KEY POINTS:
Wool prices are the lowest since the early 1950s and farmers can be lucky to cover the cost of shearing - but AgResearch has a vision of a sustainable industry transformed from making low-value commodity wool to high-quality niche products.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says the inflation-adjusted wool price is only 6.2 per cent of the peak of the Korean War wool boom.
AgResearch growth and development section manager Allan Pearson says one industry issue is the need to blend wool from different flocks and breeds to produce consistency in the volume manufacturers require.
The vision involves linking the production of specific types of wool more directly to end users, Pearson says.
"We've got to have new wool types and produce them in large enough quantities to interest or to persuade end users to pay significant premiums for them."
The Enhanced NZ Wool Quality Project started late last year with funding from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology to look at the genetic and protein differences in wool that relate to fibre properties.
Genetic markers will be developed for traits such as strength and crimp so farmers can easily test sheep and breed wool for specific applications.
Carpets need a relatively coarse, high-crimp wool, while apparel needs finer wool with a lower crimp.
"We can afford to be more ambitious about the properties of wool than we have been in the past," Pearson says.
Meanwhile, the AgResearch Textiles Section has produced what is says is the world's first all-wool suit that can be machine washed and tumble dried.
The suit, developed with funding by Australian Wool Innovation, uses a fine single yarn with the compactness to take the stress of weaving and high abrasion resistance.
The fabric needs no chemicals to make it shrink proof and the rollers used to create the yarn can be easily retro-fitted to existing spinning frames, AgResearch says.
It is hoped the suit will be on sale for the Northern Hemisphere winter.
Work is also under way on enhanced colour stability with more resistance to sunlight bleaching and new generations of insect-resistance treatments for carpets.
The aim is higher-quality wool for improved farmer returns. Farmers can also benefit from easy-care sheep that are cheaper to farm and four times less susceptible to flystrike.
An AgResearch breeding programme, funded by Meat & Wool New Zealand and Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and started in 1997, has bred sheep with bare legs, heads, bellies and rumps, plus shorter tails.
Flystrike costs the sector tens of millions of dollars each year, with methods of prevention including cutting off wool-bearing skin to reduce dags around the backside and time-consuming dagging and crutching.
The easy-care sheep grows slightly less wool but a study by Lincoln University shows it provides cost savings of $7 a ewe each year.
A Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry report last week said production was expected to drop slightly and stabilise longer term but values would rise because of a lower dollar value and improving international prices.
Export earnings worth $687 million last year were forecast to drop to $607 million next year but recover to hit $795 million in 2012.
DESIGNER SHEEP
* AgResearch has bred sheep with bare legs, heads, bellies and rumps, plus shorter tails.
* Avoiding flystrike includes a method of cutting off wool-bearing skin to reduce dags around the backside and time-consuming dagging and crutching.
* The easy-care sheep grows slightly less wool but a Lincoln University study shows it provides cost savings of $7 a ewe each year.
