No.8 Wire: Celebrating women in rural business

The separate shearing and woolhandling series will start in Southland in January

Enterprising women

Entries close at the end of next week for the Enterprising Rural Women Awards which aims to help boost the profile of women who run rural businesses.

The awards have four categories, with $1000 prizes in each category and for the supreme honour, to be announced at the RWNZ conference in Nelson on November 21.

To enter the awards, women have to own and operate a small business with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent staff, based in a rural area.

The business must have been running for at least two years.

If in partnership, women must be an active partner of 50 per cent or more in the business.

World series for 2016 show

Next year's Hawke's Bay Show has been included in a strenuous series spanning nine months to select the New Zealand team for the 2017 World shearing and woolhandling championships.

The separate shearing and woolhandling series will start in Southland in January and involve six qualifying rounds, the last at the Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings on October 21, 2016, leading to selection series finals three weeks later at the Canterbury Show in Christchurch.

Wool sales

Prices continued to rise at last week's North Island wool sale in Napier as buys cleared 97 per cent of the offering of about 7500 bales.

Apart from the finer end of the fine crossbred longer shears, which came down 2-4 per cent, the balance of this category ranged from 3 to 7 per cent dearer with shorter types benefiting the most.

Coarse crossbred fleece were firm to 2.5 per cent firmer, coarse shears were firm to 4.5 per cent stronger with shorter types in strong demand, and oddments were firm to 1.5 per cent dearer.

There was good global competition, with the Chinese, Australian, Western Europe, Middle East, UK and Indian markets all involved.

Today's South Island sale in Christchurch offers about 8900 bales.