WOOL A TIME FOR AUSTRALIA TO YIELD THE MERINO?

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31865, 18 December 1968, Page 18

WOOL A TIME FOR AUSTRALIA TO YIELD THE MERINO?

(Bp

ALAN GOODALL

L tn the “Sydney Morntrig Herald ")

'Reprinted by arrangement.»

Merino sheep, long symbolic of Australian prosperity, and currently earning $6OO million a year in export income, may soon go up for international auction.

So deviously brought to Australia, so jealously kept there, this unique fibre producer now faces the prospect of going to the world’s highest bidder..

Inevitably the question arises: Are we selling our national heritage? While Australia no longer rides on the sheep’s back, are we ready to export the animal that brings the world here seeking our five million golden bales? A majority of the immediately affected, the woolgrowers think so. By a 37 to 16 vote, the Australian Wool Industry Conference recently approved conditionally the lifting of the 39-year-old Merino export embargo. The conference recommended that the Federal Government allow 300 Merino rams a year to be exported, but no ram semen or ewes. Marketing Pact The long-awaited decision l came the same day as the! conference made the even longer-awaited pact on wool | marketing. The current controversy over a non-statutory; I marketing corporation tends | to obscure the wider economic consequences of selling the bloodlines on which the wool industry exists. Before Cabinet decides the issue it must be sure the fragmented wool industry really wants the ban raised. For decades woolmen have been divided. The A.W.I.C. vote is far from overwhelming, and past majority deci-| sions have been upturned by unpredictable producers. Most authorities from the Commonwealth Industrial and Scientific Research Organisation to the Standing Committee on Agriculture agree that the embargo should be provisionally eased. Familiar with wool-growers’ discord, Canberra could seize the conference’s vote to push throughj the required amendment to | Customs Act regulations. But this is too pious a hope.; Political and emotional overtones in this controversy have i long obscured the economic advantages of freeing Merino exports. Depression Measure The Scullin Government banned Merino shipments in 1929. When the depression was approaching its worst and wool prices were tumbling, 5000 Merinos were loaded at Woolloomooloo on a ship about to sail for Russia. On November 27, after hasty consultations, a proclamation was issued. The “Sydney Morning Herald” reported that at 10 a.m. on the following day the proclamation was signed. At that hour the shipload of sheep was outside Australian territorial waters, heading non-stop for the Black Sea. While the world wool outlook has changed remarkably

since 1929, the same arguments used for imposing the; ban are still current today fori retaining it. People still talk I of “a gift to our competitors,”, too few top rams available, a price burden on Australian flock ram buyers and “selling! our birthright.” Australia is the pace-setter] in wool’s race against synthetic fibres. About 38 per cent of world wool supply is Merino. More than half of this comes from Australia. While we still have an influence in the textile market wei should allow other woolgrowing countries to “fine up”; their fleeces by using our I superior sires. An end to our “I’m all right, Jack” attitude’ would not undermine out trading position. It would help wool hold a little longer its! 8.5 per cent grip on the world I textile fibre market. After First Rush After the first rush, buying would not be spectacular South Africa, with similar type sheep, would bid strongest. The Soviet Union and the United States would probably pay well for special bloodlines. Eastern Europe, India. Pakistan and Turkey might find prices too high. Britain, France and Germany would lend “curiosity” competition. Interest from New Zealand, which has always had access to our Merinos under a no re-export agreement, would be restricted. Like most othei nations, New Zealand wants dual-purpose—meat and wool —breeds.

Vermont infusions from the United States into the Aus-tralian-type Merino.

The landowning Spanish gentry of the past—particularly the town mayors who gave the breed its name—would not recognise today’s Australian Merino. Nowhere else in the world can be found huge flocks of uniformly even sheep, each carrying 111 b fleeces of 60s and finer wool. Too often, however, we have been content to gloat over our 165 million fibre-producing factories.

Even today influential graziers bitterly oppose “selling our birthright." They fear. unreasonably, that foreign operators at Syd ney sheep show auctions would force up ram price beyond their reach. Most vocal opposition comes from the “small” woolgrowers. In New South Wales, the main Merino state, the United Farmers and Woolgrowers’ Association consistently rejects any watering down of regulations. The association’s vice-president, Mr Rod Black, fought the Wool Industry Conference decision. “Sending away our rams won’t contribute to wool’s betterment,” he said. “In the not-distant future Australia will be the only fine-wool supplier. Others’ Systems “When the Bantus take over South Africa they will be more interested in something Ito eat than growing wool. The U.S.S.R. has nothing like Australia’s social environment that produced our wool industry. And the South American land tenure system is back in the early 1800 s.” Riverina studmasters naturally want an end to this isolationism. They claim uneconomic ram prices are making it impossible to maintain intact and improve the historic i“family” bloodlines. And. of [course, they foresee the Australian record price of I $25,000 being bettered. The ram-breeding business is peculiarly hierarchical in structure. At the top stand a dozen “parent" studs. They outrank all others in the Australian Stud Merino ■ Flock Register, the Debrett’s [of local livestock society. The parent studs would fill most of the overseas orders. They do not normally sell flock rams to “small” graziers, but a sudden jump in price would hit their 250 “daughter” [studs— those regularly drawling sires from their own “parlent”—and to a lesser degree the 1400 general studs with [their mixed “family” bloodlines. Semen Anomaly An anomaly in the latest [proposal is the recommendation against semen exports. This will allow exporters to maintain “live” demand longer. It will not stop foreign scientists using artificial insemination after the rams leave Australia. One ram can artificially serve 1000 ewes. Nor is there any move to prevent the shipment of fertilised ova. So far no cases have been reported of smugglers transplanting fertilised ova from Merino ewes to crossbred ewes which are freely exported. Perhaps if some enterprising smuggler notes the scientific possibilities there will be no need for further debate on the Merino embargo.

The open plains areas of South America could find most use for Australian rams. The International Wool Secrei tariat has been trying for five years to induce South Ameri- ! can countries to join its wool ; promotion plan in return for Australian Merinos. Uruguay is joining without the deal. Even with it, Argentina would probably still refuse. The United States has rejected overtures for a “horse trade.” The Administration will not lower its 25c a lb tariff on our wool in return for rams its breeders are only mildly interested in. Others Could Breed Actually there is no genetic reason why these countries] should not breed a sheep as; good as the Australian. Many Merino strains—Spanish, Ger-1 man, Precos, Saxony, Ram-; bouillet, Vermont, Stravropol and South African—are read-, ily available. All they need; in addition is our environ-! ment and that mystical art, I stockmanship. These trans- 1 formed our early imports from Spain and Saxony plus.