History of the Southern hemisphere sheep flock
The recent AWPFC forecast for wool production to be down to levels of the early 1920s (and 2019) warrants a look at what has been happening to sheep flocks in Australia and the other major southern hemisphere wool exporters. Wool production and sheep numbers are not necessarily correlated. On a world basis, as the IWTO […]
Wool production changes across Australia’s sheep regions
With the eternal battle between enterprises for farm resources continuing, it is interesting to stand back and see what has changed and what hasn’t between regions when it comes to wool production during the past two decades. For merino wool, the change in volume and change in fibre diameter have been the two big trends […]
Lower volumes and finer wools
Change in wool supply is always an issue with regard to the relative price of wool of varying quality (be that breed, micron, staple length, staple strength, vegetable fault, mules status, quality scheme accreditation and so on). This article takes a look at the latest AWTA data and the changes it shows going on in […]
Apparel fibres continue to drift at low levels
Apparel fibre prices have been drifting lower during 2024, continuing a trend that began in 2023. Merino wool usually follows the lead of the wider apparel fibre complex. We take a look at recent price movements in the context of the apparel fibre complex. Apparel fibre prices are subject to the same macroeconomic influences and […]
Western Australian flock downsizing in real time
The sheep offtake has finally caught up with the general sentiment regarding the flock size. In this article, Mecardo looks at sheep and lamb offtakes in eastern and Western Australia. In February Mecardo looked at sheep and lamb offtakes (read more here), concluding that while the western flock was contracting the eastern sheep offtake was […]
Premiums for quality scheme – certified crossbred wool
The issue of mulesing continues to be top of mind among apparel brands and their purchasing decisions. For Australian wool growers, this raises the issue of whether to mules or not, and then how to secure some benefit if the decision is made not to mules. This article takes a look at the interaction between […]
Whats changing with crossbred wool?
In May,Mecardo looked at crossbred wool, noting how record volumes continued to put downward pressure on price, although the supply chain was absorbing the high levels of supply. As the crossbred market comes up to its peak part of the season in terms of supply, we update our take on crossbred volumes and prices. Australia […]
Are goats still sitting between mutton and trade lambs?
Prime lamb prices have regained most of their losses suffered in 2023, while mutton prices have not, and beef is somewhere in between. This article looks at goat prices to see where there are tracking, including goat volumes to help understand recent price swings. A year ago Mecardo looked at goat prices in relation to […]
Wool consumption or production driving changes in supply?
Discussion of wool consumption is something of a chicken and egg conundrum with regards to supply, what comes first, the production or the consumption? With this in mind, let’s take a look at long-term wool consumption. In this analysis consumption data is used where available otherwise production data is used as a proxy for consumption. […]
Merino micron volumes and price
Most merino and crossbred wool prices are struggling along at low levels, with the exception of the sub-16 micron categories. This article investigates merino price levels, RWS share of sales and changes in volumes by micron category. Table 1 shows the inflation-adjusted (deflated) ten-year price deciles for eastern Australian indicator-type fleece wools by micron (14 […]
Merino fibre diameter trends
Sheep Genetics trends have shown for some time a change in the direction of fibre diameter in merino breeding. This article takes a look at the trends discernible from wool sales. Sheep Genetics is the genetics evaluation service to the Australian sheep industry (read more here). As such the breeding trends evident in its data […]
Supply and price for broad Merino
Low wool prices, along with dry seasonal conditions, lead to poor sentiment. Given the current low wool prices (and apparel fibre prices generally) the question is whether they will rebound, and if so, to what level? Mecardo last looked at this subject in January 2023 (read more here). For this article, the AWEX eastern 21 […]
