Related: Fleece weight focus at Uralla

TRADITIONALLY a superfine region targeting European buyers, a growing number of New England woolgrowers have begun re-evaluating their focus.

Less of a premium for finer micron wools, combined with an improvement in meat values, have prompted many to broaden their focus from predominantly fibre diamater to increase their attention to frame size and muscling.



New England wools traditionally range from an ultrafine (12 to 13 microns) to superfine (19.5 microns), with the majority in the 16.5 to 18 micron range, said Elders district wool manager for the southern New England, Tom Henry, Walcha.

However, Mr Henry has noted an increasing number of commercial producers had begun turning their focus towards bulking up their fleece production by breeding a larger-framed sheep. In some cases this had resulted in a slight broadening of the average micron by 0.5 to one micron, he said.

"Returns to New England woolgrowers have increased between $1 to $1.50 a kilogram in the past year, with superfine fleece, pieces and bellies ranging in price from 1050 cents a kilogram to 1250c/kg across the board," Mr Henry said, however, these weren’t great levels compared to what superfine prices have done historically.



New England Wool managing director Andrew Blanch, Sydney, said despite some improvement, the superfine segment was still struggling due to an oversupply.

"We're starting to see a reduction in superfine wool production for the first time in eight years so the oversupply seems to be running out," he said, pointing out the market appeared to have passed peak production and prices were bottoming out.



Mr Henry said no single factor could be attributed to changing woolgrower direction in the region.

"There are a number of issues at play with woolgrowers looking for more diversity in their production systems, placing more emphasis on objective measurement when it comes to decision making, combined with attractive meat prices in the past four to five years - all are influencing decision making," he said.



While other wool-growing regions across the state had been much quicker to start changing course, it was only now starting to have an impact on New England wool production.

"New England fleece weights are starting to increase - between 500 grams to a kilogram per fleece in the past year or so, but the results are going to be slow," Mr Henry said.

"Today there are probably only 20 per cent of the region's commercial Merino breeders targeting the Italian market compared to 50pc of the region's growers about 15 years ago."

