Is shearing more than once a year worth it?
(This article was reprinted with permission from the Sheep’s Back funded by AWI)
Introduction
Shearing on a more regular basis has been promoted for the past 12-18 months in response to the discounts received for long staple length wool. It is also being promoted on the back of an apparent increase in demand for shorter staple length wool.
As a consequence, producers that tend to produce longer staple length wool have changed from shearing annually to shearing either six monthly or eight monthly. So what are the benefits and costs associated with shearing more often?
Why is wool length important?
There are premiums and discounts for different length wools because fibre length is important to yarn making. This depends whether the end product is a worsted style yarn or a woollen yarn.
Worsted yarns are made from longer fibres, the processing route is more complex and requires the removal of short fibres. Not only are the short fibres removed, but fibres that are too long to process break, meaning they end up in two pieces - one good length and one too short that needs removing.
About 80% of Australia’s wool clip is processed through the worsted system. This produces a fine, smooth, tight and strong finished product appropriate for suiting and fashion fabrics.
Woollen yarns are made from shorter staples and are mostly mixed with synthetics or cotton. They are relatively coarse and weak and have many protruding fibre ends. The end products are knitted fabrics because they are soft, light, stretchy and full of air making them good insulators.
This is the underlying reason that there are discounts on either end on the scale, but no premiums for ‘correct’ length wool.
Premiums and discounts for different staple length wool
There is no premium in the market place for shorter length wool. However, there is a perceived premium for shorter wool, which is where the push to shear more regularly originates from.
Figure 1 clearly shows that any wool under 70mm does attract some level of discounts. Further to this, the level of discount applied to long wool (110mm plus) is not as great as the discounts applied to short wool (60mm or less) (Figure 1).
The changing staple strength, as the time of shearing alters in an eight monthly shearing cycle, also influences price. The length by strength by price graph shows actual variation in the wool market (Figure 2).
If a flock usually produces a longer staple wool (over 95mm) at a lower strength (26-30 N/ktex) then shearing more frequently could possibly increase the wool value. A staple length of 66-75mm and the strength 41-45 N/ktex (Figure 2) potentially adds 25 c/kg to the wool clip.
There are clear discounts for wool less than 70mm and severe discounts for wool less than 60mm. This is plainly illustrated in both Figures 1 and 2 where the discount between 70mm and 60mm staple length is about 100c/kg with peak discount of 250c/kg.
Management Implications
There are management implications of shearing every eight months or shearing every six months. The biggest issue is how to manage the seasonal variations in wool growth. Research has shown that wool growth in adult sheep producing 3.2kgs of clean wool ranges from 172g/month to 349g/month.
This aligns with feed availability and feed quality over the months, so aligning 8 monthly shearing to capture the benefits in a normal season is challenging, let alone a poor season. Some of the issues that could potentially arise are shearing clashing with other jobs on the farm such as harvest, lambing and also access to shearing staff.
Benefits
Shearing every eight months improves wool cut by about 7% in adults and maybe more if shearing six monthly. This is by far the most important aspect of shearing more often and is the underlying reason that drives producers to shear more often. Shearing itself increases appetite off shears for a short time
Figure 3 - Adult sheep three weeks post shearing have a 40% greater appetite than sheep not shorn.
This increase in appetite increases feed intake, some of which is converted to wool. The timing is critical. The consequences of shearing prior to the break can be that there is no cheap paddock feed available. The answer lies somewhere between no more wool produced and some level of weight loss.
There is anecdotal evidence that shearing more often increases the lambing percentage. The reason is possibly the rising plane of nutrition off shears coinciding with mating. This is imitating the ‘flushing’ effect that is widely used in the sheep industry. It is important to remember that there is no scientific research to back up the claim that shearing more often increases lambing rates.
There is the potential that shearing more frequently improves fly control and may even eliminate the need for crutching. Eliminating crutching altogether without any chemical control (eg jetting) is fraught with danger.
Shearing more often improves staple strength. This will only be the case if the shearing time coincides with the position of the break. If the wool is shorter there is a greater likelihood that the break will be either at the tip or base which affects the price positively.
However, shearing every eight months alters the position of the break as the shearing time changes. Shearing more frequently will also help you be able to better assess the condition of your sheep. There are two reasons for this:
- sheep will have less wool on them for a longer period of the year, enabling you to visually assess them
- sheep will be in the yards more often.
Costs
Shearing is the most costly exercise that a sheep enterprise undertakes. It accounts for 38% of total sheep costs and, at current wool prices, about 27% of total wool income and 14% of total sheep income. In the high rainfall areas it is as expensive per hectare to shear your sheep as harvest your grain crop. By shearing three times in two years this adds 50% to sheep costs. Not only is shearing expensive, but it is extremely time consuming.
For example:
1) 10 000 sheep take 16 days to shear or
2) 1500 sheep take three days to shear.
Has the business got sufficient spare labour and time to facilitate another shearing? However, if shearing more often, it should actually be quicker, thus costing less using a cost plus system. One of the biggest potential costs to shearing more often is if a shearing falls when there is a feed gap post shearing (Figure 3). It is either expensive to capitalise on the increased appetite of freshly shorn sheep or it won’t be capitalised on at all. It would not be economical to feed sheep to capitalise on this increased appetite. If shearing does fall prior to a feed gap they may produce no more wool and lose weight.
Shearing three times in two years is very complex and will cause problems. Trying to fit everything on time and within the parameters of not shearing during harvest and not changing lambing time from year to year is difficult. The test system in Table 1 works for April lambing’s but trying to fit everything around June/July/ August lambing is almost impossible.
The first assumption that we made is you cannot shear during harvest. The majority of farms are mixed enterprises and don’t have access to spare labour during harvest. The second assumption is that lambing is at a fixed time every year. This was also due to the availability of labour and fitting around existing tasks on the farm.
|
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 |
| January | Shear 1 |
| Shear 4 |
|
| February |
|
| Sell ewes |
|
| March |
|
|
|
|
| April | Lamb | Lamb | Lamb | Lamb |
| May |
| Shear 3 |
| Shear 6 |
| June | Mules | Mules | Mules | Mules |
| July |
|
|
|
|
| August |
| Sell wethers |
| Sell wethers |
| September | Shear 2 |
| Shear 5 |
|
| October | Sell all |
| Sell all |
|
| November | Mate | Mate | Mate | Mate |
| December |
|
|
|
|
The biggest risk to shearing more often is falling off the price wall (Figure 2). This refers to producing a staple length less than 66mm at any staple strengths. There is a significant financial penalty to missing the minimum staple length required.
Is it economical to shear more often?
The comparative margins below would suggest that annual shearing will outperform shearing every eight months, but not by much.
Shearing 3 times in 2 years $21.92/dse
Shearing annually $22.47/dse
We assumed that shearing more often produced 7% more wool but with no price advantage over time, shearing will be cheaper by 4% and there were no crutching costs. Anecdotal evidence suggests that shearing more often increases lambing percentages. This may or may not be the case but without scientific evidence this cannot be an assumption.
Alternatives to shearing more frequently
Shearing more often will not increase margins unless the lambing percentage claim can be verified. So what are the alternatives if your flock’s staple length is consistently greater than 110mm?
- Increase the stocking rate.
- Firm reserves when selling wool to avoid sudden fluctuations in dis-counts.
- Checking out your ram source.
Increasing the stocking rate will increase the pressure the sheep are under which in turn will produce a shorter staple. As a result, the sheep enterprise will produce more wool per hectare.
As Figure 1 shows, the discounts for long wool vary over time. Discussing the discounts with your agent and putting firm reserves on your wool can lessen the impact of the discount for ‘over length’ wool.
Lastly, if your wool clip is consistently attracting discounts for length, it is worth checking out your ram source via Merino Select. This can be found on the sheep genetics website or enter Merino Select in your search engine.
The relationship between staple length (YSL) and fleece weight (YCFW) is shown in Figure 4.
We know that there is no premium for different staple length wools, only discounts for wool either too long or too short. Fleece weight is where the money is but for some reason some people are chasing more staple length. In Figure 4 those WA sires with extreme YSL are not the sires producing the most wool. Of the group of animals in the top 10% for YSL, only one is also in the top 10% for fleece weight.
Conclusions
For a system of shearing more frequently to be economical, the sheep enterprise must have spare time, labour and be able to generate more lambs. Before embarking on a program to shear more frequently, it is very important to weigh up the facts and remember production drives profits much more than price.
Wool production per hectare is a much more important key performance indicator than wool price per kilogram.
Facts:
- Fibre length is important to yarn making.
- Price signals are not clearly pushing for shorter wool.
- Shearing three times in two years will be labour intensive and troublesome sometimes.
- Financial rewards are not great.
- There are management and genetic alternatives.