Australia’s wool industry is facing its biggest challenge in a century, with plummeting production and weak global demand. Despite the uncertainty, a new generation of farmers is committed to carrying the country’s agricultural legacy forward.
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00:00This year, the amount of wool Australia is set to produce is forecast to drop 12%, falling
00:09to lows not seen since 1921.
00:12Yet that outlook has not stopped Miranda McGuffick, a 23-year-old, fifth generation wool grower
00:18on the Monaro in the New South Wales snowy mountains, from following her dreams.
00:22Yes, being a young person coming into the industry, it's always hard to ignore the headlines
00:27or what the newspapers or the radios are saying, but you just have to stay optimistic
00:31and you can make a living out of this by making smart breeding decisions, smart management
00:36decisions.
00:37Miranda sees the value of investing in sheep genetics to make farmers more profitable.
00:42There's so much potential for this industry to get behind genomics more, to make smarter
00:45breeding decisions, that it's just an untapped interest area and I want younger people to
00:50be more interested and they are starting to be, which is wonderful.
00:53Last year, she was one of 10 young leaders selected by the industry to travel to China,
00:58where more than 85% of Australia's wool is processed.
01:01Seeing the pipeline from on-farm, working in a shed, seeing where that wool goes to
01:05factories and then being processed, it's been a bucket list item for mine.
01:10Seeing them have confidence in our industry and wanting us to get better is really fulfilling.
01:14Near Armidale in the New England region, 26-year-old Angus Dawson is taking a different approach.
01:19Traditionally, sheep are bred for wool or meat, and at his farm, Angus is developing
01:24a dual-purpose sheep for both markets.
01:26Australia rode on the sheep's back and it basically built the country many years ago.
01:31Generations past have talked of such roaring wool markets that have made people and farms
01:37what they are today, so I haven't experienced that.
01:41He's focused on cross-breeding merinos with pole dorset and charolais sheep, a strategy
01:46aimed at increasing meat quality while maintaining wool output.
01:49I'm on my way to breeding a dual-purpose pole merino, so what that includes is obviously
01:56good wool cuts, good wool amounts and qualities, but carcass traits and fertility traits, so
02:04more lambs on the ground, more weights, healthier lambs, and that way I can spread my risk sort
02:12of three ways when it comes to wool, lambs and carcass.
02:16While the wool price is not where farmers want it to be, young wool growers say there's
02:20a future in a fibre that's clean, green and sustainable.
02:24It's one of the best fibres in the world. It's sustainable, regenerative, very, very
02:29profitable for businesses that do it well. I want, in five years, to still be breeding
02:33the most profitable and productive merino sheep in the industry.
02:36Young wool growers optimistic there are better times ahead.