A DRY season did not hamper wool clip test results for Wandering woolgrower Barry and Jane Edwards last week.
While a relatively low yield percentage was expected in the results from the Australian Wool Testing Authority (AWTA) this season, because of the amount of dust in the wool from a lack of rain and a late autumn shearing, Mr Edwards was surprised at how sound his wool tested.
Visiting the Western Wool Centre (WWC) last Wednesday with wife Jane to see the clip sold, Mr Edwards said he had expected a relatively high staple mid-break percentage in the test results because of the dry season.
He has been hand feeding his down-sized flock, which now totals just under 2000 head, for most of this year due to the season and expected some signs of this to show in the wool test results.
“I’m surprised at how sound the clip was,” Mr Edwards said after the sale.
“With the season we’ve had I thought it (wool) would have had a break in it but I was surprised – that’s probably (due to) all the hay I fed out.
“We’ve fed a lot of hay out and a bit of oats.
“I had plenty of hay to start with, but not now, I’ve fed it all out,” he said.
“I’m putting a bit of a crop in again this year – just oats for feed to keep the costs down.”
Mr Edwards, who has been working with sheep “for quite a few years now” since he was 16, accepted his average clip yield of 54 per cent was part and parcel of shearing late in a dry season.
“I shear this time of year (May) all the time now,” he said.
“I changed my shearing to late autumn when I changed (shearing) contractors.”
While dusty wool was the downside of late autumn shearing, it was easier to book a contractor for a straight run through the flock at this time of year before shearing teams dispersed for winter holidays, he said.
Meanwhile, good rains over the previous weekend had already started to settle the dust problem.
“We had 40 millimetres of rain over the weekend which is good, it’s started to green up a bit already,” Mr Edwards said.
If buyers were concerned about the dusty fleece and relatively low average yield figure, it did not show in their bidding and the prices they were prepared to pay for Mr Edwards’ wool.
His 41 bales, which including lines of pieces, bellies and dags, averaged 18.5 micron and 78 millimetre staple length and sold at the WWC last week for an average of 1296 cents a kilogram greasy sweep the floor.
The top line of 16.7 micron fleece sold for 1705c/kg.
“I’m very happy with the prices, they would be the best we’ve ever had,” Mr Edwards said.
While he was in Perth for the day Elders district wool manager, Tim Burgess organised for Mr Edwards and his wife to tour the AWTA laboratory next to the WWC to check out how their clip’s average mid-break, yield and other statistics were measured.
