Professor Phil Hynd would be the best person to have on a trivia team in the event an obscure question popped up about wool follicles.
With 30-odd years of knowledge studying wool follicles, Prof Hynd is now investigating the possibility of bringing biological wool harvesting to the Australian wool industry.
As part of an Australian Wool Innovation Wool Harvesting Open Day on Friday, September 1, Prof Hynd spoke to a crowd of more than 100 farmers and shearers at the Falkiner Memorial Field Station outside Conargo, deep in NSW Merino country.
“This is very new technology,” Prof Hynd emphasised.
Research led by the University of Adelaide is fine tuning how sheep can be biologically de-fleeced using a natural protein found in legumes (previously corn) that generates a weakened zone at the base of the wool fibre.
It allows the fleece to remain on the sheep until the wool is removed by a prototype handpiece 14 to 21 days after the injection of the protein.
“This is not Bioclip,” Prof Hynd said.
In the 1990s, Bioclip was touted as a shearing alternative in which the sheep would receive an injection that broke the wool fibres, causing the wool to fall off and be caught in a retaining net that was fitted to the sheep.
With a low uptake of Bioclip, due to the labour intensity of the job, biological wool harvesting has been somewhat parked for a few decades until now.
Prof Hynd said his research was still in its infancy and was at least five years off becoming commercially available. But the possibility created a lot of questions among attendees.
For those who have sheep to shear more immediately, there were a range of different shearing systems on display and the chance to talk to leading machinery and shed manufacturers at the AWI day.
AWI chair Jock Laurie addressed the crowd, emphasising the importance of shearers, shed hands and wool classers to the wool industry.
“Shearing is the number one issue growers talk to me about, and something I am familiar with as a grower myself,” he said.
AWI staff discussed AWI Shearing Shed Safety, shed design and shearer and wool handler training initiatives, reinforcing Mr Laurie’s sentiment that AWI is in no way looking to replace shearers.