Sheep breeders split on best way to pick a champ
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/fe … 6447864810

AS the bitter winds and hail blow across John Crawford's Rockbank merino stud in the shadow of western Victoria's Grampians, two rams are enjoying the relative shelter of his corrugated iron shearing shed.

Their names, Tim and Everlast, belie their majestic stature and the grandeur of their stud pedigrees.

Both are award-winning young rams, both boast lustrous long fleeces of exquisite fineness and softness, and their large bodies, proud heads and aquiline noses stamp them as descendants of the famous Peppin merino bloodline.

When their wool and fleece traits are measured and ranked by a computer, their breeding scores as great merino sires of the future - on paper - are high and almost identical.

Yet Crawford, a stud breeder with merino magic in his veins and a renowned eye for picking ram champions within a few days of birth, lavishes all his praise and sheep-whispering skills on Tim, but has little time for Everlast.

It is Tim, more formally known in show arenas as champion stud ram Rockbank Tim, who willingly follows "Crawf" out into the rain, who nuzzles his face as they pose for photos, and who is the willing recipient of his stud owner's lavish sheep-whispering praise.

Tetchy Everlast is left to languish and stamp his hooves in the shed.

"Just look at them; Tim has that lovely kind eye, while Everlast's got that steely, shiny look," Crawford says. "He's OK, but he's nowhere near the sire that his half brother is.

"That's all about their temperament, their character - now that's just something I know from looking and being with them, but you can't get that difference from a computer or by reading numbers on a bit of paper."

Unsurprisingly, Crawford is no fan of the new trend towards farmers relying solely on genetic breeding values generated by a computer to select the best rams in a stud flock.

The new Australian Sheep Breeding Values, developed by the industry-funded Sheep Co-operative Research Centre based in Armidale, NSW, provide sheep farmers with figures representing the likelihood that an individual ram will pass on desired traits such as wool fineness and length, worm resistance, fertility, meat production and frame size to his progeny.

The ASBVs for stud rams are calculated using existing farm-generated databases such as MerinoSelect and LambPlan, linking rams genetically back to 1.3 million pure merino sheep. (Australia has 77 million sheep, including about 35 million pure wool merinos, and another 17 million merino crossbreds.)

James Rowe, head of the Sheep CRC, says breeding values offer sheep producers the ability to objectively compare the likely performance of rams they may buy and what they can offer to their own flock, regardless of their environment, location or stud lineage.

They also allow selection for unseen traits such as meat taste, gut health or mothering ability that cannot be judged by the eye or learnt from farm records.

"In the merino industry now it is not uncommon to have a 15-year lag time between genetic improvements in studs (at the top of the sheep-breeding pyramid) flowing through to the commercial wool flock ... using ASBVs makes that lag time much less," Rowe says.

"Any farmer can now pick the best ram for whatever multiple traits he is selecting for on a computer using ASBVs; (the next stage of) genomic research using DNA technology will make that even easier, more accurate and give even faster genetic gain."

But not all sheep breeders are so convinced about the new reliance on figures compiled out by a computer.

Despite the breeding values system being available for five years, only 15 per cent of Australia's 1200 merino stud breeders are using them to select and sell their best rams on to commercial wool-growers.

Several breeders who had slavishly used ASBVs in their breeding programs for the past few years have also started questioning their accuracy, claiming resulting sheep progeny do not always appear to be better examples of the traits being selected for.

Yet ironically, the more breeders who prescribe to ASBVs and register their rams and progeny under the program, the more accurate and reliable the whole-of-flock rankings and breeding values become.

For the Australian Wool Innovation, the research and marketing body that replaced the Wool Corporation and is funded by all 29,000 wool-growers, the bright hope offered by genetic research appears to have dimmed.

It has already spent $26.6 million in the past decade on sheep genetics research, most of it going to the Sheep CRC, and is now unwilling to pledge more.

The issue came to a head last December, when the AWI board decreed, in a split decision, not to fund the next round of the Sheep CRC genomics program focusing on developing DNA sequencing "snip tests" until there was a more universal uptake of ASBVs by breeders, and greater acceptance of its merits.

It was a decision that has caused uproar in the sheep industry, as the ramifications of the funding block have percolated slowly through the ranks of the nation's wool-growers and its elite merino studs.

There have been claims that the AWI board, led by chairman Wal Merriman, are old guard, anti-science traditionalists, bent on thwarting the younger generation of modern and better-educated sheep breeders who are more prepared to adopt cutting-edge technology and new ways of farming.

Merriman, a former president of the Australian Association of Stud Merino Breeders and managing director of his family's hallowed Merryville merino stud near Yass, NSW, has also been accused of bias, vested interest and of defending his own elite patch.

It did not help that as chairman of a divided board, Merriman had the deciding vote in the sheep genetic funding choice - and had already made well known his scepticism about scientists and computers replacing the craft and stockmanship of master sheep classers and the stud masters of old.

This week, amid the pens of merino sheep at Australia's biggest ram sale, Merriman is unapologetic about both his funding decision and the polarising nature of the resulting debate.

"I'm not anti-science, I'm not anti-genetics and I'm not being dogmatic," Merriman says. "But I'm not about propping up sacred cows and the Sheep CRC has had long enough to prove this works - you can't go on funding programs forever using wool-growers' money if there is no commercial uptake.

"Look, 15 per cent of stud breeders are happy with using breeding values and that's fine - but no, I can't see myself ever putting my faith in figures from a computer or a DNA sample taken out of a lamb's ear as the best way to breed great merinos."

Go-ahead Matthew Coddington from Roseville Park merino stud near Dubbo in central western NSW is one leading stud breeder who has embraced genetic evaluation and ASBVs.

He regards them as a useful marketing tool being increasingly requested by prospective buyers of his 700 rams a year, while also quantifying to outsiders what he is achieving in his stud objectively.

"On one level, it's about putting your money where your mouth is and being confident that not only can I say that this ram will breed heavier (fleece-weight) cutters but that the figures show it will," Coddington says.

"Many ram buyers are also now managers working for corporate-owned farms, who need to be able to justify what they are doing and spending to a city boardroom - and that means not just saying that this ram cost $5000 but that they bought it because it will increase their wool cut by 27 per cent and that the ASBVs prove it will."

Standing in his windy paddocks, surrounded by his beloved merinos, Crawford enthuses about the great genetic cornerstones of the merino breed put in place by legendary sheep-breeders such as the Peppin brothers of the Riverina 150 years ago.

He also laments the loss of basic stock and sheep skills once passed down from generation to generation, and the end of the era of apprentice jackeroos working on the great sheep properties such as Boonoke, Haddon Rig, Wanganella and Collinsville, who imbibed the mystery and craft of merino breeding as young men.

"While we are the custodians of those great foundation genetics, we've travelled a long way since then; there's no such thing as a traditional breeder because no merino stud will survive today without using all the modern tools," Crawford says. "But to me, stud breeding is still an art, not a science; just like Bart Cummings, you have got to have the eye - and even then you won't breed a Makybe Diva or a Sydney Royal Show champion every time."

Shearing at the double but half-year result is fine  by:Sue Neales, Rural reporter
From:The Australian February 16, 2013 12:00AM



TWICE as often has turned out to be a case of twice as good for superfine Victorian woolgrowers Michael and Cathy Blake.

For the past five years, the Blakes, of Bally Glunin Park near Hamilton, have been working towards a novel idea; shearing their 6000 merino sheep every six months instead of annually.

To most farmers, the idea would seem crazy, given the high cost of labour and the difficulty in finding scarce shearing teams.

But to Mr Blake, whose family have been breeding merino sheep for 300 years in Ireland and, for the past century, in western Victoria, it is a decision based on trying to best meet the demands of the top-end of the wool market.

This week his efforts were rewarded when the finest wool ever baled at Bally Glunin, all from sheep grazed on grass rather than kept in cloistered sheds, sold at auction in Melbourne for a top price of nearly $30 a kilogram.

But for the Blakes, the achievement was not just in the high price paid for the 110kg bale of ultrafine wool, destined to be made into top-quality suits by brands such as Armani, Hugo Boss and Ermenegildo Zegna.

Just as satisfying was the knowledge that the super-soft fleeces came from a line of home-bred sheep that had been shorn just seven months earlier and that are now growing some of the best fine merino wool in Australia under natural conditions at a much faster rate than ever before.

"It all started because as we bred the sheep we wanted to have on the property -- that were big bodied, with fine wool of good strength and that had natural worm resistance and we didn't have to mules -- we were being told by the top Italian buyers that our wool length was getting too long for them," Mr Blake said.

"Simply, our sheep were growing too much wool in a year to suit their yarn and textile processes; they loved its fineness but they told us for the best high-quality suit making they needed wool staples of 75-80mm long, not 110mm."

The Blakes are renowned for attending every auction in Melbourne or Geelong where their wool is being sold, believing feedback from wool buyers representing the top textile manufactures and designers from Europe and China is vital at the luxury end of the market. In this case, it was a matter of giving their best customers exactly what they wanted.

Mr Blake said an exciting spin-off of shearing more often is the wool seems to be growing faster.

"So we started shearing more often to meet the length criteria that the Italians wanted; about three years ago we began to shear our flock three times every two years or every eight to nine months," Mr Blake said.

"But with our younger sheep with the better genetics selected using laser testing of fleeces in the woolshed and new sires, we are seeing the ability to grow longer wool so fast, in four to five years we will be shearing every six months."

His sheep used to grow about 5kg of fine wool when shorn every year. Shearing three times every two years is resulting in an average fleece weight of 4kg each time, or 12kg over two years.

At the average wool price paid this week for 50 bales from Bally Glunin Park of $14.50 a kilogram, that's an extra $174,000 added to the wool cheque annually.

From:: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/na … 6579188450

The Blakes are renowned for attending every auction in Melbourne or Geelong where their wool is being sold, believing feedback from wool buyers representing the top textile manufactures and designers from Europe and China is vital at the luxury end of the market. In this case, it was a matter of giving their best customers exactly what they wanted.

"So we started shearing more often to meet the length criteria that the Italians wanted; about three years ago we began to shear our flock three times every two years or every eight to nine months," Mr Blake said.

The above bolded is what is amazing.
The Australian Wool Industry - not just the woolgrowers have seen it as their duty to NOT work cooperatively with their biggest customers ever since we started selling wool.

CSIRO reluctant to sell Geelong wool equipment cheaply to locals

By Sarina Locke  Wednesday, 20/02/2013 ABC Rural http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/conten … 694394.htm

A group of wool producers is bidding to retain a piece of wool history in Australia.

They want to pay a nominal sum for the CSIRO's decommissioned worsted wool equipment in Geelong, Victoria, arguing it was bought by woolgrowers' taxes.

But the CSIRO isn't looking favourably at a cheap sale, saying it has new fibre research underway with Deakin University.

Peter Crisp, of Sustainable Wool in Australia Group (SWAG), says superfine wool processing needs to stay in Australia.

"We need to keep that transparent supply chain in Australia. Unfortunately AWI (Australian Wool Innovation) has forced processing overseas. That's wrong, we have to keep something in Australia for future generations."

Peter Crisp is a world renowned glass maker, who's made glass gifts for European Royal weddings from his workshop at Yass in NSW.

He's also a woolgrower, and now wants to process wool. With superfine woolgrowers like Barry Walker of the Mullion, he's formed the group SWAG, Sustainable Wool in Australia Group.

SWAG wants CSIRO to sell them, very cheaply, the worsted wool equipment lying disused in Geelong.

"Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to the CSIRO in both wool tax and equally from the Federal Government.

"That worsted system is down at Belmont Geelong, and the site is being sold for a housing estate.

"It's the last worsted system in Australia. Once we lose that .... woolgrowers in Australia are forced to go offshore to process their wool.

"The equipment is Italian and German, 20 to 40 years old. SWAG plans to use it to scour or wash, card, spin and then dye wool.

"That would allow the production of a superfine wool fibre, which could be blended with alpaca, or silk, a boutique production line. "

The letter from Australian Wool Innovation says the "cost of maintaining the equipment and employment of qualified expertise will ultimately dwarf the purchase costs of this antiquated equipment".

"There is only a handful of fully vertical wool processing mills in the world today that tackle all these step which is what Mr Crisp proposes will be performed in his shearing shed. These vertical mills are $100 million facilities and process thousands of metres per day under climate controlled and sterile environments," says AWI.

Mr Crisp says AWI's own analysis reported to him that it could be viable.

AWI also points to the education being done by Deakin University's new Australian Future Fibres Innovation Centre (AAFIC) in Victoria.

AAFIC has a State and Federal grant for $70 million, and the CSIRO's deputy director of operations Mike Whelan says the CSIRO is collaborating on site with Deakin University.

"We're doing a lot of research on high performance fabrics these days. Examples of wool rich products for military, medical applications, advanced materials for sports and endurance."

The CSIRO and AWI exchanged a "sealed document", that remains confidential, but Mr Whelan says it relates to an asset swap from the late 1990s, including property at Ryde.

AWI says it dates back to 2001 and the AWI Annual Report in 2002-03 says says AWI received "$23.9 million from the CSIRO subsequent to the sale of the Prospect (in Sydney) property and the payment of $4 million to the Australian Wool Education Trust (AWET)".

Mr Whelan says the taxpayer has also funded CSIRO wool research.

Mr Crisp says AWI is not the sole custodian of woolgrowers' interests, that some boutique superfine wool processing needs to stay in Australia.

"We need to keep that transparent supply chain in Australia.

"Unfortunately AWI has forced processing overseas. That's wrong, we have to keep something in Australia for future generations."

Helen Cathles, of the Superfine Woolgrowers Association, has told the ABC there is no reliable top-making facility for superfine wool left in Australia, and this lack of capacity could lead to a deal with a leading fashion house, Icicle, in China, being lost.

Short term pain, long term gain for wool industry
The National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia

Chris Wilcox, the Executive Director of the NCWSBA, gave an invited presentation to the Nanjing Wool Market Conference in Sanya on 14th September with the theme of 'short term pain, long term gain'.

In the presentation Chris Wilcox noted the difficult conditions that wool textile mills in China and in other countries are facing currently given the economic stagnation in Europe, the slow recovery being seen in the USA and the slowdown in economic growth being seen in China itself. As well, he noted that wool production in Australia and around the world remains at very low levels, with no signs of increasing much in coming years.

The specific challenges being faced by China’s wool textile industry is illustrated in the trends in US imports of wool apparel over the past five years, both in terms of total imports and imports from China and Italy (two of the largest suppliers to the US). Total imports of wool clothing by the US have been below year earlier levels since the start of 2012. But, imports from Italy are above year earlier levels while imports from China have fallen. In other words, Italy is taking share from China. Imports from Italy are being supported, in part, by a decline in the Euro against the US$ and against the Chinese Yuan. As well, Italian wool textile mills are probably looking to other markets given the slowdown in sales within Europe.

Having said that, Chris also noted that current economic conditions are considerably better than they were in 2009 in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. Chris Wilcox believes that this short term pain is likely to continue for the remainder of 2012, but leading economic indicators suggest a modest and slow improvement from the start of 2013. Looking further ahead, there are significant opportunities for wool given the continued increase in the world economy and world population.

There is strong growth predicted in both the world economy and in world population in coming years, which is causing growth in world fibre consumption. The strong growth in the world economy and population is a recipe for growth in world fibre consumption. While the volume of world wool production is unlikely to be able to match this growth rate, it means that wool prices could potentially rise if demand-building programs by Australian Wool Innovation and the International Wool Textile Organisation are successful