Darkan grower rides on strong wool clip

Like other sheep farmers, Jeremy King and his father John have had an exceptional season.

It was topped off on Thursday last week when their clip sold for an average of 1149 cents a kilogram greasy at the Western Wool Centre (WWC).

“When you can average $11.49 sweep the floor, you know it’s a good season,” said Jeremy King, who came up to Perth for the day to watch his clip sold.

“The best we’ve ever done before is just over $11 a kilogram in 2011-12 and $10.96 way back in 1989.

“We came close (to $11/kg clip average) again in 2010-11 but the price for pieces then was nowhere near what we are getting now.”

A top line of 16.5 micron Rangeview pieces sold for 1317c/kg greasy last Thursday, putting its value at 2039c/kg clean and, at that price, better than the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) price guide for 18.5 fleece wool at the close of trade.

Rangeview fleece lines sold to a top of 1401c/kg for good specification 18.7 micron wool.

Lines of 18.5 and 18.8 micron wool sold for 1393 and 1382c/kg.

Better fleece lines were above 40Nkt in strength and the average yield was 67.1 per cent with a low 1.8pc vegetable matter.

An early March shearing of 12,500 sheep produced 170 bales which sold – with the exception of a fleece line, a pieces line and a small locks line which were passed in.

The Kings have just started putting feed out again to maintain flock condition after shearing.

And seasonal conditions with sheep on green feed right through produced almost a third more wool per sheep for them this season than last.

Mr King said his average cut per sheep was up 30pc to 7.2 kilograms off the Rangeview stud Merino ewes and just over 6.5kg off the commercial flock ewes.

While his wool retained its well-defined crimp, he said staple lengths were also about 10pc longer than usual – ranging on fleece lines from 89 millimetres out to 101mm and 105mm.

“We normally aim for 85 to 90mm, so some of it (wool) was getting a bit long because of the season and there was probably a small discount because of that,” Mr King said.

“But the extra length is just part of getting more wool off them, so it’s a trade off.

“With the prices for wool, I’d rather have the extra wool because it’s worth more to me than the discount I lose for over length.”

But the point of difference between the Rangeview clip this season and many other woolgrowers’ clips – they all cut more wool and longer wool – was the Rangeview Merino fleece remained true to type and its micron fibre diameter increased only slightly.

“I was a bit worried we were going to go up a micron,” Mr King said.

“But as it turned out we only went up 0.4 of a micron – the clip average was 18.9 micron.”

AWEX price guides indicate the financial benefit of remaining at the finer wool end of the typical WA wool mid-micron range rather than fibre diameter growing out to the broader end.

At the close of trade last week AWEX indicative price for 19 micron wool at the WWC was 1891c/kg clean, up 22c for the day, while the indicative price for 19.5 micron wool was 131c/kg less at 1760c, up 11 cents.

The price step down for 20 micron wool was a further 176c/kg to 1584c, up 3c for the day.

On those prices a 185kg bale of 19 micron clean wool was worth $242 more than a bale of 19.5 micron wool and $568 more than a bale of 20 micron wool of similar style and quality.

Primaries of WA wool broker Sean Gillespie, who handled the Rangeview clip, said the slight increase in micron size was attributable to “good breeding”.

“There are a lot (of farmers) who have got more wool this season but they’ve also gone up a micron or more in achieving that,” Mr Gillespie said.

“This (Rangeview wool) proves it (fibre diameter) is more about genetics than feed.”

Mr King agreed.

“It’s all about choosing a sire that will hold micron size through their life,” Mr King said.

With sheep doing so well, he plans only a basic 350 hectare cropping program for sowing mid-May to provide feed.

“It’ll basically only be standing oats and barley – about 50pc of the program will be a standing crop to feed the lambs and the rest cereals for sheep feed,” he said.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to take land away from sheep for cropping when eight-month-old lambs at Katanning sale yards were bringing $123 last week and they’ve got at least $50 worth of wool on their backs.

“We cut just over $100 worth of wool off our stud ewes and $90 off the rest and we’re hoping prices hold up because we’ve got probably another 60 bales to come between now and August.”

Mr King said he was losing a lease block so planned to shear a further 3500 sheep and lambs on that in spring.

He said because of the exceptional season he had hung onto “some green tag” 2011 drop sheep that he would have “offloaded” in a normal year.

The drive for better wool and higher stocking rates had involved Rangeview’s traditional spring shearing and autumn lambing being reversing six years ago.

It has paid off with a sounder wool clip from autumn shearing and a 10pc better lambing rate in spring, Mr King said.

“The better lambing rate gives us a higher culling rate because we’ve got more options in what we want to keep and what we decide to offload,’’ he said.

“That way we always keep a young flock because it enables us to run higher stocking rates,” he said.