Research and Development

Merino breeder is impressed with Elders Ravenhall investment

Terry Sim January 29, 2025

Alex and Warren Russell at the Elders Ravenhall facility.

SOUTHERN Wimmera Merino breeder Warren Russell will maintain a diversified studstock, wool, prime lamb and cropping operation to maintain the flock despite current low wool prices.

“Wool prices aren’t exciting they need to be higher.”

But after visiting the Elders Ravenhall facility for the first time last week with his son Alex he is enthused by the company’s investment in the industry.

“We were impressed by the technology and the infrastructure and the investment in the future.

“Obviously Elders thinks there is a future in wool broking and handling; for us that was the most positive thing for the day,” he said.

“I think we’ll still be growing wool for a bit longer.”

The Russells sold 28 bales of superfine wool last week, with a 1.5 micron line of weaner fleece selling up to 1350c/kg greasy or 2000c/kg clean. It was also good to see ram clients top the sale with their wool in the sale. Konongwootong growers Ken Waters and son Stephen sold a 14.7 micron line for 2341c/kg greasy.

Most of the Melrose Merino ewes are joined to Merino rams – 2667 this year — with about 500 classed out ewes mated to White Suffolks for prime lambs.

“We try to class every ewe in the stud and commercial flock each year and anything we don’t like that we know can raise a lamb goes to the White Suffolks and that we keep pushing our Merino quality.”

The Russell’s Melrose Merino stud sells about 100 rams annually from its Nurrabiel home base in western Victoria. The stud is primarily wool focussed and most of his clients are also. The flock produces 17.6-17.8 wool with an annual cut of about 5.5 kilograms.

“Micron, fleece weight is still our bread and butter and we keep trying to put that on a robust sheep, but we are not trying to breed super fat and muscle types.”

With Australian Wool Innovation now considering where it will spend its levy dollars over the next three years, Mr Russell believes there needs to be a focus on marketing and research and development.

“You can’t have one without the other.

“If you are not promoting your product who will and if you are helping to invest in products that the people want to wear, then you don’t have anything to sell,” he said.

“And if you are not trying to improve your efficiencies on farm and you’re not trying to encourage genetic improvement and new ways of handling sheep to make it cheaper and easier than you are doing your growers a disservice as well.”

Mr Russell said the operation has land on the east and west sides of the Grampians that were far enough away to be unaffected by the recent fires. Sheep on land east of the national park were moved before the fires after running out of feed and water.

But Mr Russell said the current seasonal conditions mean he will have to consider whether to reduce numbers or start containment feeding to protect groundcover. This year he joined more Merino ewes to Merino rams than in 2024.

“Now I’m starting to regret that decision and thinking that I might need to lighten the load.”

“There are a lot of people who have reduced their sheep numbers quite a lot due to lack of feed and lack of incentive to keep them and poor harvest,” he said.

“I don’t think there is a solution, prices just go around and we’ve been very fortunate we’ve head nearly six strong years on all commodities and maybe wool hasn’t been super-strong but it has been OK.”

He believes many of the sheep producers in his area have already decided to reduce their numbers due to past lamb, mutton and wool prices, but he believes a recovery is coming later this year that will make sheep valuable.

“You’ve just got to get them there.”

Elders national manager wool operations Simon Hogan said the Ravenhall facility in Melbourne has just past the 250,000 bales received mark since it opened last year.

Its biggest receival week in the spring was 8250 bales. The facility now has just under 50,000 bales in the racking, with a capacity to store is just over 60,000 bales racked. He said the store is running three shifts from 9am Sunday to 6pm Friday and receiving wool 24 hours through the week to eliminate congestion.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Your comment will not appear until it has been moderated.
Contributions that contravene our Comments Policy will not be published.

Comments

Get Sheep Central's news headlines emailed to you -
FREE!