AFTER three weeks of positive price recovery at auction, the wool market stumbled last week.
It seems the shaky price trends as we head into spring are not over just yet.
The Eastern Market Indicator gave back nearly 100 cents a kilogram and this resulted in it settling on 1511c/kg last Thursday.
Individual micron prices guides at the Northern (Sydney) sales recorded even more severe price slides.
Both 20- and 21-micron wools were back 144c/kg in the past week (hitting 1699c/kg and 1684c/kg respectively), while 16.5-micron wools averaged 1915c/kg which was a drop of 145c/kg.
The 19-micron wools were about 132c/kg cheaper at 1739c/kg.
Australian Wool Exchange market information manager Lionel Plunkett said the large price spike of the previous three weeks encouraged more sellers to the market, resulting in a significant increase in the overall quantity.
He said nationally there was 37,021 bales on offer.
"The sharp drop in price was met with firm seller resistance, this resulted in a national passed in rate of 33.9 per cent, the highest passed in figure since the large losses experienced at the end of August," Mr Plunkett said.
Top notch ALPA Agency Award finalists
SEVEN first-class agency professionals will head to Canberra at the end of next week to compete for the ALPA Agency Award. This year's finalists are:
- Cassandra Baile, AWN, Crookwell
- Rory Birt, Ray White Rural Dorrigo Bellingen, Fernbrook
- Nicholas Malone, Queensland Rural, Charters Towers, Qld
- Tom Rookyard, AuctionsPlus, Potts Point
- Lucas Scales, Landmark Russell, Cobar
- Bo Scoble, Landmark, Cloncurry, Qld
- Kylie Svensson, Burnett Livestock and Realty, Biggenden, Qld
The winner of the award will be announced on October 18 during the ALPA annual general meeting dinner at Rydges Capital Hill, Canberra.
The award was inaugurated in 2005 in memory of Mike Nixon, a well known and respected journalist and livestock commentator for Victorian rural newspaper, Stock and Land.
The award was originally incepted to reward excellence in livestock marketing, but has evolved to encompass all facets of agency marketing - livestock, agronomy, wool, rural property, insurance and merchandise.
Australian Community Media (owners of The Land) are sponsors of the award.
Scone Saleyards changes and upgrades
EXCITING upgrades to the Scone Regional Livestock Selling Centre mean there's a few changes for those who use the site. Site access, curfews, parking, cattle feeding and site inductions have been updated.
Regular users need to redo their site induction.
This can be done online via the Upper Hunter Shire Council web site. Visit www.onlineinduction.com/upperhunter/index.php for more details.
The curfew times have also changes. As all selling pens are now under cover with soft flooring and access to water, the curfew has changed from 9pm to 8pm.
The change in curfew is to ensure all cattle are onsite 12 hours before the sale.
The upgrade were the result of Council contributing a loan of $8.4 million and a $2,827,248 grant from the Australian Government's Building Better Regions Fund, plus a $325,700 grant from the Fixing Country Truck Washes program.
