Denzil Mills

Associated with the wool industry all her life, Denzil Mills was a regional economist with the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPIF) before moving with her husband, John Mills, to Ennisclare, 83kms west of Warwick, in traprock country.

Running fine and superfine wethers for wool growing across 4,000 hectares at Ennisclare, the Mills have experienced an average season this year with good early summer rains– unlike many parts of south east Queensland which are still in drought.

Having undertaken a recent training session with Australian Wool Innovation's Woolcheque program through the Leading Sheep project, Ms Mills can see many advantages for growers from this independent wool pricing tool.  She expects to find Woolcheque beneficial for budgeting, wool pricing, price risk management and bench marking.

As the project chair for Leading Sheep, Ms Mills believes the web-based Woolcheque is a valuable tool for growers to access a fast, easy and up-to-date estimate of the price of their clip.

The Mills are subscribing members of the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) and use their database as a source of wool pricing information.

Ms Mills said that as Woolcheque's database information had become more readily available to people, she believed there would be a substantial user up-take.

"This program will give woolgrowers another source of information about how their prices on their particular lines of wool change over the season and that should be a big help for forward selling and risk management," she explained.

She said having access to daily market prices enabling growers to quickly and independently price their wool was particularly beneficial.

"I've already been telling people who are thinking about forward selling, to just have a look at Woolcheque - put their wool specifications in for last year's wool using Woolcheque and compare it to the grid prices offered.

"I think Woolcheque is brilliant for this.  It's ideal for comparing wool types and prices."

"While I am still learning to use all of the features available, it is no doubt a very useful tool."

Leading Sheep project manager Geoff Knights and other members of the Leading Sheep project completed the comprehensive Woolcheque trainers' workshops in Goondiwindi and Charleville in early August 2006.  Growers can now participate in short Woolcheque training sessions with Queensland Leading Sheep extension officers.

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