Australia’s wool industry faces century-old challenges as production falls and global demand weakens

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia’s wool industry is facing its biggest challenge in a century, with plummeting production and weak global demand. Despite the uncertainty, a new generation of farmers is committed to carrying the country’s agricultural legacy forward.

Transcript

00:00This year, the amount of wool Australia is set to produce is forecast to drop 12%, falling

00:09to lows not seen since 1921.

00:12Yet that outlook has not stopped Miranda McGuffick, a 23-year-old, fifth generation wool grower

00:18on the Monaro in the New South Wales snowy mountains, from following her dreams.

00:22Yes, being a young person coming into the industry, it's always hard to ignore the headlines

00:27or what the newspapers or the radios are saying, but you just have to stay optimistic

00:31and you can make a living out of this by making smart breeding decisions, smart management

00:36decisions.

00:37Miranda sees the value of investing in sheep genetics to make farmers more profitable.

00:42There's so much potential for this industry to get behind genomics more, to make smarter

00:45breeding decisions, that it's just an untapped interest area and I want younger people to

00:50be more interested and they are starting to be, which is wonderful.

00:53Last year, she was one of 10 young leaders selected by the industry to travel to China,

00:58where more than 85% of Australia's wool is processed.

01:01Seeing the pipeline from on-farm, working in a shed, seeing where that wool goes to

01:05factories and then being processed, it's been a bucket list item for mine.

01:10Seeing them have confidence in our industry and wanting us to get better is really fulfilling.

01:14Near Armidale in the New England region, 26-year-old Angus Dawson is taking a different approach.

01:19Traditionally, sheep are bred for wool or meat, and at his farm, Angus is developing

01:24a dual-purpose sheep for both markets.

01:26Australia rode on the sheep's back and it basically built the country many years ago.

01:31Generations past have talked of such roaring wool markets that have made people and farms

01:37what they are today, so I haven't experienced that.

01:41He's focused on cross-breeding merinos with pole dorset and charolais sheep, a strategy

01:46aimed at increasing meat quality while maintaining wool output.

01:49I'm on my way to breeding a dual-purpose pole merino, so what that includes is obviously

01:56good wool cuts, good wool amounts and qualities, but carcass traits and fertility traits, so

02:04more lambs on the ground, more weights, healthier lambs, and that way I can spread my risk sort

02:12of three ways when it comes to wool, lambs and carcass.

02:16While the wool price is not where farmers want it to be, young wool growers say there's

02:20a future in a fibre that's clean, green and sustainable.

02:24It's one of the best fibres in the world. It's sustainable, regenerative, very, very

02:29profitable for businesses that do it well. I want, in five years, to still be breeding

02:33the most profitable and productive merino sheep in the industry.

02:36Young wool growers optimistic there are better times ahead.

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