WOODSTOCK grazier Nick Punton is back in Australia after being part of the first wool tour to China in more than five years organised by Elders.
Nick joined the tour that father Bill was part of a decade earlier, visiting wool processing plants and knitting mills.
But in an expansion of the itinerary for the tour’s return, Nick and other wool growers from across Victoria visited a Mongolian sheep farm.
Nick said the eight-hour trip to Ordos, inner Mongolia, gave an insight into Chinese farm practices for Merinos.
“They had a ram centre with 100 head, mostly of South Australian stud genetics, where sperm was extracted for use in artificial insemination programs,” he said.
“The genetics were taken straight to farm for use in breeding programs.”
He said the Merinos at Ordos were clean sheep with similar sized frames to sheep bred in Australia, producing fleeces under 20 microns with 70mm growth over seven months.
However, the ground cover in an area known for snow was not as lush as Australia.
Nick said sheep were mostly housed in sheds and fed corn, grass and hay with feed grown in irrigated paddocks.
“They store large quantities in readiness for the winter months when it snows,” he said.
The tour group exploration a vertical wool operation at Nanshan where the process starts with greasy wool from Australia and ends with 2000 suits coming off production lines each day.
Nanshan is a hub for textile production in China and home to aluminium production.
Nick said: “The factories say they want Australian wool into the future and for retailers to take on more woollen garments.”
Last year, Bill and Nick Punton were the first to have their wool clips sold at Elders’ new sale facility in Melbourne when six bales of 18.5 micron wool sold for 1101 cents a kilo.
The Puntons are regular buyers at Kamarooka Park Stud’s ram sales.
Nick said Kamarooka Park genetics continued to help grow their dual-purpose flock.
The Elders tour group of 30, including wool brokers, visited major textile brand outlets in Shanghai, met with Australian Wool Innovation representatives to discuss product development and attended the biannual Intertextile Fair.
“It was good to see what happens to our wool after it has been sold ... a lot goes into using it for manufacturing,” Nick said.