My take on our wool industry.

I am Craig Mitchell, my wife Susan and I run merino sheep and angus cattle on a farm at Countegany on the high plains of Monaro, southeast NSW. Running 8 to 10,000 Merino sheep and around 150 angus cows. We have also been actively involved in the management of a family grazing business south of Bombala, also Southeast NSW, running a full complement of sheep and cattle enterprises.

In addition to my farming work, I advocate for the farming industry through the NSW Farm Association. I am currently an Executive Councilor, Chair the Wool Committee and sit on the Conservation and Resource Management Committee (pests and weeds, native vegetation legislation, wind and solar industrial sites, etc).

I was schooled on the Monaro, spent a couple of years in the Northern Territory, then came back to the Monaro to learn the trade. First working on a sheep and cattle property for 3 years, then shearing for 11 years.

In 1990 , when Suse and I bought our first block of ground, the Australian sheep flock stood at about 180 million, Australian wool represented about 3% of the world fibre market. That sheep flock is now “about” 67 million (we don’t really know) and our wool represents only about 0.2 to 0.25 percent of the world fibre market. This is a serious decline.

My take on a successful wool enterprise is to concentrate on the things we have control over. Increasing productivity and reducing our cost of production. Producing more wool at a lesser cost. If we, as an industry, can do this, we as individuals should be able to weather whatever the market throws at us.

We need to reduce the amount of labour needed run sheep. livestock unit. In my area in the cattle industry, if your not running 15,000 DSEs per labour unit, you’re not really trying. In our merino industry, if you’re running 7,000 DSEs per labour unit, you’re up there with the best. It’s physically easier to run cattle. We, as a wool industry, are losing country to beef.

Productivity in our wool increases at about 0.5% per year. Wheat productivity has increased by about 2.75% per year for the last 18 years. Cotton productivity is increasing at about 3% per year. We are losing country to cropping, and fair enough.

These are the problems we face as an industry. These are problems that our combined expertise should be able to fix. Productivity and cost of production. Yet whenever a wool grower, an expert at growing wool, is asked “what is wrong of the wool industry”, they say “the price”. They then attempt to solve this perceived problem by producing some amateurish marketing campaign. I wonder how well a marketer would run a sheep property?

So my thoughts on what we should be doing as an industry are quite simple... Let’s, as an industry, talk about the things we are good at and improve on them. Let’s also talk about what we’re not good at and then get some R&D in there. We need our labour and our sheep to be more productive.

Craig Mitchell

WoolProducers Australia Director