Watch for VM in wool

 “Normally around drought time with animals pushing in for feed, they push a bit harder under bushes and under trees and you also get a weed and seed burst,” Ching told Rural News. “We get a higher incidence of vegetable matter.”

Ching, who is responsible for farmer liaison, recommends more preparation and trying to remove during shearing time the wool that is contaminated with seed. 

“It has a high priority from here on because if a lot of it comes onto the market like that then you will see substantial discounts for wool that has seed and vegetable matter in it compared with wool that is seed free.”

Farmers will need to weigh up whether they hold stock and feed and shear them, or whether they send them to the works without shearing.

“In a drought, when you shear an animal it wants to eat, so if you shear them and don’t have the feed you’ll stress your animals. So it’s a fine balance for some farmers  whether they hold them, shear them and have enough feed, or don’t have enough feed, don’t shear they and send them to the works with the wool on.”

He says this is likely to cause a shift in the percentage of shorn wool against slight wool on the market. “There are quite a few markets in the world that have no problem having slight wool in their products. It just limits the amount of wool available for those that can’t take it, who want only pure shorn wool.”

He says there will be pockets of farmers having to decide about stock but the drought is not national. “It will have an impact but it’s not going to be a massive impact so that little shift we have there has more positives for the wool price than negatives.”