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Wool Auction Show Floors

This photo is of the Show floor on which oddments (pieces, bellies, crutchings, locks and stains) were displayed. The bales were arranged in lot numbers to distinguish the wool from different owners.

The bales were opened and some of the wool was pulled out so that prospective buyers could inspect and value the wool. They would estimate the yield of clean wool in the lot so that they could calculate the price to which they could bid for the greasy wool at the Auction Sale, which was held at prescribed dates in the Wool Exchange in another building. The buyer really wanted to pay only for the clean wool (free of grease, dirt and vegetable matter), for which the Wool Broker had already placed an estimated clean price based on yield of clean wool and the estimated fibre diameter. As a wool classer, I was taught that the number of crimps per inch was correlated with the fibre diameter, with some influence of softness of handle which was also related to the fibre diameter.

In subsequent years (during the late 1970s) Sale by Sample (with measured Yield, Fibre Diameter in Microns and percentage Vegetable Matter (VM) and later Staple Length and Staple Strength) was introduced, with South Australian Wool Brokers leading the field. (By 1980 SA was displaying Sale by Sample for over 90% of the wool being offered for sale, while other States had only 20-30% being so measured).

Research by the CSIRO and some Universities later showed that the correlation between crimps per inch and fibre diameter only held true for the average of all wool, or all of the 20-30 lots of wool which made up a wool buyers mill lot of 200-300 bales but was not very accurate for individual clips and certainly not for individual sheep. The correlation was further weakened when Dr. Jim Watts introduced his Soft Rolling Skin concept with elite wool in the late 1980s and 1990s. His selection for a loose pliable, soft, thin skin resulted in a more uniformly crimped, softer, longer, smaller, bundling staples with bold deep, parallel crimps from base to the tip of the staple. He was able to breed sheep will wool of visual 60s (=23 microns on average), but which in fact measured 17 or 18 microns and could be spun as such nearer the limit. The coefficient of variation of fibre diameter in this elite wool was reduced from 20-25% down to 12-15% with much less fibre breakage during processing into a smoother softer yarn and cloth without skin irritation due to fibres of over 30 microns exacerbating pain receptors in the skin when woollen apparel was worn next to the skin.

(Source: Brian Jefferies)