Sleep Research - The latest scientific results

Consistent with earlier scientific findings, a study undertaken by the University of Sydney, Australia and funded by the Australian Wool Innovation, has found that a better night's sleep is achieved when sleeping in or under wool.

Brands to turn away from wool if unmulesed demand not met

FASHION brands will turn away from Australian wool if pain relief for surgical mulesing is not made mandatory, a major wool processor has predicted.

Wool brokers seek wool from non-mulesed sheep for a premium in European and US markets

Wool brokers are reporting growing interest in non-mulesed wool with premiums possible, if the fleece is of good quality. Mulesing is the surgical practice of cutting skin around the breech of a lamb to prevent blowfly strike and it has attracted the wrath of animal activists for a decade.

G.Schneider on Animal Welfare

AUSTRALIAN Wool Growers Association chairman Robert McBride is disappointed that AWI has ignored the recommendations of the WoolPoll 2015 Panel and a large percentage of wool growers in its levy options.

Innovators flock to boost British wool trade

Britain's wool industry, which for a decade was shrinking like a cardigan on a hot wash, is bouncing back thanks to demand for our coarse home-grown fleeces for a variety of weird and wonderful applications.

AWGA blasts 1.5pc levy omission

AUSTRALIAN Wool Growers Association chairman Robert McBride is disappointed that AWI has ignored the recommendations of the WoolPoll 2015 Panel and a large percentage of wool growers in its levy options.

WPA slams AWI over levy

WOOLPRODUCERS Australia (WPA) has slammed Australian Wool Innovation's (AWI) decision to leave out a 1.5 per cent levy option at the WoolPoll vote. WPA senior vice president and NSW Farmers wool committee chairman, Ed Storey, Yass, NSW, claimed the exclusion of an incremental levy decrease was a deliberate move from AWI to ensure the levy was not lowered from two per cent.

MEDIA RELEASE - WoolPoll Options Queensland

WoolProducers Australia has expressed disappointment over the levy options put to wool growers to vote on in this year's WoolPoll, claiming that the glaring omission of 1.5% as an option does not provide growers with an opportunity at an incremental decrease in compulsory levies paid.

Wool growers push for 1.5pc WoolPoll levy ignored by AWI

Australia's wool marketing, research and development body has been criticised for ignoring a national grower call for a 1.5pc option in the WoolPoll 2015 options. Australian Wool Innovation last Friday announced the five voting options of WoolPoll 2015 as zero, 1 percent, 2pc, 2.5pc and 3pc; unchanged from previous polls.

Victoria's chief veterinian issues animal welfare warning

Victorian sheep and cattle producers have been warned to maintain animal welfare standards or risk large fines and bans on owning livestock.

Mulesing pain relief now well in place — so now for the next steps in pain management for sheep

Emeritus Professor Peter Windsor, University of Sydney, spoke on progress in pain management in sheep and other livestock at the PanPacific Veterinary Conference in Brisbane in May. Windsor and his team have extensively researched the efficacy of pain relieving drugs in livestock and willingly challenges a few myths about the way animals feel pain.

Australian wool production to ease in 2015/16

The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee forecasts that shorn wool production for 2015/16 will decline by 4.3% to 332 mkg. This reflects a 3.7% fall in shorn sheep numbers, a result of the continued high turn-off of sheep and lambs in 2014/15, while average fleece weights are expected to be 0.7% lower than in 2014/15.

Look after animal welfare or pay the price, warns wool buyer

ONE of the world's largest wool-buying and processing companies wants Australian farmers to be forced into using pain relief when performing animal husbandry operations on sheep.

Rodd & Gunn joins the Woolmark licensing program

The latest brand to gain Woolmark and Woolmark Blend certification is premium menswear label Rodd & Gunn. With a heritage dating back to 1946, the label's affiliation and relationship with wool resonates with the values and qualities upheld by the Woolmark brand.

El Nino fuels disturbing trend

Global temperature records continued to tumble in June, as the strengthening El Nino in the Pacific combined with background warming from climate change.

Pataonia Makes the Perfect Wool Baselayer for Summer

Patagonia just announced the release of its new Merino Air line, a collection of what the company is calling "the world's most advanced base layer."

Gunning wool graziers call for more research funding for genomics

Fifteen years ago the penny dropped for Gunning wool grazier Greg Hallam and his wife Trish who switched to a more scientific and profitable way of producing fibre. Now they are puzzled why their peak industry body is undermining genetic research.

Sheep and wool industry agreement needed on PETA and animal activists

More agreement was need within the sheep and wool industry on how to counter animal activist attacks, according to WoolProducers Australia Rochard Halliday. In the latest edition of quarterly industry newsletter...

MLA Report ranks sheep and goat industries' worse diseases

Which diseases have the biggest economic impact on Australia's sheep and goat industries? A systematic review recently completed for Meat & Livestock Australia has calculated and ranked 23 sheep and 9 goat diseases in terms of their economic cost to both industries.

Emma Hegarty Wins Inaugural Trans-Tasman Award

Emma Hegarty, 27 year old Beef Extension Officer for Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), has scooped the prestigious Zanda McDonald Award 2015...

Shearers mulesing crackdown

The controversial practise of mulesing has been thrust back into the spotlight by some unlikely advocates who are calling on the industry to spearhead an aggressive anti-mulesing campaign...

Scientists Demonstrate More Fallacies Of 'Manmade Global Warming'

It seems that every few weeks we hear or see some scientific data that seriously challenges the politically correct notion that the activities of man, burning fossil fuels for energy, are irreversibly and catastrophically damaging the Earth's atmosphere and causing global temperatures to rise to dangerous levels...

Wool grower believes live animal export industry needs to work alongside animals activists for better welfare and trade outcomes

The live export industry needs to start talking more positively and stop demonising those opposed to the trade, according to NSW farmer and Australian Wool Growers Association director Charles 'Chick' Olsson. He quoted a 19th century French economist, who famously said, 'if goods don't cross borders, then soldiers will'...

Important message from Genevieve re country or origin labelling laws... Everyone is free to participate

The government have been holding industry consultation during April and May 2015 regarding country of origin labelling and are currently running a survey to gauge the views of consumers (with the feedback to be considered in the development of the Commonwealth's proposals, with a working group of Ministers...

Researchers questioning numbers in Australian Wool Innovation report

AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation has come under fire for its economic report released last week which shows just a 45c return for every dollar invested in genetic and genomic research. And genetics research in the sheep industry has been grossly undervalued according to researchers...

Woolly questions for AWI

SO, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) invested a measly $3.3 million in sheep genetics and genomics research during 2010-13. AWI released a media statement this week to announce an independent analysis (it commissioned) had revealed growers lost 55 cents from every dollar spent on genetic and genomics research during that period, mainly in support of the Information Nucleus Flock (INF) and MerinoSelect...

Jenny Kee launches Australian Merino wool knitwear collection

Iconic Australian designer Jenny Kee, in collaboration with The Woolmark Company, has created a new limited edition Australian Merino wool capsule collection, reminiscent of her recognisable Australiana knitwear from the 1980s...

Australian Wool Innovation criticised by major wool growers

AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation has been slammed as "irrelevant" and "insignificant" by some of the nation's biggest wool growers. The criticism comes ahead of this year's WoolPoll, which will determine the amount of grower levy funding for the next three years, and the biannual AWI board elections...

Jona Weinhofen should stick to guitar: his anti-shearing ad is a work of fiction

Adelaide-born musician, vegan and Peta activist, Jona Weinhofen should stick to his day job, guitarist in metalcore band I Killed the Prom Queen. His starring performance in a video produced by Peta is ill-informed, incendiary and inflammatory...

Lismore's Ellie Stephens sashed at last

IT WAS a case of second time lucky for this year's The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl Ellie Stephens from Lismore. Ellie, a business development manager for a Lismore accountancy, was a state finalist in competition in 2012, and returned this year with the calm and confidence necessary to take the sash...

German supermarket chain ups the ante on animal welfare

A German supermarket chain has introduced a wide-ranging supply-chain policy on animal welfare that may be the most progressive in the world. Sadly, Australia's supermarket chains are far behind in introducing such measures, despite their positive impact on public health...

'97% Of Climate Scientists Agree' Is 100% Wrong

If you've ever expressed the least bit of skepticism about environmentalist calls for making the vast majority of fossil fuel use illegal, you've probably heard the smug response: "97% of climate scientists agree with climate change" - which always carries the implication: Who are you to challenge them?

Lamb to rise, wool to slump: ABARES

AMB slaughterings will soar to 22.3 million this year, the highest number for 43 years, as producers enjoy an expected 7 per cent rise in average saleyard prices to 510 cents a kilogram in 2014-15. Attractive prices for both lamb and mutton will clip the national sheep flock by 3pc to 70.7m head by June.

Sodexo Expands Ongoing Commitment to More Humane Supply Chain Through its Comprehensive Animal Welfare Policy

Sodexo announces new commitment to eliminate veal crates from its supply chain and a phased-in approach to sourcing all egg products exclusively from cage-free hens.

Wool review overdue: Lamb

Opinion: Any industry or business for that matter that feels it is perfect, or cannot function better than it already does is probably doomed to failure.

MLA 'mutiny' gathers steam

Leading abattoir operator and sheep producer Roger Fletcher is attracting considerable support for his call to separate the sheepmeat industry from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).

Foreigners can no longer buy big farms: Abbott slashes screening threshold to $15 million

Foreigners can no longer buy up endless $250 million parcels of Australian agricultural land after Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday slashed the screening threshold from $252 million to $15 million.

Fletcher calls for MLA split

Demands from within the beef industry for radical surgery to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) have prompted an influential call for the sheepmeat sector to quit the peak red meat outfit altogether.

Recent Senate levy application... Comprehensive summary

Farmers seem to be at the end of the food chain when it comes to subsidising the activities of research promotion for globe trotting boffins and experts not largely accountable for their actions or inactions on the industry's behalf.

Broader wools gain a broad attention at Heimtextil

The natural versatility of broad wool products took centre stage at the world's largest interior textile fair at Heimtextil in Germany.

Tri-Solfen

Trisolfen helps to prevent any setbacks to their growth that mulesing may cause. Trisolfen definitely helps with reducing scabbing, promotes better and faster healing and they tend to mother up more quickly than untreated lambs.

Marketing campaigns of Australian Wool Innovation have been questioned

The Australian Wool Growers Association has vowed to keep questioning and challenging wool's research and marketing body. Australian Wool Innovation has come under fire from AWGA for continuing to "demonstrate a lack of clear direction for our industry".

Public School claims world wool crown

Hip New York label, Public School, has claimed the International Woolmark Prize for menswear. The label, started by Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, has been credited in the US for redefining the landscape for menswear.

Venture capital firm gives marijuana industry a shot of credibility

Despite growing momentum toward marijuana legalization, big-name investors have largely stayed on the sidelines of the budding industry, content to hold out until federal prohibition is one day repealed.

2014 Wrap-Up - A Message from the President

2014 was a year of continuing challenges for our industry - with poor environmental conditions, and a declining market, and international economics making it a tough year.

El Nino likelihood rises

Most of the country is in for a substantially hotter and drier than normal summer as the chances of an El Nino increase to 70 per cent. The Bureau of Meteorology's December-to-February outlook predicts unusually warm summer days and nights more likely for all regions, except Western Australia, south-western Victoria and Tasmania.