The stains can’t be scoured out of the wool.
“It’s very serious and we’re worried it will get bigger,” the company’s chief operating officer Tony Cunningham said.
“Mills are finding it and pulling it out but it is costly and they’re seeking compensation.”
In a new move the latest Napier wool auction catalogue tagged fleece known to be affected and it was very difficult to sell.
“There were low bids or no bids,” Wool Brokers Association president Scott McLeod said.
He joined Cunningham in urging farmers to ensure affected wool is removed by handlers in the woolshed to avoid their prices going lower.
The problem is with high-colour sprays and some raddles applied to the woolly backs and sides of sheep during scanning or used to identify them. Even smallish amounts can spread through the wool. Some spray cans indicate marked wool can be scoured but that’s not the experience of the scour operators.
“We’ve tried bleaching but that does not get it out,” Cunningham said.
The scourers remove the wool where it is seen but when it’s not the wool can be put into blends with otherwise clean wool, tainting that as well.
Some traditional raddles are also leaving traces.
Cunningham also urges farmers and scanners to mark the sheep’s nose or tail, not the body carrying all the wool.
Much of the wool is now traceable so growers can be contracted directly and asked to change their handling practices.
The problem is worse in the North Island than in the South Island and the central North Island is the main culprit area.
The tainting comes at a time when overall non-wool contamination – the likes of bottle tops, grinding caps and other hard items – is increasing at record levels.
McLeod, who is wool manager at Masurel Direct, said crossbred wool prices are low enough already.
“We don’t want to create more trouble.”
Affected wool not being bid on at auction can still be sold but at levels well below market rates.
“Exporters are hugely wary of it.”
The spray applications are being put on mainly by scanning staff.
Wool classers will remove affected wool if they are required to, their national association executive director Bruce Abbott said.
He was contacted by a top wool handler who told him she was taking it out but the farmer told her to leave it in because removing it would cost him money.
There is a view the sprays are scourable when some clearly aren’t. It is unnecessary to spray sheep’s backs but scanners do it because it is just as easy as marking the head.
The bright colours are worse, the blue, red and orange, but they are used because they are easy to see when working the sheep.
