Blaming sheep farmers for the loss of 43 jobs at AgResearch is akin to blaming investors for the failure of a finance company. Instead, the focus needs to turn to the private sector to unlock new wool fibre uses reports Scoop.“I think this is a tragedy for the research staff involved and for NZ It highlights a massive gulf between what is expected from research and what’s actually being put into the field,” says Don Nicolson, Fed Farmers President.

“But with the national flock less than half the peak of 70 million reached in 1982, research monies have simply followed this 28-year realignment. AgResearch is basing its business plan on where the sheep industry is, not where it once was. “For wool to be on a par with 1980s returns, it ought to be a $2.8 billion export but now it’s down to just under $500 million. It’s simply wrong to blame farmers for pulling the wool levy when our returns have collapsed.

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Wool grower Anne Munro, of Fairlie, South Canterbury, is demanding more accountability from M&WNZ over the spending of the 5.25c/kg wool levy reports The NZ Farmers Weekly. She got overwhelming support for a remit to MWNZ’s annual meeting in Gore recently, with 10,070 votes for and only 427 against. It called for a full, detailed breakdown of the use of wool levies since MWNZ was formed in 2004. “The level of detail required would enable levy payers to trace the spend to the specific projects and include detailed calculation of the return on the spend that Meat & Wool believe has been delivered to levy payers,” the remit went on to say.

MMNZ has reportedly already hired a consultant to prepare a cost benefit analysis of wool levy expenditure, which has displeased Wool Advancement Group (WAG) people. Munro attended a recent WAG meeting but she said no-one put her up to propose the motion, because it arose out of her passion for sheep farming after 30 years on Wairewa station, with husband Philip.

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