With only one British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) auction left to take place in the 2016/17 season, average prices for the 2016 clip look set to be back on the previous year’s levels across most grades.

The 2016 average clip value guide on the BWMB website is down across most wool types compared with the prices paid for the 2015 clip. The exception is Blackface wool, as Table 1 shows.

The average guide price for both Suffolk and Lleyn/Texel wools are back by around a quarter, whereas the Mule wool guide price is back by around 8% compared with the 2015 clip.

With prices for the 2016 clip taking into account wool sold in the 18 auctions of the 2016/17 selling season, balance checks paid to sheep farmers by BWMB this year are likely to be down by around 15% on average compared with last year’s levels.

The final BWMB auction of the 2016/17 season takes places on 6 June. “We have no more carryover this year than any other year. There are about 2m kg to sell and we expect to sell at least 1.5m of that at the last auction,” BWMB chair Ian Buchanan told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Spot prices

Meanwhile, merchants buying wool direct from NI sheep farmers at a flat-rate spot price are beginning to quote for the 2017 clip. They are opening at around £0.50p/kg, down by £0.25p/kg compared with last year. Reduced demand from Chinese buyers has been blamed by merchants for the price fall.

With shearing contractors typically charging £1.40 to £1.50 per ewe, sheep farmers who hire in contractors for shearing face a negative return of £0.20 to £0.30 per ewe at current spot prices for a standard 2.4kg fleece.