Ten students are getting hands-on experience on the boards in Wellstead at a shearing camp designed to fill labour shortages and drive Indigenous employment.
Bob Garnant
Global demand for wool has dived with the pandemic, hurting farmers and wiping millions from the State’s export earnings this year.
Jenne Brammer
An early break and better flock management by producers has led to a rise in lambing percentages this year, according to leading industry figures.
Shannon Verhagen
It’s peak shearing season, but with contractors relying heavily on New Zealanders, there’s big challenges meeting demand before harmful flies build up over summer.
A trio of St Hilda’s schoolgirls are feeling warm and cosy after scooping an entire category in a national woollen fabric design competition.
Plans to create a digital wool levy payer register have been put on the backburner until early next year to allow for more consultation with industry.
Bob Garnant and Cally Dupe
Australian wool prices are pegged to hover about $10/kg this year before rising to $12/kg next year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to stifle consumer demand and industrial production.
Cally Dupe
For the first time in years, the dams on Alice and Paul Reddington’s Bremer Bay farm are full to the brim, after a recent heavy downfall provided much-needed relief.
The former military man and grandfather of three had been a councillor on the Show’s committee for seven years and vice-president for three before taking over the mantle last month.
Those attending Narrogin’s Long Wool Day on Friday, August 18 were all keen for a good drenching of rain to turn the dry season around.
WA faces a potential shortage of up to 350 wool shed staff, including 180 shearers, as COVID-19 travel restrictions plague the approaching busy spring shearing season.
Muresk Institute’s 40-year-old shearing shed will be demolished and replaced within the next six months in a bid to improve shearing, wool classing and roustabout training at the facility.
The first wool sale for nearly a month failed to spark enthusiasm from buyers, with the Eastern Market Indicator instead experiencing its biggest weekly fall since April.
With the busy spring shearing season just around the corner, a Kojonup contractor has concerns that travel restrictions from COVID-19 will create a shortage of shed staff.
A sense of normality has settled across the Western Wool Centre with brokers and sellers completing two weeks back in the sale room before the three-week recess.
After riding high on the sheep’s back in recent years, WA woolgrowers have been left reeling after the 2019-20 wool market crashed to a five-year low at the final sale of the selling season.
The wool market continued its downward spiral from the impacts of COVID-19 to close the 2019-20 season with the final sale 52 held last week at Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.
A senior market analyst has called the bottom of the wool market, but says prices might “bump along” at similar levels for the next six weeks before starting to pick up “cautiously” in August.
Techwool Trading was the biggest buyer of Australian wool in the 2019-20 season, securing 14.6 per cent of the 1.22 million bales sold.
The resilience of the wool trade was tested during the 2019-20 season which continues to be hard pressed by the COVID-19 epidemic which took effect late January.
Looking after the future of the shearing industry takes someone with latitude and belief that the way forward is through effective communication and dialogue.
WA’s most celebrated show shearer Damien Boyle has become a legend in upholding clean shearing standards, an industry trademark he has held for more than 25 years.
After two consecutive weeks of rises the Australian market was unable to continue its upward trajectory this week, instead recording general losses.
Master shearer and training sensation Kevin Gellatly quickly worked out the angles, contours and shapes of sheep to clip his way into a rewarding industry.
© West Australian Newspapers Limited 2020
