THE WOOL CLIP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1276, 25 July 1914, Page 4

THE WOOL CLIP.

ANNUAL, REVIEW FOR PAST

SEASON

We have received a copy of Dalgety’s Annual Wool Review for Australasia, which contains an exhaustive summary of everything relating to the past season’s clip and the marketing of same. The publication is in its sixteenth year of issue, and deals comprehensively not only with the past clip, but also with many branches of the industry connected with wool. The number of sheep estimated to have been shorn was 109,692,264 head, including lambs, which produced 7.87 lbs. per head (including lambs), as against 7 lbs. for the previous season. A splendid average monetary return of 6s 4d per head was realised, the total wealth produced by the flocks in wool alone being 6 3The oversea exports of wool, plus quantity retained in the Commonwealth and New Zealand for manufacturing purposes, give a total of 2,639,280 bales, which makes the clip slightly bigger than the record one of the season 191 X-12.

Sheepmasters of Australasia are congratulated upon the wonderful result achieved of providing 2,639,280 bales of wool for export and local consumption from 109,692,264 sheep and lambs, which give a return of ylb. 1402, per head, including lambs, an infinitely better result than has ever before been secured either in this or any other country. Although the average value of the 1,968,578 bales which were disposed of in Australasia was 8s 2d per bale less than the previous season, calculated on a clean scoured basis, wool values were really higher during the past year than they were in 1912-13, the difference being due to the much heavier condition of the wool grown during the past season. As the average per bale, which works out at 4s nd, is nearly 30s per bale greater than was obtained for the record clip of 191 i-X2, the past clip has been a record one as regards the allimportant point of monetary returns. The total value of all the wool sold in Australia and New Zealand during the statistical year just ended, viz,, 1,968,578 bales, amounts to an excellent result as compared with ten years ago, when 837,497 bales were sold for The second highest amount of money received for the wool clip sold in Australasia was which was obtained in the 1909-10 season- The increase in the value of the wool clip sold in Australasia in ten years amounts to no less than 160 per centThe past clip was composed of 69 per cent, merino and 31 per cent, crossbred. That of 1911-12 was represented by 72 per cent, merino and 28 per cent, crossbred, and the clip of 1910-11 by 74 per cent, merino and 26 per cent, crossbred.

As was forecasted in last year’s Annual Review, the clip proved to be an exceptionally well grown, bulky and generally useful one, but owing principally to the abundance of feed which was available to the flocks, during the time the wool was growing, the fibre of the wool was much broader in quality, and more liberally nourished with yolk than the starved clip of the previous year. It was only natural that there would be a substantial increase in wool production, but few can have thought the export would have been as large as it has proved, due entirely to the exceptionally bulky fleeces which the sheep grew.

With regard to prospects Dalgety -and Co. say : Given a fair average of seasons, the outlook for the pastoral industry in Australia and New Zealand was never so good as it Is at the present tithe. The world’s demand for the primary products of these countries has unquestionably overtaken supplies, with the result that prices now stand at a very remunerative all-round level of values, from which over a period of years there is not likely to be any recession.