Big boys go for quality
15 August 2000
MEDIA RELEASE: Story &
pix
Rural Media and Daily Farm
Pages
IMMEDIATE
Big boys go for quality
[410
words]
One of the largest shearing contractors in the
country -- Peter Lyon shearing -- has signaled its
commitment to quality by becoming accredited to the Fernmark
Quality Programme.
During his quality assessment a
fortnight ago, 18 shearers and nine shed hands from his
Alexandra-based business converged on Stuart and Robin
Stevenson’s Strathview Station in Otago.
While there, the
shearing staff also earned their fine wool endorsements,
with help from WoolPro shearing services manager Gavin
Rowland.
Lyon says accreditation is an important step,
given the value and importance of income from fine wool to
his clients. Accredited farmers put time and effort
producing a quality clip, so they need to know shearing
staff are also committed.
“How we do the job in the
woolshed has a great effect on how the clip comes out at the
other end,” he says.
Lyon employs close to 200 people,
and at the peak of the fine wool shearing season, all can be
working in fine wool sheds.
He has developed a close
working relationship with Merino New Zealand, and sees
accreditation as a logical extension of this.
WoolPro
FQP audit manager David Long says the farmer, the industry
and the world’s perception of New Zealand wool benefits from
having accredited shearing shearers and shed hands preparing
a clip in an accredited shed.
Quality assured wool
accounted for almost 25 per cent of total auction sale
offerings in the 1999/2000 season -- around 100,000 bales
(or 15,000 tonnes), says Fernmark Quality Programme manager
Kelvin Whall.
“FQP wools at auction consistently earn
more than non-FQP wools because they have fewer faults. The
margins vary during the season, depending on the value the
market places on wools not having those faults.
More …
Lyon 2
“Our research clearly slows that it pays
growers to prepare wool to FQP standards. The extra income
greatly outweighs the extra costs involved.”
While
it’s possible to prepare wool to FQP standards without
belonging to the programme, Whall encourages growers to take
the plunge.
“It costs nothing to join and it’s one
practical thing growers can do to help the marketing of
their fibre,” he says.
Strathview owner Stuart Stevenson
says his decision to seek a quality accreditation through
Wrightson ‘Woolcare’ was logical given the introduction of
Merinos to his property five years ago.
“We want to sell
wool and quality assurance is what customers require,” he
says.
Although premiums won’t come overnight, he says,
accreditation is the first step in establishing the quality
chain.
His woolshed was purpose-built to meet quality
standards. It’s designed to remain correctly equipped, is
kept neat and tidy, and potential contaminants are kept
out.
Stevenson’s 220 ha property carries 9100 Romney
ewes, 2000 hoggets, 200 cows, 230 rising one- and two-year
cattle, 1450 Merino ewes, 500 hoggets and 300
wethers.
[ends]
For more information, please
ring
Kelvin Whall, Tel 03-343 7918
Photos &
captions
Photos are available on request from:
Greer
Schick (greer@wham.co.nz) or Trevor Walton
(trevor@wham.co.nz)
All go [jpg-1]
The wool was flying
as Peter Lyon Shearing Contractors got itself, and its
shearers, quality accredited
Here’s the plan
[jpg-2]
WoolPro’s David Long and Peter Lyon go over the
FQP quality checklist
[ends captions]