With only eight weeks of wool sales remaining before Christmas, we are almost at the half-way point of our auction selling season for 2020-21.
Market fundamentals continue to change, however.
In general, these remain stacked-up against any potential opportunity of a price surge in the short to medium-term.
Growers continue to hold back wool, either adding their new season consignments to broker warehouse stocks or piling bales up on-farm.
This is occurring in parallel with ongoing sluggish and sporadic demand.
The market is looking for direction as it continues a pattern of up one fortnight and then down the next.
The Australian currency remains firm against the US Dollar, trading in a tight range between US71 cents and US73c in recent months.
We can report plenty of shearing activity throughout Victoria and southern New South Wales, with many growers completing their lamb shearing programs.
One of the main quality parameters to concentrate on for optimum lamb wool preparation is the removal of skin pieces, as this continues to be a major complaint from woollen spinners around the world.
If skin pieces remain in the product, this can cause poor strength within the yarn - and it also affects the evenness of yarn color following the dying process.
Lambs wool is commonly used in pastel and light shades, so the degree of whiteness is of high importance to the market to achieve a high quality end-garment.
It is a hectic time of the season as we juggle a huge hay and winter grain harvest in 2020.
Many of our breeding clients are now putting out their rams, so we are providing a friendly reminder to keep records of which rams go into each mob for future referencing.
Most clients are reporting above average paddock feed levels, which is fantastic and providing us with plenty of confidence and opportunities.
This, in turn, is leading to excellent ram sales results and - from all reports - the quality of sires on offer is setting new standards for the sheep and wool industry.
We can, therefore, plan for a higher than average production season and remain bullish in regard to stocking rates - as Bureau of Meteorology rain forecasts remain above average for the remainder of 2020.
KareeWool trade tips for this time of year include calculating and understanding costs of wool production per kilogram, regularly consulting with your wool service provider about risk management options, knowing your wool selling costs and benchmarking results against others.
