The best new wool classer in Australia

Austin Grace has been judged the best new wool classer in Australia but may never ply his trade in a shearing team. Find out why here.

The best graduate wool classer in Australia may never join a shearing team.

Yet for Austin Grace, the process of learning more about the wool industry was the real reward in completing his classing stencil.

Austin, 24, won the Australian graduate wool classer of the year award at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, adding to an already impressive career, including the completion of a Degree in Agricultural Business Management.

As overseer of Egelabra Merino stud at Warren, NSW, his current role is the latest in his quest to know more and be a part of a vibrant wool industry.

“I decided to do my wool classing stencil because I wanted to further my knowledge of wool rather than to specifically go classing,” Austin said.

“I had been meaning to do it but never got around to it, so when I got the chance to complete it at Dubbo, I decided to commit.”

Austin Grace from Egelabra at Warren, NSW, won the national graduate wool classer competition.

Learning about the wool supply pipeline, from sheep to processing, will only aid him in his quest to make a positive contribution to the wool industry, whether that is as a farm manager down the track, a sheep classer or helping sheep breeders to make their flocks better.

“Doing a wool classing stencil is more than just learning how to class wool, and I will be able to better assess sheep through my knowledge of wool and how it then flows on to the customer,” Austin said.

For now, though, he’s firmly ensconced at Egelabra and thriving on the challenge.

“I have a love for wool, having grown up around it, and I think the fibre is in a pretty good place at the moment,” he said.

“It is a wonderful fibre with everything going for it.”

And while he won’t be a fixture on a shearing team anytime soon, Austin said he would use his professional stencil when he classed the wool from his own flock of sheep.