Wool Board holds preparation seminar

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 14, 1 September 1987, Page 11

Wool Board holds preparation seminar

A Wool Board Seminar was held in Taumarunui recently with over 120 farmers attending. At the meeting Wool Board production officer John Hutchinson advised farmers to look carefully at their clip preparation methods. Recent trials carried out throughout the North Island to achieve maximum profit per kilo suggcst that traditional skirting methods were excessive and costing farmers money, Mr Hutchinson said. The trials covered 50 individual clips and all but two proved conclusively that the present wool clip preparations were inadequate and large amounts of the body wool were going into oddments iyIt is important to understand that length and colour are the two factors that have the greatest effect on prices rcceived at salc and are ihe key to good clip preparation, he said. Under normal conditions average cross-bred wools should be preducing between two to three bales of oddments from a main line of 20-30 bales and lambs wool can get as low as one bale of skirting s to 20 bales of body wool. Farmers over emphasise

the price paid for their top line rather than look at the overall price received for their total clip, said Mr Hutchinson. The following chart shows typical trial results comparing skirted and unskirted wools: Colour Length Price Skirted 2.5 103mm 451c Bellies & Pieces 291c Unskiited 3.5 97mm 451c Summarising, Mr Hutchinson emphasised the following points to consider when preparing wool: ★ Blend all the wool and only remove the faults, i.e. poor colour or length. ★ Minimise the percentage of clip traditionally taken out as oddments. ★ To maximise wool returns look at your shearing dates to avoid discolouration and growing of wool to a length of 3-4 inches. Organiser of the Seminar, Murray McEwan, wool production officer with the New Zealand Wool Board, addressed growers on how to make more from their wool clip. Farmers can improve their wool returns by increasing wool weights and secondly by improving the costs per kilo received at sale, said Mr McEwan. He outlined the most effective methods of increasing wool weight, namely - ★ Hogget fleece weigh-

ing, which has a 15% increase in weight per generation. ★ Ewe fleece weighing, which has a 5% increase in total wool weights. ★ Careful selection of rams based on records. Mr McEwan also highlighted the importance of length and colour in shed preparation, but added that shed stain, mixing of different types of cross-bred wools and over skirting, contributed to downgrading of the producers wool. Mr McEwan told the Seminar that the Wool Board had improved liaison with the grower and stressed the importance of finding out the true value of wool by using the Wool Testing Authority services and receiving the "Wool Mark Revue", a free publication produced by the Wool Board for growers and available by writing to the Wool Board, Private Bag, Wellington. A display of wools using the modern techniques of assessing fibre length, fibre diameter, colour, bulk, medulation, lustre and vegetable matter, and addresses by Fred Wallace, scientist with the Wool Testing Authority, Roland Sumner of Whatawhata Research Station and Bruce Binnie of Ru akura contributed to a very successful seminar.