Research into biological defleecing of wool shows new promise, AWI leader says

Australian Wool Innovation's chairman Jock Laurie said the dream is still alive.

Mr Laurie said work "is progressing well" on research into defleecing with the University of Adelaide.

AWI last year invested $1.4 million into a three-year research project with the university.

Researchers hope to isolate a compound which can create a weak point in the wool fibre, making it easier to remove the fleece.

"It is critically important for the industry because we need to provide growers with options," Mr Laurie said.

"Times of pressure in industries drive change and that is exactly where we are with the wool industry right now."

In terms of mechanisation, shearing hasn't changed much in a 100 years, Mr Laurie said.

"The time we are in should be a spur to drive change because we are going to remain in a very competitive place for labour for a long period of time."

The industry leader was referring to the industry-wide shortage of shearers which has been identified as a key issue for growers.

"I think there will always be manual shearing, but this is about an investment that provides choice for the industry so that they can make decisions about how they want to process their wool," Mr Laurie said.

"You have to be a real athlete to be a shearer and in a competitive market place it can be hard to draw them into the industry so we need to have other options."

AWI has also been investing heavily into trying the solve some of the physically demanding work with shearing.

Woolshed design has been trying to keep pace beyond the revolutionary spring-loaded back brace and raised floors.

A new modular race delivery system is being taken beyond the prototype stage into full development with support from AWI.

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Mr Laurie urged growers to remain optimistic.

He said researchers are confident in about in 18 months "we should have a clearer picture of what the story is" in regards to biological defleecing.

This latest research is markedly different to the Bio-clip system which provides a clean break but then needs nets to trap the wool.

This latest biological shearing answer hopes to avoid the problem of using nets.

A protein is administered and then growers can leave it a couple of weeks to grow about five millimetres and start removing the wool at a point when the wool is down to 8 or 10 newtons.

"What we have to do now is to find a better method to administer the protein, whether that is via an implant or an injectable, that work is being done now," Mr Laurie said.

"We know that the protein puts a break in the wool so we can harvest it easily.

"It is amazing the number of woolgrowers who have got ideas on how to remove the wool so I think it will be a fairly simple process using VE machines, a level of robotics or air or whatever to remove the wool and move it via air up into bins, classers tables or wool presses."

Mr Laurie said there will be an obvious need for Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority approval, commercialisation to deal with and the need for mechanical means to remove the wool.

Mr Laurie says the project is timely and has the potential to be a major change in wool harvesting.

"This project really provides a great opportunity."

He said growers will ultimately decide where this technology fits in term of what types of wool.

"... woolgrowers will have a look at their business and see if they are having an easy or tough time getting shearers, whether or not you want to update your shearing shed or whatever it is and then you can make up your mind," he said.

"At this stage I can say it is very positive and I hope this gives confidence to the industry that we will continue to invest in this work, we'll drive it, we have seen enough to see the potential in this development.

"The biological defleecing option may not be used by everyone but it is another option to remove the wool safely".