AWI Committee predicts rise in wool output during 2006/07
11 Mar '06
2 min read
The Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) Production Forecasting Committee released their first figures for the 2006/07 season.
Analysts are predicting a modest increase in Australian shorn wool production to 465 million kilograms (mkg) next season on the back of better wool cuts per head in 2006/07.
The slight increase to 465mkg in 2006/07 is a 9mkg or two per cent increase compared with the 2005/06 season and depends on normal rainfall patterns over the coming autumn period, particularly in the south-eastern states.
The modest increase in shorn wool production is based on an improvement in fleece weights rather than any significant increase in the number of sheep shorn.
The committee lowered its forecast for the current 2005/06 season to 456mkg, down from the December 2005 forecast of 467mkg, with the previously anticipated improvement in production below expectations for this stage of the season.
The revised forecast for the 2005/06 season represents a four per cent or 19mkg greasy decline compared with the 2004/05 season and is the result of a slower than anticipated pick-up in wool receivals and test volumes in recent months in the two largest wool producing states, New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia (WA).
In South Australia (SA), adverse seasonal conditions, especially in the high rainfall zone, are having a greater influence on fleece weights than anticipated.
Committee Chairman Dr David James said historically about 70 per cent of a full season's production was tested by AWTA in the first eight months of the season.
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