Mackay said he had a sheep farmer mate in Southland who was barely covering his costs with his annual shearing, which was surely a tough place for farmers to be in.
Unfortunately, this had been the situation for the past twelve to eighteen months, Cochrane said.
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Costs of production were going up and nobody had spare money in their back pocket – especially farmers from their wool cheque, he said.
Cochran saw little scope for improvement in the near future either.
As for the shearing side of things, Mackay said it was becoming more difficult to find shearers.
Shearing was hard, physical work and the cost of providing the service was going up, he said.
The shearing industry was finding it difficult, as not a lot of young people were coming forward, Cochrane said.
As for wool quality, a wet, cold spring and a warm, humid summer usually meant a yellowing of the wool fleece, Mackay said.
Cochrane agreed that a lot of poorer coloured, low yielding wool was coming through and even lambswool was exhibiting poorer colour.
Some fleeces were yielding less than 70 per cent and a lot of this was due to feed and the condition of the animal, Cochrane said.
