Changes to code of pratice

(Left: AUSTRALIAN Wool Exhange (AWEX) wool services manager David Cother and Prime SAMM Breeders Society of Eastern Australia president Phillip Swain, discuss the changes to the code of practice, while inspecting 19 micron F1 Wool).

Breeders of South African Meat Merinos (SAMM) in NSW believe the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) has kneecapped their industry.

They question the reasoning behind the AWEX’s decision to downgrade SAMM wool in the recently revised Code of Practice on results of sample tests from one Western Australian breeder.

Principals of seven studs attending the annual Dubbo Show in May, aired their concerns to AWEX Wool Services Manager, David Cother during a special meeting of the Prime SAMM Breeders Society of Eastern Australia.

Mr Cother deputised for AWEX chief executive officer, Mark Grave, who was overseas at the time and originally invited to meet with the members.

The invitation followed several months of correspondence between members and Mr Grave concerning the Code and its potential affect on the SAMM industry within Australia.

While questioning the decision, members said they believed a big reason behind the SAMM labeling was more likely borne from pressure placed on AWEX by traditional Merino protectionists.

In answer, Mr Cothers said that sheep breed politics was not any component of discussions around the Industry Services Advisory Committee (ISAC) table.

CSIRO tests on 15 samples of SAMM wools from three states, included eight from Western Australia, five from NSW and two from SA.

The good news reported only low levels of dark fibre (DF) were present in the samples.

In all cases the DF content was less than 10 df per 10 grams, with a minimum of zero up to 6df/g.

This made SAMM wool equivalent to the Australian Merino and therefore suitable for the white/pastel trade.

However, when it came to medullated fibre (MF), the same wools exhibited a large variation.

According to New England stud breeder, John Beynon of Lindon stud, Uralla, the interesting facts were that the three samples which contained the largest number of MF per 10 grams, were wool from lambs, weaners and premature shearing.

“Everyone in the industry knows lambs wool and weaner wool contains higher rates of medullated fibre than mature aged sheep,” Mr Beynon said.

“In the case of the AAA PRM, it begs the question as to why was the animal prematurely shorn.

“Maybe it was a stud ram shearing six months pre-sale.

“If so, a clear shear would have been done, even on points which are high in medullation on all sheep including Merino.”

Mr Beynon also asks whether the classer was competent, “did they mix up the point shearing pieces with the fleece?”

“When you take out the eight Western Australian samples, the average MF of the other seven is three MF per 10 grams.

“That is certainly a very low level, so why change the code when there are three questionable lines of wool in the whole country?”

“Surely these lines can be explained, but AWEX will not release the source of the samples, so we cannot progress.”

Mr Beynon and others at the meeting asked why three tests dramatically changed their industry.

“All the bad tests came from one property, but our whole industry has been affected negatively.

“We just can’t move forward until we know where those samples came from.”

Mr Cothers said he didn’t know the source of the WA samples, but was happy to ask when he returned to Sydney.

The breeders around the table are still waiting for an answer.

By MARK GRIGGS, Rural Press