Shearing is in full swing for the Owens family on their property Nanena at The Lagoon, near Bathurst, and they are hoping the recent lift in the wool market is a sign of better prices in the coming months.
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Dan Owens said they normally sell their wool towards the end of the financial year, but the timing also depended on what the prices were like in June and in which financial year they wanted the income.
This year's ewe clip was set to average about 16-micron, with each ewe producing about six kilograms.
"We aim for the finer end from 15- to 17-micron, but we also aim to keep the weight in the fleece, too," Mr Owens said.
Two weeks of price rises at the Sydney wool auctions were music to the ears of woolgrowers after so many weeks of softer prices.
The Eastern Market Indicator had a run of price rises across five selling days and, according to the Australian Wool Exchange, the last time the EMI had a longer sequence of positive movements was back in June 2022, when the EMI rose for six consecutive selling days.
A weaker Australian dollar a fortnight ago was said to be behind the early price rises as buyers operating in US currency upped the bids to match their budgets.
The strong finish recorded in the west at the end of selling a fortnight ago, where some of the individual micron price guides finished above the east, also carried into the series opening in the eastern centres last week.
Buyer sentiment was strong from the start, and AWEX reported it was evident from the first few lots that solid price increases were on the cards early last week.
By the close of auctions, the EMI had lifted 14 cents a kilogram across the week to finish on 1172c/kg.
That was on the back of a 16c/kg improvement in the indicator the week before.
But what makes last week's lift promising was that there were minimal currency fluctuations in the past week, meaning the upward market movements were driven more by buyer demand than currency.
AWEX reported the EMI rose in US dollar terms last week, closing the week US21c/kg higher at US764c/kg.
In addition, the AWEX forecast for the next four weeks shows the national offering reducing during the coming weeks.
This week there are 41,433 bales on offer in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle.
