# How do the industry leaders decisions effect your farm?



## The Old Ram-Australia (Jun 15, 2018)

SHEEPMEAT PRODUCTION IN AUSTRALIA IS “CHANGING”, BUT DO THE INDUSTRY LEADERS (including the MLA) UNDERSTAND THE CHANGES AND WHY THEY ARE OCCURING?

The past record of industry bodies in advocating “change” is terrible. In the recent past industry leaders were calling on producers to produce larger lambs to supply the U.S. market, so the farmers obliged and several years down the track they are producing said weights. But at what cost? Shearers are becoming reluctant to drag 100kg x-bred ewes over the boards due to the likelihood of early retirement because of injury. When industry leaders called for this change did they “not” understand the differences in the production models in both countries?

Industry bodies seem today (including MLA) to reside in centrally heated offices, drive air-conditioned cars (which we the producers pay for through our levies) which they park in underground car spaces and it seems are far removed from farmers who tend their flocks in temps of -8c in winter and +40c in the summer. So when they call upon us farmers to make changes to production we think they are “all knowledgeable” and usually comply. But if it all goes “sour” they seem unable to admit that we were only following the advice we were given by them.

For those of you who have been in the sheep industry long enough will remember that it was the industry leaders that brought about the “wool price crash” through “greed”.

So what is this quiet revolution that is taking place at the “coal face” in the back paddock? The supermarkets and some exporters are awake to the changes and this winter were offering fixed price contracts for lambs be they x-bred or Hair types. It seems to me that change is being driven, by a number of different sectors within the production cycle.

1.       The un-reliable nature of rainfall and a drying climate.

2.       Increasing input costs in all areas of the farming operation

3.       The shortage and the increasing reluctance of shearers “to get the wool off at a time of the farmers choosing.”

4.       Increasing the lamb drop of the flock without exorbitant cost pressures.

It seems more and more sheep producers are turning to Hair Breeds because it can be shown that they can do more with less in a production sense and if you start with your existing flock and transition them over, it only takes a couple of years of selection to “reap” the benefits from the change, by way of increased productivity, reduced labor costs and the ability to withstand the times when everything is “not perfect” and these situations now seem to occur increasingly more often. The last 12 months are a classic example for lots of districts.

So while the industry leaders are enjoying an expensive lunch or an overseas trip (at our expense) farmers are getting on with making the necessary changes to keep their business afloat and increasing their bottom line and one day industry leaders will awake and find that things have changed “down on the farm” and they will say with a look of surprise “when did all these changes happen, and why did no one tell us?”………


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## Baymule (Jun 22, 2018)

I really don't have an answer for this since I just keep a small flock for mainly my own pleasure. Yes, we farm and sell lamb and pork, but I would hate to depend on it for our living. Before getting small livestock, I did my due diligence and studied goats versus sheep, then wool sheep versus hair sheep. Hair sheep just made sense for all the reasons you mentioned. 

We have our own set of air conditioned bureaucrats that make stupid laws for the rest of us to follow. 

What you want to bet that when enough farmers switch from wool to hair sheep, wool becomes more desirable?


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## The Old Ram-Australia (Jun 23, 2018)

G'day BM,your last comment is interesting.I saw a report this week that "processors" ,(I suspect from China) are warning wool growers that the current high prices being paid for wool are "not" sustainable for their operations.The last time this happened was the "wool price crash" of over 20 years ago...T.O.R.


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## Baymule (Jun 25, 2018)

I did a little reading and found out that wool prices are high. All I know about wool prices is mainly what I read here, the price to shear sheep in small numbers is about the worth of the wool. 

The Chinese are famous for undercutting prices on manufacturing. I am sure they don't like having to pay a fair market price for raw wool, so that they can continue to make wool goods at low prices, flooding the market as is their usual mode of operations.

In your opinion, what do you think has brought wool back up in price?


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## The Old Ram-Australia (Jun 25, 2018)

Well BM,my feeling is that Australia's wool sheep flock has fallen to about 40 m ,at the height of the "wool boom" the Aussie flock was 150 m and when the price collapsed it was the real start of the sheep-meat industry and so even though the price has almost tripled in recent times the damage wrought still remains and so farmers have turned to other ways of making a living.

I know of one area which was always wether country until they found underground water and now its all cotton country,also in the Western Div the land was left to the goats and kangaroos and with goats bringing such good money its now not going back to wool either.These days the COP is relatively high and with the shearer shortage and the cost of upgrading infrastructure and maintaining it it does not make economic sense.These days its the supply side which determines prices and while ever you maintain a tight supply chain  there is "real " competition for the product.....T.O.R.


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