The wool auctions returned to Sydney Royal Show this week, for the first time since before COVID-19, lending an air of positivity to what has been a steady, if lacklustre market of late.
Any glimmer of price rise the week before last was quashed the following sale with the Eastern Market Indicator falling 15 cents a kilogram to 1152c/kg. Prices dropped a further 5c/kg on Tuesday to 1147c/kg.
However the pass-in rate remains low at only five per cent (3pc for the northern region) pointing to an industry willing to take the value on offer, rather than stockpile for another time. Indeed, AWEX forecasting does not predict any sustained price fall or wild change in the dollar.
"I think wool growers have a pragmatic approach to pricing," said Ben Litchfield, southern NSW wool manager for Schute Bell Badgery Lumby. "As long as growers see value they will take advantage of prices on offer."
Gulargambone wool producer John Rae is using the current price plateau to re-assess a family's century-old legacy in the natural fibre.
Mustering on his dry country, yarding the Merino sheep, shearing and drenching them, comes to a cost of about $70 a head.
"Put it this way," he explains. "It takes 30 fleeces to fill a bale and at that rate costs $2000. Currently I'm getting $1400 a bale. We need our wool (20 to 21 micron) to be at 1500c/kg just to break even."
For Ben Hosking, manager of Ross, Bundarra - part of the Tullatula Partnership - the marketing of wool starts in the paddocks. He will continue to focus on a fine Merino program, producing 17-micron wool for the European market.
"My job is to keep the sheep clean and healthy," he said. "We shear every eight months as we chase that perfect length. But we'll sell the wool in dribs and drabs; it depends on the cut."
Ultra fine wool producers David and Angie Waters, Hillgrove via Armidale, recently were awarded their fifth Ermenegildo Zegna trophy with a bale of 14.9 micron that measured 92.10 out of 100.
The couple will continue to focus on their program, which shied away from the big heavy cutting types to breed for the European market.
"We didn't ignore what others in the industry were doing but we kept focus on what we do," Mr Waters said.
At Deepwater, a flock of commercial Merino sheep at Oakhurst run on a property that prides itself on enterprise diversity, including Angus beef, cropping for feed, and homestays. Not all is riding on the sheep's back.
"You have got to diversify," advises Robyn Johnston, who manages the property with her husband Steve to produce 17-micron wool from their flock. They also breed Border Leicester rams.
"You've got to think outside the box and have a go."
