Wool report: Concern around who will shear our sheep

PGG Wrightson's GM for Wool Grant Edwards. Photo / Supplied

Content brought to you by PGG Wrightson.

This week The Country's Jamie Mackay is joined by PGG Wrightson's Grant Edwards to look at the wool market this month.

There was a bounce in the market yesterday due to a sale in Christchurch, which offered over 10,000 bales, Edwards said.

As well as this, merino and fine wools were up around 10 per cent, and crossbred up around 5 per cent, Edwards said.

There was some normalisation coming to the wool market, said Edwards, who gave the example of India, which had doubled its export quantities in the crossbred space from 9 per cent to 18.7 per cent throughout July.

Listen below:

Mackay asked about the shortage of shearers this season, as there would be no one coming in from overseas due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Edwards said this was a concern for the industry and there had been lobbying of government to help with the situation.

Mackay also asked if farmers would move to a once a year shearing model, due to the cost of shearing.

Edwards was not anticipating this shift, due to a few reasons, such as animal welfare and the climate and geography of New Zealand.