The 2022-2023 shearing sports season has had its second cancellation with confirmation that a shortage of suitable sheep in Bay of Plenty has ended hopes of staging the Rotorua A and P Show's annual shearing and woolhandling championships next Sunday.

But there's still expected to be a championships in 2023, with the show society having set on a first Saturday of December date for the future shows at its Ngongotaha showgrounds.

With competition gathering pace throughout the country, with six competitions over the weekend just gone attracting a total pf more than 250 shearers and woolhandlers nationwide, there will still be two competitions next weekend, with the Taihape shearing and woolhandling championships in the central North.

Rotorua Show society president Heather Brake, who successfully fought hard to make sure the show's shears happened last year, getting sheep trucked-in from more than 100km away as three-quarters of the competitions elsewhere were cancelled amid the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on public gatherings, says the farmer who had offered the sheep this season has decided that as a result of the weather of the last few months, they will no longer be suitable for competition.

Attempts to source other sheep have been unsuccessful and the decision was made that the Rotorua events could no longer take place without suitable sheep.

The only other show cancelled this year was the Manawatu A and P Show shearing and woolhandling championships, normally held in Feilding on the first Saturday of November.

There are hopes of reviving the event next season.

Shearing Sports New Zealand chairman Sir David Fagan says that after some trepidation about how some shows would fare following 2-3 years of Covid-19 cancellations, the 2022-2023 season has started "incredibly positively".

Entries at the competitions, with a third of the season's calendar of almost 60 already held, were mainly up on pre-Covid levels, as highlighted by the numbers competing at the weekend.

"There's also big interest in selection for the World Championships in Scotland this year, and a lot of people winning finals," he says.

"It's an exciting time."