Consumers should pay a higher premium for non-mulesed wool, farmer says

Glendonald Merino stud principal and mixed farmer Robert Harding, Nhill, said he believed there were several issues in the non-mulesing movement, and wanted to see farmers gain a higher premium.

His flock is entirely mulesed, but says he believes consumers should pay more for a non-mulesed product to help cover farmers' costs and losses.

"I've got nothing against non-mulesing," he said.

"I don't feel farmers running non-mulesed sheep at the moment are getting enough premium."

A Mecardo article in December said RWS-accredited premiums had fallen from higher levels during 2021 and 2022.

It said the median premiums were between 20 and 40 cents per clean kilogram across the micron range in 2023.

Mr Harding said he had been in Australia's wool industry for 60 years, and started when the nation made up five to six per cent of the world textile trade.

"In 2016 we were getting 500 cents more than what we are today, and that's only eight years ago," Mr Harding said.

"It would be better if we left the mulesing job to go to commercial reality in the same vein as free-range eggs, or organically-grown vegetables."

Mr Harding said he believed non-mulesing had become an animal welfare issue, with regards to flystrike.

He said wool was a great product with its biodegradable qualities, and with dual-purpose Merino flocks.

"We're a country of droughts and flooding rains," Mr Harding said.

"If you have a drought you can always shift your animals or buy feed, but if you have a crop and a flood or drought comes, you can't pick your paddock up and move it."

National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia executive director Robert Herrmann, Ballarat, said there was a premium for non-mulesed wool, but it varied depending on the other characteristics of wool.

He said if wool fit a specific order, with part of the order being non-mulesed, then premiums could be "quite significant".

"But if it includes faults that preclude it from any specialty orders, then the premiums tend to be less identifiable," he said.

"We're looking at the market, via quality assurance programs, developing prominence, characteristics for wool that include the fact that they're non-mulesed.

"They come from properties that are well-run, the animals are looked after, ecetera."

He said there were retail customers who instruct their buyers they would only buy non-mulesed wool, which narrowed down the amount of wool they could bid on for that order.

"It then intensifies the bidding focus," he said.