Testing & handling

Measuring the potential value and profitability of fibre is a powerful tool for woolgrowers in areas as diverse as predicting farm profitability or making crucial breeding decisions.

AWI has developed on-farm and off-farm wool testing devices to boost woolgrower knowledge of their individual harvest value and build market demand for Australian wool internationally.

  • On farm testing

    AWI has created a range of products to help woolgrowers better assess and employ their own on-farm fibre management procedures. These range in nature from an OFFM calculator available to download through to operator workshops and newsletters.

  • Off farm testing

    Off-farm testing methods currently being researched and implemented by AWI will asses the viability of emerging technologies and address threats to wool quality such as dark or medullated wool fibre contamination.

  • On and off-farm logistics

    AWI's main aim from this research is to develop and implement logistics technologies that enable cost savings and positive structural changes on-farm and within the wool processing pipeline, for example the delivery of enabling technologies, such as wool bale ID, to facilitate better pipeline traceability.

  • Sheep producers challenged to raise the ‘baa’ on industry innovation

    The challenge is out to Australian sheep and wool producers to showcase innovation applied in their enterprise by entering the national Raising the Baa competition. Raising the Baa is open to all commercial sheep and wool producers, and was initiated by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) as a way of identifying and encouraging innovation within the industry.

Overview

A thorough understanding of the quality of wool being produced is important at all scales of the industry.

On-farm testing undertaken by individual woolgrowers, using specialised tools created by AWI, can impact on decisions as crucial as determining the value of wool at the farm gate through to deciding which are the most important ewes for breeding.

At an industry level off-farm testing allows AWI to predict the wool production potential, cost-effectively trial new technologies and asses the threat of competing fibres.

 

AWI Global Sites