Wednesday, 01 February 2023 12:55

Woeful wool

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: This old mutt still struggles to understand the absolute disaster that strong wool has become over the past 30 years or so.

He's been around a while now, back when the old Wool Board existed, and seen the many machinations that entity evolved into until it was finally disbanded.

Nothing better illustrates the ongoing, slow death of this once magnificent industry than current prices.

A mate of the Hound's recently received a gross valuation for 38 bales of his crossbred fleece - at an average weight of 181kg each - of just over $6,200, which still had handling fees and other costs to be charged of around 18 cents/kg or around $1,200.

This means he will net around $5,000.

However, the problem is it cost him $16,000 to shear the sheep!

No wonder farmers are turning to self-shedding sheep as we are witnessing the death of crossbred wool sheep farming in this country!

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Civil Circus!

OPINION: It really is getting harder to lampoon government bureaucrats when they do such a good job of it themselves.

Anyone in the primary sector will know about the clowns covering the countryside in the red tape we all have to wade through.

Spare a thought then for media outfit Stuff who were threatened with fines up to $200,000 by a snivelling civil servant from the MoH for illustrating a quiz question with a photo of part of the cover of a 45-year-old copy Playboy.

As Stuff notes, “It wasn’t the Playboy cover which caused offence. No, it was the back page which… featured an advert for a cigarette brand”.

As Regulations Minister David Seymour notes, “The real scandal here is, well, no wonder we’ve got problems in healthcare when they’re doing the Stuff quiz during work time.”