The Yarn

A clever new platform that allows farmers and experts to discuss problems, issues, questions, challenges. Created by farmers for farmers, hear how Yacker might be the way we all yack in years to come.

Rams to prepare for joining, weaners to grow, vaccinations to give, parasites to manage; there’s a lot happening on the farm over summer! Dr Tim Gole shares practical animal health and management advice for woolgrowers over the summer period, to best support your flock for the new calendar year.

A shearing and woolhandling shortage/crisis. Hear from a meeting of industry stakeholders who have agreed on various important points to improve the issue of shearer and woolhandler labour.

Grazing stubbles is an important component of many mixed farming systems, filling feed gaps over the summer months as a valuable source of feed for livestock. But with varying crop species, varieties, management and different harvesters, what is the nutritional value of modern crop stubbles? Dr Dean Thomas from CSIRO explains.

Chairman of the Wool Industry Consultative Panel Lyndsay Douglas talks through the new 10-year plan for the Australian wool industry. Over 800 woolgrowers and the greater industry has had input to Wool2030; hear what is in it and what it aims to do for the world’s premium sustainable fibre.

Electronic identification of sheep allows for precision management. How does it work? How does it make woolgrowers more money? This podcast explains it from those who have lived it.

In his 75th edition manging the flagship wool magazine Richard Smith discusses life in the UK, the evolution of the flagship publication and how you can get into it.

Despite a challenging 2020 for the global economy and therefore wool, the future looks bright. Hear from the AWI CEO, GM Marketing and GM Research about the state of R+D + marketing and the opportunities ahead.

Whether you’re a woolgrower, shearing contractor or worker, everyone is responsible for safety in the shearing shed. The newly launched SafeSheds is a best practice guide and assessment resource to make the wool harvesting workplace safer for all. Join us as the WA Shearing Industry Association (WASIA) explain the new program and how you can use it to reduce the risk of injuries and accidents in y...

Post drought the price of sheep is hitting record high levels but the flock is so low! Can sheep still be good value? Is it likely to last? Where are all the breeders going to come from? We head from the west to the east of our great country to seek answers to these questions.

The latest AWI funded Nuffield scholar is Monaro Merino producer Andrew Rolfe. After the last drought showed what was possible through containment, can this be the economically-efficient and environmentally-responsible way to seriously boost production?

We celebrate our 150th episode of The Yarn by exploring how the industry is educating the next generation on the impact of differing environments on sheep genetics. Recently in Western Australia, 8 teams, 7 schools, 7 different environments and 1 sheep bloodline took part in the AWI Young Breeders Challenge. We introduce the event organiser Grantly Mullan from Eastville Park stud, and four keen st...

Michael Caton, one of Australia’s best loved actors, joins The Yarn podcast to discuss his latest film RAMS which explores the very real issue of an exotic disease outbreak in a sheep community. Listen and see Michael as he joins host Marius Cuming to talk about his experience in the wool and farming industries and how accurate the film is in depicting how much sheep mean to the people who work wi...

The ground breaking Change Makers series of short, sharp videos is cutting through to woolgrowers, highlighting on farm changes that make a big difference to sheep producers. Hear from sheep consultant Nathan Scott about it. Also the AWI AGM is entirely online in 2020: find out how will it all work and how you can participate.

Sheep reproductive technologies are Dr Michylla Seal’s bread and butter, and her work extends far beyond Australia’s communities and borders. Hear how Dr Seal is breeding Australian Merino genetics into the Falkland Islands, and get her do’s and don’ts on managing your rams prior to joining.

In western Queensland young shearers take up the craft and we hear from Jeff Ma, Country Manager for China about how our biggest market is rebounding.

The world’s largest economy, on paper: should buy more wool. Why are wool’s fortunes in the US slowly changing?

Darren Spencer, a shearing contractor in WA’s Lake Grace, is currently down half a workforce as coronavirus keeps vital shearing staff back in New Zealand. But the show must go on. Hear from Darren how shearing teams are coping and how the industry is focused on supporting and upskilling the next generation of shearers to meet the challenge.

A decade of lambing many hundreds of twin-bearing Merino ewes had delivered enormous benefits for Victorian woolgrower Tony Butler, but its labour intensive and surely can be made easier. Tony also talks of his enthusiasm for wool having been on a wool tour of China and explains the amazing story of how his family came to farm at Newstead in the goldfields of Victoria.

A very famous name in Australian agriculture. This young innovator has created the prototype that may make the backbreaking work of fencing much easier

Helping fuel a boom in agricultural education, the wether challenge concept has introduced thousands of schoolchildren to the sheep and wool industry. Hear how it is run and why it continues to be such a great success across Australia.

From paddocks of Western Australia with Steven Bolt to the streets of Western Europe with Damien Pommeret. We discuss the current hurdles and hopes in the industry from farm to fashion and look towards the green shoots of wool demand that may be emerging in our overseas markets.

Innovation and a commitment to quality is why MJ Bale grew to be 55 stores and 350 staff in just 12 years. Founder and CEO Matt Jensen talks through his woolshed dream of starting his own wool retailing business.

With a change in the local landscape and weather patterns, woolgrower Alistair McDougall is trialing legume pastures to fill his autumn feed gap and improve soil quality. High in protein, highly digestible, hardy and persistent, Alistair shares his hopes for these legumes in his livestock system.

New age wool masks have been produced and may well bring a silver lining to the COVID pandemic. Australia’s biggest sheep show takes its ram sale entirely online.