THE one millionth bale of wool processed through the Australian Wool Exchange’s WoolClip digital specification platform has been sold in Sydney.

Sentdale Wool director Jim Michell was the successful buyer of the bale marking the major milestone, paying 1630 cents/kilogram kilo for the lot at Yennora Wool Selling Centre in Sydney last week.

“It feels wonderful. I am happy. The company I bought it for, Natsun, wanted to go forward with it, they’re extremely happy for doing it.

“The market was a little bit stronger, but we wanted to show our support for WoolClip,” he said.

“It gives a buyer a bit more confidence that you know that it’s being audited and that’s what we need and that’s what our customers are asking for at the moment.”

Sentdale Wool director Jim Michell was happy to buy the 1,000,000th WoolClip bale for Natsun.

The bale was pressed in mid-September in the shed at ‘Jibolaro’, near Cooma in New South Wales, and classed by local classer, Tiffany Clifford. The bale tested at 17 microns with a yield of 75.5 percent and 0.2pc vegetable matter.

The sale of the wool was handled by AWN’s northern wool trading manager Mark Hedley. The one millionth bale processed through WoolClip is expected to be shipped to China in December.

General manager of Warrembool Pastoral Company, Charles Cay, who is one of the owners of the property was also on hand to celebrate, accepting an award to mark the event.

“It’s really exciting for the business and the team to be a part of this step into the 21st century. “We’ve got all the new technologies at hand, and it’s nice to see the wool industry embracing it and implementing it so that our product can take its rightful place at the top of the natural fibres,” Mr Cay said.

WoolClip is a digital platform operating via a smartphone app or the web that replaces the traditional paper-based documentation with a cloud-based system, managing bale data in real time, working online and offline.

AWEX said the combination of eBales with electronic capture in the shed through WoolClip enable a new era in traceability and supply chain transparency for wool, enabling seamless tracking from farm to export.

Milestone is testament to industry innovation commitment

AWEX chief executive officer Charlie McElhone said processing the 1 millionth bale in WoolClip is a testament to the industry’s commitment to innovation.

“This achievement represents how far WoolClip has come since its launch and the growing confidence of the industry in digital tools that make wool handling smarter, faster and more transparent.

“It has become an integral part of how our industry works and enhances the assurances that Australian wool can provide in the marketplace,” he said.

AWEX said since WoolClip’s launch in 2018, it has transformed the way wool is handled in Australia, streamlining data collection, supporting biosecurity and enhancing provenance for the domestic and global export market. By digitalising wool specifications and integrating with logistics platforms, eBale and WoolClip reduce paperwork, improve accuracy and support faster decision-making across the supply chain.

“As a wool grower, WoolClip has enabled us to take the wool from the shed to the sale with less room for error and it streamlines the process,” Mr Cay said.

AWEX’s WoolClip program leader John Cox said it shows that the future of wool is smart, connected, and that its transparency meets the increasing demands from the domestic and international wool market.

“It offers full traceability for everybody in the team and enables full traceability from farm to mill for our customers overseas.

“Now more than ever, our customers are wanting to have that traceability and WoolClip via each eBale has a unique digital identifier right from when it’s scanned in the shed right through the pipeline to the mills overseas,” he said.

“It’s transformed the way we handle wool, how we document wool.

“There’s a big team behind it to make sure that it runs smoothly and continues to meet the needs of industry.”

AWN auctioneer Casse Baile sells the millionth WoolClip bale.

WoolClip can help minimise mis-shipment of bales

AWN’s Mark Hedley, said WoolClip is invaluable for the industry and the entire supply chain.

“WoolClip gives us the ability to reliably and consistently trace that with RFDI tags that we are scanning on wool packs.

“A lot of wool growers don’t really understand that it’s not uncommon for us to have a bale delivered into China or delivered into Europe that is an incorrect bale, whether it has come from a farm incorrectly labelled or whether it actually just happened in the wool store,” he said.

“Currently, I have a bale sitting in China that shouldn’t be there.

“It should be in Goulburn and the correct bale is sitting in Goulburn,” he said.

“They are costs our industry has to wear, so if we can eliminate the mis-shipped bales throughout our industry, it saves growers money as well, and WoolClip gives us the ability to reliably and consistently trace that with the RFID tags that we are scanning using eBales.”

Wool classer Tiffany Clifford said WoolClip is more efficient and timesaving for all involved.

“The benefit of using WoolClip is you scan the bales as you go and you can check the bales to make sure none of the brands are wrong and everything is correct.

“You can do the speci once you get home and the wool brokers and people in the wool store receive the speci’s before getting the bales,” she said.

Shearing contractor Rob Ward has been in the industry for almost four decades and said WoolClip has made his job more efficient communicating with all parties along the supply chain.

“I think this new technology is where we are going to be going with the industry.

“There are a lot less mistakes that are coming through especially scanning bales because the classer is eyeballing all the bales,” he said.

“If the mistakes are picked up in the shearing, it’s easier to fix them from here. I’ve made it a point for all my teams to be up to date with the system. It brings everyone up to speed and everyone’s at the same level. I was very excited when I heard that we were lucky enough to get this millionth bale.”

WoolClip is a key component for biosecurity

AWEX wool operations general manager and WoolClip co-founder David Cother said digital traceability is the backbone of all modern supply chains, and WoolClip provides the Australian wool industry with the means to protect itself in the “biosecurity management toolbox”, allowing the sector to quickly trace where wool bales are produced.

Crucial traceability information including Property Identification Codes and eBale IDs captured in WoolClip will seamlessly integrate with the Australian Wool Traceability Hub, enabling wool traceability back to farm and supporting industry’s Emergency Animal Disease response plan.

“The risk of an Emergency Animal Disease outbreak is real to the livestock industry.

“Collectively, this is an industry effort with support from wool growers, wool classers, wool handling staff, wool brokers, private treaty merchants and shearing contractors,” he said.

“The next 1 million bales are not far away, and we hope the industry celebrates their achievement.”

Celebrating the millionth WoolClip bale at ‘Jibolaro’ were, from left, shearing contractor Rob Ward, classer Tiffany Clifford, AWEX WoolClip program leader John Cox; AWN’s Mark Hedley, grower Charles Cay.