Certified organic wool growers are being paid $8/kg for lambswool this season, with plenty of demand from overseas buyers for more – but seemingly little interest from local growers to convert to organic practices.
Owaka, South Otago, farmer Bruce McGill said this season he will be paid $8 for lambswool, $6.50 for ewe wool and $4 for bellies and pieces.
McGill has supplied certified organic wool to Bloch & Behrens Wool, a subsidiary of PGG Wrightson, for over two decades.
Everybody perks up when they hear those prices, he said, but when they hear what he does to get it, they lose interest fast.
“It pains me,” he said. “Wool growers are hurting.”
McGill runs 2300 breeding ewes over 650 hectares. This includes two-tooths.
He also runs 700 ewe hoggets.
The best ones have been going to rams the past couple of years, as he needed to build the flock after three years of dry conditions.
He also runs 150 Stabilizer breeding cows.
The farm holds 100ha of native forest, seven QEII titles, with 500ha hard hill country.
The home farm is steep, with dry stony subsoil that dries out quickly.
Bruce said when his father passed away from cancer the family began asking questions about health.
After researching the topic they began removing chemicals from their production system.
At one stage a farmer commented to McGill that he was basically farming organically, but that he wasn’t getting the premium organic farmers did.
This made McGill consider a full conversion.
“If we are doing it, why don’t we get certified?”
McGill is certified with AsureQuality, which he believes has a commercial outlook to its auditing process.
AsureQuality has an organic livestock standard that dictates how a farm is to convert to organic and what production principles are allowed.
Both the land and animals have to be transitioned to organic, a conversion that takes time, with management of feed, fertiliser, supplements, vaccines, veterinary medicine and more being dictated.
For example, to prevent internal parasites synthetic products are restricted or completely prohibited in some markets.
It took McGill about three years to fully convert.
He approaches parasite management using a package of animal health, genetics and rotational grazing.
He said genetics are key to being able to remove some of the conventional chemicals from the production system.
One genetic trait they work closely with AgResearch to breed into the flock is CARLA.
AgResearch’s website defines CARLA as “a molecule found on the surface of all internal parasite larvae infecting livestock. It is very tough and able to withstand passage through the rumen. CARLA is only present for a few days after worms are ingested. Later stages of the worm life-cycle do not have the molecule.
“CARLA antibodies are produced by the sheep’s immune system in response to larval challenge. In immune sheep, high levels of CARLA antibodies are present in saliva and gut mucus; these antibodies bind to CARLA on the surface of ingested L3 and prevent establishment. Some sheep produce more CARLA antibodies than others.”
AgResearch runs a saliva test to see which sheep have better resistance.
The resistance is heritable and McGill breeds for this trait.
Rotational grazing is also important.
Weaned lambs follow cows and calves. After that ewes graze a paddock, all to minimise parasite load.
“It’s a lot of management to stay on top of,” McGill said.
He plants diverse pastures and plants as many clovers as he can, as well as plantain, chicory and phalaris. He does not sow rye anymore.
Organic growers believe animals need diverse pastures.
Shearing, scouring and sending wool to market presents challenges, too.
Certified organic wool suppliers can use only new wool packs.
They use conventional shearers.
Once shorn, wool is transported to PGG Wrightson’s Mosgiel store, kept separate from other wool.
It is then sent to Timaru for scouring.
The scouring plant is certified, and has to be cleaned with non-chemical cleaners before the organic wool can be scoured.
The general manager of PGG Wrightson subsidiary Bloch & Behrens Wool, Palle Petersen, said they export 160-200 tonnes of organic wool to a single client every year.
“As soon as we get enough to fill a container it goes, our market can take more if we can find it.
“For crossbred lambswool we’re paying between $4 and $5 above the conventional price, more than double, nearly triple.”
The wool is sent to a single client in the United States that not only manufactures high-end mattresses, but also makes products for other brands.
“The aim is to sell the finished product or the fibre into the American market at the highest possible price without impacting sales, and channel benefits back to the growers. That’s how we’ve achieved what we’ve achieved over the last 10 or 15 years.
“The problem with the conventional market is there’s many sellers trying to undercut each other to buy market share. We’ve managed to avoid that, mainly because of the loyalty of growers.”
Petersen said being organic is not entirely attractive to many farmers as you get only a couple of kilograms of wool from a lamb.
“The key going forward is that they start getting a premium for their meat. I see a huge opportunity if we could get the government to pass that New Zealand Organic Standard. It’s sitting there waiting to be given the tick.”
Having the standard passed would mean local exporters could take it to, for example, US buyers and present it as an option, as following the strict American standard is virtually impossible for local growers.
Peterson said other countries that have their own organic standard have convinced the Americans to accept it.
“In New Zealand we don’t have that opportunity because we don’t have a national standard. It’s sitting bogged down in the politics.”
McGill and other growers did market organic certified meat to Whole Foods in the US, but the global financial crisis put an end to that.. They are hoping to rekindle the relationship.
Petersen said as parasites become resistant to drenches and more and more chemicals are banned in many countries, organic holds opportunities for farmers.
“If we’re going down the track of having to find natural ways of managing these issues, it’s a perfect opportunity to actually use the fact that we are going to be using natural ways of managing our farming. Use that in the New Zealand Inc story.”
Petersen has about 25 organically certified suppliers.
He said Southland’s climate makes organic farming easier as the environment is cold and parasites are easier to manage.
New Zealand Food Safety acting deputy director-general Jenny Bishop said the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) is currently drafting the National Organic Standard and Organic Process Regulations.
“We anticipate that we will have the regulations promulgated in late 2024. An increasing number of countries overseas are demanding that organic imports comply with their domestic standards or come from equivalent regimes.”
In Focus Podcast: How can the sector return fair value to wool growers?
We have a different type of show this episode.
Bryan moderated some of the panel discussions at the 2024 Primary Industries Summit in Wellington. One of them was on the future of wool and brought together some of the leaders in an industry that is struggling to return fair value to growers. How can we turn this around?
Join Bryan as he discusses the way forward with Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williams; Minister for Rural Communities Mark Cameron; farmer and agri-advocate Heather Gee-Taylor; and Devold NZ general manager and Campaign for Wool trustee Craig Smith.
