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• Press Release - "Wonder Boy" Wins at Bendigo Wool & Sheep Show
• Press Release - Elite Fleece Win to SA
• Press Release - Local Merino Lambs to high if $149.76
• Targeting Emerging Wool Markets
• Growers flock to Workshops at Southrose By Craig Eckert
• News from Tolarno By Rob and Linda McBride

IT’S NO WONDER!

It’s no wonder that Southrose Merino and Poll Merino stud at Tintinara, in the state’s South East, chose to call one of their ET bred Poll rams Wonder Boy. At the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo from 16-18 of July, Wonder Boy made his show debut and truly lived up to his name.
Initially, winning Champion Fine Wool Poll and then Grand Champion Fine Wool Ram he began to attract a lot of interest. But in late afternoon judging on Sunday he won overall Grand Champion Poll Ram. A brilliant result considering there were 800 entries in the Merino section of the show.Wonder Boy is the son of Southrose Duchess, herself a Grand Champion Ewe in Adelaide, Dubbo & Bendigo in 2001. His 18.9 micron wool makes him an impressive wool sheep but combined with a body weight of just over 134 kilos and an eye muscle depth of forty-five millimetres, his carcass traits prove him to be an outstanding example of a true dual purpose type. He also proved that he is not just a show winning ram in his own right, because also present at Bendigo were two of his progeny each demonstrating his ability to carry through his characteristics in breeding.
And Wonder Boy wasn’t just a one hit “wonder” for Southrose. Collecting a total of ten Champion broad ribbons, two Grand Champion broad ribbons and Most Valuable SA Commercial Fleece in the Fleece Competition with a value of $72.12, it was one of Southrose most successful shows to date.
But while the excitement over the show dies down at Southrose, it should be building in stud breeders looking to add such an exceptional sire to their breeding strategy. And the reason? On September 9 at the Adelaide Ram Sale, Wonder Boy will be the first of five superior rams being offered for sale by Southrose.
Interested buyers will have an opportunity to view Wonder Boy at the Southrose Field Day on 27 July 2004 and during the Royal Adelaide Show.

 

Local Merino Lambs to High of $149.76
From: Murray McClure - McClure & Daughters, Wilcannia NSW
Local organic merino lambs from the Broken Hill West Darling district hit what is believed to be a new record high for a consignment of 200 lambs or more.
The 232 merino wether lambs from the McClure & Daughters, Wilcannia property, made to a high of $149.76 and averaged $110.18 for the whole consignment. In addition to this the lambs were only two weeks off shears.
The consignment of 232 wether lambs were sold on hooks to the "Clever Organic Meat Company" and slaughtered at the Yanco NSW abbatoir. Only eight lambs from the paddock were deemed not good enough to make the consignment.
The wether lambs, born in last year's drought, had little feed for the first eight months of their lives and were not supplementary fed.
Murray McClure said that lambs had it really tough until March this year, but it highlights the resilience of the West Darling country and the versatility of the South Australian merinos.
The lambs were sired by rams from the SA Tintinara Merino studs J & H Ashby & Sons "Southrose" and WB & CA Ashby "Taunta Downs".
The premium paid for these organic lambs - $5.20 hot weight, on-hooks, highlights the ability of the West Darling country, being naturally chemically free, to capture every increasing demand for the organically raised produce, and the premium paid, Murray McClure said.
Much of the pastoral country of Australia can easily be accredited to the NASAA Organic Standards and not only receive high premiums for livestock but many crops as well.
Tim Marshall, from NASAA has guided the McClure & Daughters property through the organic process. His stewardship has seen the property through to the current day with all produce now under the organic umbrella - sheep and cattle meat, oilseed cropping and now wool.

 

Targeting Emerging Wool Markets
By Paul G. Swan B. Sc., Ph. D., MAIAST, MAAC, CPAg

There has been much debate in recent years as to whose best sheep breeding system is best, and whether certain wool attributes such as bold crimp are desirable to buyers or not. The result is much confusion and little clarity. I would like to turn the issue on its head and look at it from a demand perspective, because when you do this the breeding debate looks a little silly and clear pictures emerge.

Consumers are changing:
Most consumers of wool products live in the Western World and in urban areas. Due to lifestyle changes, consumer preferences are evolving in a fairly predictable manner - they demand:

• Comfort
• Convenience
• Cost- effectiveness

to fit in with their increasingly fast- paced, urbanised lifestyle. For wool to be relevant as a modern fibre, it must meet these changing demands of consumers and retailers. This is placing particular demands on processors, and some new solutions are emerging.

The wool market is maturing:

One of the most positive outcomes of the pressures on processors is that the wool market is becoming more segmented, wool is appearing in exciting new markets, and future demand signals are becoming clearer:

• Our traditional heavy, bulky outerwear market (i. e heavy jumpers) is diminishing, as wool is too coarse and expensive to compete against cotton and synthetics in making heavy, low- cost products. This market has traditionally been supplied with fibres > 22 microns, and penalises suppliers since the articles weigh a lot, cost little per kg at retail level, and are infrequently purchased (last for ages).
• Our traditional worsted outerwear market (suits, trousers, skirts) is here for the long haul, and will continue to be supplied with predominantly 18 - 22 micron fleece wool.
• Wool is now emerging as a player in the lightweight, frequent- purchase, next to skin market (shirts/ bras/ undies/ denims etc.), which is relevant to modern consumers and suits their lifestyles. This market demands next- to- skin comfort, flexibility and guaranteed high performance levels, and rewards suppliers since articles weigh little, cost a lot per retailed kg, and are frequently purchased.

Supplying the growing markets:

It is crucial that growers seek to steer their fibre production business to meet the emerging market segments, and avoid the diminishing ones.

Some key goals for the future:

• Less than 1% > 30 microns in fleece lines.
• Sound staples (> 40 N/ kt) and low mid- break % (< 50%).
• Excellent fibre alignment and uniformity (seen as a deep crimp to the tip).
• Long staples relative to the diameter (> 4.5 mm/ mm).
• Heavy cut relative to the diameter.
• Low fibre curvature in comparison to the diameter (positive micron).

This combination of attributes reduces fibre breakage during processing, makes the fibres easy to align and pack close together in yarns, while improving fibre: fibre cohesion, yarn tenacity (strength) and evenness, and at the same time making the fabric silkier and softer, and largely eliminating pilling from knitteds. The resulting fabrics are very 'clean' and fault- free, with little hairiness, a noticeable 'glossy' finish, and silky softness that lasts.

To wrap up, wool is entering a 'renaissance' period in the 21 st Century, but participating in this success for wool growers around Australia is conditional on meeting an increasingly discriminating market. Our future lies next- to- the- skin in modern products on modern consumers, not in drawers gathering dust.

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Since objective measurement was adopted by the industry in the early 1970's, fibre diameter (microns) has maintained 80% or more of the importance of price determination. Some information flowing down the pipeline lately suggests that there may be other raw wool indicators of great value. In terms of breeding objectives, it is important to get a grip on (1) what these other factors are and (2) a system that pays for them.

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Growers flock to Workshops at Southrose By Craig Eckert

The Rural Industries Skill Training (RIST) Centre in Hamilton, provides rural training programs in conjunction with Elders. In 2000/ 01 RIST have been running Advanced Sheep Classing Workshops in S. A. and western NSW. These one- day workshops, presented by leading textile and sheep breeding consultant, Dr Paul Swan, are designed to assist woolgrowers in sheep selection and broaden their understanding of the wool processing pipeline.
So far in South Australia 290 wool producers have attended 10 workshops throughout the state with 80 of these attending 3 workshops at the Southrose property of Jim and Hilary Ashby in October 2000 and February 2001.
The RIST courses are in response to the enormous interest currently being shown by commercial and stud breeders in producing sheep with advanced wool. The workshops provide growers with some basic visual and tactile skills, which with the aid of measurement enables them to identify basic types within their own flocks to set a breeding program for the purpose of producing sheep with advanced wool.
It is the intention of RIST, Elders and Southrose to continue running workshops for Advanced Sheep/ Wool Classing and Advanced Management of Wool Tensile Strength.

If you are interested in any of these workshops, please register your interest with Craig Eckert at Elders Keith (08) 8755 1833 or Indi McCulloch at RIST (03) 5573 0943.

News from Tolarno By Rob and Linda McBride

A s the owners and operators of Tolarno Station, situated on the eastern side of the River Darling, half way between Pooncarie and Menindie, we are delighted to contribute our news to this year's Southrose Newsletter.
We introduced Southrose rams 3 years ago on a trial basis to evaluate their doing ability and measurements in our tough pastoral environment. Of the first batch of 36 rams, all but one survived in spite of the drier than usual conditions. With the early indicators of performance we changed completely to Southrose over the next two years.
This year we have seen some wonderful results coming through in our hoggetts. Between 1998 and 2001 there has been an incredible change as summarised in the chart below.

Year	Average Micron	TensileStrength	Yield	WoolWt	$ Val / hd
1998	21.	4 42	52%	6.2kg	17.80
2001	19.2	42	59%	6.2kg	38.40

It should be noted that these two years were similar for rainfall and feed supply. We are delighted with the results. The rams have withstood challenging years in our extensive pastoral situation. The wool has markedly improved without any loss of either fleece weight or body size. We did not expect to see such improvement in such a small time- frame given that we are still using station bred ewes that average in the vicinity of 24 microns. We are not just chasing micron but all over doing ability for our conditions and we are excited with the results to date.

Congratulations to the Andre family from Ceres Millicent on their recent wool sale result. 3500 maiden ewes produced an average of 5 kgs / head of sub- 20 micron wool. A six bale line of elite 18.9 micron wool with a 74.2% yield, 0.3 % VM, 35 n/ kt, 100 mm length, comfort factor 99. 2% returned 1620 cents / kilogram clean or 1202 cents greasy. This represented a premium of 120 cents per kilogram clean relative to the southern market indicator for this type of wool. Full credit also to wool classer Peggy Adams of Lucindale. There is a premium for quality within micron.