Wool market softens again: NSW growers mitigate risk
NSW producers Debra and Keith Lord have decided to change up their business operations to stay on top of the falling wool market.
A RACE against the falling wool market saw Debra and Keith Lord change up their business strategy to offer an early line of their Merino clip last week.
The Lords, from Junee in NSW, sold 47 bales of 20 micron Willandra blood Merino wool for an average of 1537c/kg greasy last Thursday.
That included 13 bales of 16.6 micron lambs wool, which sold for 1049c/kg greasy, with a yield of 63 per cent and strength of 40 newtons per kilotex.
Most of Debra and Keith’s clip will sell next week when they offer 191 bales.
But Debra said they decided to pull out a line to sell earlier to spread their risk.
“We put a line on the earlier sale because the market has kept declining to try and spread our risk,” Debra said.
“The market has been falling and I don’t see it rising again in the short term.”
The market fell again following two consecutive price rises as the eastern market indicator eased 12c to finish at 1171c/kg.
The EMI held relatively firm on last month when it sat at 1170c/kg, but was still back 652c on the highs of this time last year.
Debra said this year they had aimed to get their clip in “as fast as they could” to beat the falling market.
“Normally I would hold it until I found the right price, but this year we wanted to sell as quickly as possible because the market had the potential to fall,” Debra said.
“I have held on to wool before, but I’m not holding on to this wool because we’re coming out of drought. We didn’t have a commercial harvest on our crops last year so we can’t afford to the risk.”
Nationally 21,785 bales were offered, an increase of 6410 bales on the previous week, with 19,146 bales sold, at a pass-in rate of 12.1 per cent.
Last year, following their typical business model, the Lords spread their wool clip out, selling from June to September and averaging just over 2000c/kg.
“This lot averaged about 1500c/kg so it’s back at least a quarter on last year and down again from 2018 when the lambs wool sold for 1654c/kg greasy,” Debra said.