fellow Kiwi Rodney Sutton since 2007.

Like Ethan, Mr Smith had already set a high standard at a young age, shearing 578 in 2010 aged 17.