IN the run up to autumn shearing, WA's main wool harvesting season, the number of wool bales tested in February declined six per cent compared to February last year.
According to Australian Wool Testing Authority (AWTA) statistics, WA was the only State last month where the volume of wool tests declined, down from 40,117 bales in February 2020 to 37,724.
In Australia's second biggest wool producing State, New South Wales, where more wool is usually shorn and tested in spring than in autumn, bales tests increased 41.9pc last month, jumping from 32,765 in February 2020 to 46,488 last month, according to AWTA.
In the main wool producing State, Victoria, bales test numbers last month increased by 14.2pc year on year - from 58,492 to 66,779 - and in South Australia, which is the next biggest wool producer after WA, bale test numbers increased 26.6pc last month compared to the previous February.
In February last year NSW, SA and northern Victoria were recovering from a period of extended drought and many farms were not carrying their usual sheep numbers.
In the two months prior to February last year and since then, an estimated two million sheep have left WA on trucks heading east.
That exodus has a double impact on AWTA's statistics, with those sheep no longer shorn and providing wool for testing in WA and some of them and their progeny now supplementing the wool harvest and testing data in NSW, SA and Victoria.
In the eight months so far this wool season, AWTA has tested 216,643 bales in WA, 32,806 fewer than it did in the same period last season - a decline of 13.2pc, the second biggest decline in wool testing nationally.
Queensland, which has produced and tested 21,760 bales so far this season, is the only State with a bigger decline - 14.1pc.
In NSW and SA so far this season bale test numbers are almost on par with the same period last season, with 306,040 tested in NSW and 122,729 tested in SA.
In Victoria the decline so far this season is 5.4pc to 400,700 bales tested.
AWTA data for February and the season so far shows WA wool continues to be the finest and shortest, with least strength and yield, of the wools from major producer States.
The average WA wool so far this season is 19.2 microns compared to the national average of 20.8 microns, has a staple length of 87.3 millimetres compared to the national average of 89.4mm, has a staple strength of 30.5N/kt compared to 34N/kt and has yielded 62.2pc compared to 64.4pc nationally.
Better conditions so far this season in both NSW and SA has seen the average wool yields in those States come from behind WA last season to overtake it this season.
According to AWTA, the percentage of the WA wool clip measured as Superfine at 19.5 micron or less remains at 68.2pc, about the same as for the same period last season.
But the percentage of Superfine wool in the national clip has eased back 4.8pc so far this season to be just on half of it.
p Having led prices to 12-month highs over the past four weeks, finer micron wools led prices back down again last week at the Western Wool Centre (WWC).
Leading the way down both days was 18.5 micron fleece with its price guide shedding 68c for the week to finish at 1691 cents per kilogram clean.
Next was the 18 micron wools guide which lost 65c to finish at 1843c/kg.
The 19 micron guide came back 45c for the week to 1605c/kg but the remaining broader micron price guides - which had not gained as much in the first place - only eased between 6c and 24c for the week.
The Western Indicator, as a guide to the strength of the local market, eased 12c, the same as the Melbourne and Sydney indicators, to finish last week at 1360c/kg, 101c above the Melbourne indicator - where an extra trading day last week produced further losses - but trailing Sydney by 20c.
Speculation last week among wool brokers trading at the WWC was that buyers, who have been spending up big on specialty lots of Superfine wools, had finally run out of money.
The number of lots passed in at auction last week suggests the brokers' speculation might be right.
On the first day of trading the WWC's overall passed-in rate on a large 5954-lot offering was 27.8 per cent and a specialty lot of 14 micron wool with test results of 77 millimetre staple length, 40N/kt staple strength and an incredible 79.6pc yield, was passed in at 2720c/kg greasy - equivalent to 3417c/kg clean.
The passed-in rate blew out to 38.1pc on the second day's smaller offering of 4890 bales and bidding for a 14.4 micron, 61mm and 33N/kt fleece with 66.9pc yield top lot ran out of puff at 2150c/kg greasy.
This week the WWC is set to offer 9968 bales over two days, 876 fewer than last week.
But the national offering is set to continue climbing, to 50,535 bales, 397 more than last week, with all of the extra bales being put up at the Melbourne selling centre which will trade for an extra day on its own for the fourth week in a row in an attempt to clear the extra volume.