Woolgrowers from around the country are being encouraged to enter this year's Australian Fleece Competition which was launched on Wednesday.
Nutrien wool account manager and competition convener Candice Cordy encouraged woolgrowers from across the nation to enter their fleece, including those from schools and agricultural colleges.
Ms Cordy, along with Nutrien Bendigo wool area manager Nicole Davies, representative Time Steere from the Australian Wool Testing Authority and Margot Falconer from the Australian Stud Sheep Breeders Association and Australian Sheep and Wool Show met at Rodger Kemp's property Rosedale, Toolleen, to officially launch the competition.
In previous years the competition has had up to 500 entries from across the country, and catered to all kinds of wool types.
The competition will have experienced wool brokers and exporters judge the fleece.
Ms Cordy said the valuable feedback from the judges would have a great flow-on effect on the quality of Australian fleece.
"People have seen the value of benchmarking their fleeces in both a subjective and objective way," Ms Cordy said.
"Woolgrowers have learnt from the feedback that's provided, particularly around the processing performance of their fleece... and over time growers have prepared fleeces more thoroughly.
"Hopefully that then flows through into their preparation of commercial wool in the shed as well."
This year the competition has partnered with charity Strength To Give which recruits bone marrow donors for more stem cell donations.
Australian Bone Marrow Registry marketing and engagement head Kate Levy said more donors were urgently needed.
"Australia has one of the smallest registries in the world, and in terms of comparable nations, we are 15 out of 15 of those comparable nations," she said.
"We need more people to become stem cell donors and it is really simple to become a donor with a simple cheek swab, which you can do at home."
Ms Levy said the charity was eager to hear from healthy, young people aged 18-35 who wanted to be a donor.
"A genetic match is really important and we look far and wide for people," she said.
"A lot of our donors do come from metro areas, but where it becomes important is that we need a large registry of diverse people where we need a genetic match between donor and patient.
"One of our goals is to be reflective of the whole Australian population and ensuring there is a match out there that can save someone's life."
Total prizes in the competition total $18,000 which will be awarded at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo in July.
Exhibitors will have the opportunity to donate their fleece to raise funds for the charity.
The closing date for fleece entry and delivery is June 7.
