MUCH VARIATION IN WOOL ENTRY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 9

MUCH VARIATION IN WOOL ENTRY

Beginning next Friday with the second sale of the season, Christchurch will have a one-day wool sale every month until April. Preliminary reports on next week’s offering indicate that wools are highly variable —varying virtually from farm to farm on the ability of individual farmers to feed their sheep. Where the feeding has been reasonably good wools are reasonably well grown and on a par with a normal season as far as weight is concerned, but perhaps not generally so attractive on account of dust. But where feed supplies have been tighter fleece weights are below a normal season and possibly even below last year’s not very good results. One spokesman for a wool selling firm estimated that on drought-affected properties clips were running fib below last year and up to fib in the worst cases. These are properties where stock numbers have not been reduced and are frequently agricultural properties carrying fairly high stock numbers. By contrast there seems almost universal agreement that it has been a better season for wool on hill country. One spokesman . said that shearers had commented on bow good these sheep bad been to shear and some blade

men had recorded tallies in excess of 200 a day. While there are not a lot of super wools in the selection there are a few good early shorn halfbreds. There is some Merino from Marlborough and also from Canterbury. It is described as clean and lacking in crusty back. There are fewer woolly hoggets, according to one observer, again due to the increase in shearing of lambs, but some well-grown hogget wools are included. Wools generally are carrying less colour and stain, but there is some evidence of straw and hay contamination after winter feeding. Some growers have removed this frojn their dips, but many have not. Oddments, are certainly showing less mud, but on the other hand from some areas they are carrying a little seed and some dust. Wools are drawn mainly from Mid and North Canterbury and Marlborough. There is only a small weight of second-shear from the West Coast. The order of sale is:— National Mortgage and Agency Company, Ltd. Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd., Dalgety and New Zealand Loan, Ltd., and the New Zealand Farmers’ Cooperative Association.