Merino clip profile across Australia

One of the challenges in determining the makeup of merino clips is the range of avenues by which wool is measured and sold. AWTA data is excellent but does not provide a detailed breakdown by breed, category, and specification. Auction sale data (which covers about 85% of wool sold) provides excellent details on wool sold with one minor weakness in that some 6% of wool sold (5% by gross value) sold at auction has an indeterminate geographic origin. This means some 6% of lots do not have a precise Wool Statistical Area which tells us where the wool originates from, as the wool has been processed through a rehandle in preparation for sale.

In Figure 1, a breakup of merino volumes (clean base) sold in the 2022 calendar by category, is broken down into eastern and Western Australian clips. The 6% of wool sold through rehandles can be used in this analysis as there is a clear demarcation between the eastern and western geographic areas of wool handling and wool sales. Some 21.6% of merino wool sold at auction in Australia in 2022 came from Western Australia. The Western Australians sold more merino wool as fleece, less as pieces, and more as lambswool. Crutchings, bellies, and locks proportions were similar between the east and west in 2022.

Table 1 shows the average merino wool specifications for the east and west in 2022. Some of the specifications are subject to strong influence from seasonal conditions. For example, the western merino clip has been running at 0.3 microns finer than year-earlier levels for the past six months, so the average fibre diameter shown in Table 1 for Western Australia is on the finer side and compared to an eastern clip coming off three good seasons, the difference in micron has shrunk to a small 0.3 micron. As to be expected staple strength is lower in the west, and so too was vegetable matter and yield.

Eastern Australia is broken into three regions in Figure 2. These are pastoral (Queensland, western NSW, and northern South Australia), high rainfall (NSW tablelands, eastern Victoria, southwest Victoria), and mixed (cropping and livestock).  For this exercise, the 6% of wool with indeterminate wool statistical areas has been omitted as it cannot be determined which eastern region the wool came from. The fleece proportion sold is highest in the pastoral wool allied with the lowest pieces proportion. As the fleece component falls, the pieces component rises with the high rainfall region having the lowest proportion of fleece and the highest proportion of pieces.

Table 2 shows the average specifications from the merino clip (in 2022) from the three eastern regions. The pastoral and high rainfall regions account for a quarter of the merino supply each, with the mixed livestock/cropping regions accounting for the other half of supply. Fibre diameter is correlated to rainfall with the micron falling as rainfall increases, so the pastoral regions have the broadest merino production. The average staple length between the regions is even, as was the staple strength and point of break in the middle. Vegetable matter was higher in the pastoral region and yield lower.