Some Views On Growing Finer Wool

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31440, 5 August 1967, Page 12

Some Views On Growing Finer Wool

Just as many farmers are at present concerned about what they can do to counter porina caterpillar and grass grub, there is evidence that they are also thinking about the sort of wool they should grow in the light of last season’s market trends and where their clip is in the coarse range they are wondering whether they should move towards production of a finer type of wool. Some are quite definitely set on making some change in this direction.

This week three of Lincoln College’s professors have been asked for their views on this issue. They were asked whether they believed that a move to production of finer wool in a coarse wool flock was justified, and if so what could be done about it In summary it could be said that there is little concrete evidence to go on. Over a period of years the overall return is slightly in favour of coarser wool. Of the future, wool markets are so unpredictable that it is anyone’s guess. One season is not enough to confirm that there is a permanent swing against coarser wools. Any move in the direction of “fining up" must be slow and this could mean that the market has turned in the other direction by the time that any significant progress is made. Crash programmes of fining up can have side effects that can cancel out what advan-

tages are achieved. Over-all, it is doubtful if any action at all is justified, apart from trying to produce the best possible wool, whatever the fineness should be.

Over the last 20 years Professor A. E. Henderson, professor of wool science, said that if the relative prices for wools of different fineness or count or quality number and the relative fleece weights of fine and coarse wool sheep were taken into account, the difference in over-all productivity between the most productive qualities and the least productive qualities would be about 1.5 per cent, incidentally in favour of the coarser qualities. This margin was equivalent to only about one sixth of a pound of greasy wool. At some periods over the 20 years fine wools had given a better return per sheep but at other times the converse had been the case.

It was, therefore, difficult to find any firm ground for forecasting what should be done, and whatever was done the premium was likely to be smaU in any case. Professor Henderson recalled remarks made by the chairman of the Wool Board, Mr J. Acland. These were to the effect that where it was practical for a farmer to run a fine wool breed of sheep it might pay him to explore the possibility of doing so. In support of this was the feeling in the wool industry that there was a definite trend to the use of finer and lighter weight apparel wools. An indication of this might be the freedom of the market for Romney wool of 50s 52s count last season. In the same context, however, the market for heavy serges using Romney wools of 46s 48s counts could be virtually at an end.

It was worth pointing out, said Professor Henderson, that under similar conditions much the same fleece weight was produced by Romney, Corriedale or halfbred sheep. There was, however, a premium in price of about 20 to 25 per cent for 56s over 46s on a clean basis. This had always been the case. This premium was, however, reduced to some degree by the slightly lower yield of Corriedale wool—a 3to 4 per cent lower yield, again on a clean fleece basis.

Professor Henderson said that many people appeared to be determined to make

some move towards finer wool production and one of the main problems was what they should set out to do. They needed to look carefully at their real objectives. Was it that they wanted to make more money from each sheep or did they want to produce wool that had an assured market and was not subject to over-supply? In this context it was worth looking at the sort of wools that did not sell last season. It was the low grade wools in the intermediate crossbred range the 46s 48s. It was these intermediate quality wools in which there had been a very large expansion in production. The question might be asked whether there was a glut of these on the market and whether nationally an attempt should be made to spread the range of production, rather than having a great concentration of production in one category.

These were questions which could not really be answered. Another matter was the situation relating to the production of low grade wools and what was responsible for this. It seemed that one of the factors in this was the move to very late or midsummer shearing in the wool selling centres where the Wool Commission had had to buy most wool last season. Invercargill could be quoted as an example of this. “I think Canterbury has got off lighter than anybody as far as this is concerned,** said Professor Henderson.

The reason why late shearing made this wool so unattractive was that coarse wools were rather sensitive to changes in appearance with hard winter conditions which might be associated with lack of feed, bad weather or heavy stocking. With December-January shearing any break and cotting was in the middle of the staple which, from the point of view of processing, was the worst possible place for it to be. Also by shearing at this stage a great deal of wool became yellow or discoloured. This staining was worse if the wool was already cotted. When wool was shorn at this time it meant that it was shorn through the thickest part of the fibre so that it had a very thick tip from the previous December-January shearing and also a very thick butt from the current shearing. Consequently it seemed coarse, wiry and harsh. Professor Henderson said that the first thing that all farmers should do was to grow attractive high grade wool whatever the ,/ fineness of it This, could be the lesson from last season's market when there was a sale fer virtually all of the better grade wools. This could be taken to show that at a time when there was a poor demand there was a market for better wools.

After referring to the small margin between returns from fine and coarser wool over a 20 year period, Professor Henderson said that this led to the question whether much emphasis should be put on making any change, taking into account the lengthy involved exercise that would be required. There was certainly no need for any panic. Any breeding or selection aimed at the production of finer Romney wool needed to be proceeded with with care, because a crash programme could lead to the introduction of practices which were quite likely to cancel out any gains through having a finer wool dip. Such disadvantages could result from the retention of unproductive fine wool sheep just because they were fine wool and the use of mediocre quality rams for a similar reason.

Some people were going to change their flocks, mostly by fairly drastic corrective mating, such as the use of extra fine Romney rams over ewes of, say, 44s 46s count wool. There was a great deal of experience which showed that the progeny of these sheep would have wool with a fineness intermediate between the parents and with a spread of fineness in the group very

similar to that found in a group bred like to like. Provided normal culling rates were used there was no barm in adopting this rather radical breeding procedure, but it was unlikely that this sort of culling would be practised in a crash programme. It would, of course, be a number of years before the average wool quality of the flock would be raised. “There is not much to go on,” commented Professor L E. Coop, professor of animal science at the college. “I have not seen the evidence that would enable me to predict, with any what one should do.

“With so much buying by the Wool Commission last season we have not got the true market value for different quality numbers and grades of wool and there is no guarantee that when woool is again sold freely the differentials will be the same as those used by the Wool Commission. This means that we would be unwise to make any radical change until the whole position is clarified, and there is no guarantee that the factors which are knocking strong Romney wool in 1967 will not be doing the same to fine Romney in 1970. “Farmers believe that over the last few years it has paid to go for the stronger wool because of the increased weight, since there has been little discount on the stronger type of wool. If the discount is likely to be considerable and permanent, then there is bound to be a movement towards finer wool and such a move would be quite realistic, and it probably also calls for a reassessment of the relationship between fleece weight and quality number. For example, in a flock which I am studying the increase in weight with declining quality number is considerably less than expected, which means that one could move towards a finer wool type without much sacrifice in weight in such a flock. Intention “Anyone, myself included, who tries to predict what is going to happen has a 50 per cent chance of being wrong, and in full knowledge of this what is being done in the flock already mentioned is to move towards a finer wool type in the major part of the flock while retaining a portion of the flock whose quality number will be held about where it has been in the past. This is, of course, a stud flock and the action contemplated will mean that there will be rams of the two types. This gives a little more flexibility and enables one to move faster if, and when, the time comes to move faster." Professor J. D. Stewart, professor of farm management at the college, said that farmers were certainly thinking about the question of growing finer wool and some had, in discussing it with him, suggested the possibility of, for example, putting a Merino ram over Romney ewes. It was the most radical course that had been suggested and was one that animal scientists would say could lead to all sorts of problems. While this might achieve the objective as far as wool was concerned, there could be problems with the progeny with the characteristics of the Merino being strongly inherited and this could mean that surplus stock would be penalised. He suspected that people who had not long started with Border Leicester Corriedales might not be putting the Border ram out next year. A decision did not have to be made till next mating season on this and by that time there would be the indications of another wool selling season as to whether the move against strong crossbred wool was going to become permanent.

There was no doubt that the Border cross would lose some of its economic advantage, and may be all of it, if the ratio of fine wool to strong wool prices widened stil further.

As a general principle, Professor Stewart said that to try to chase short term fluctuations in the market was poor management There was always a danger of never catching up. “I personally would want to be confident that what we have seen this last season does represent a permanent structural change in the market and I would not base this on one season’s selling. “I do not think that people should panic on one season’s selling, particularly if they have developed their country and strong wool sheep are the most suitable for it, and certainly if they go too fine on some country they will run into problems that they had in the past, such as foot troubles.”