• What is Woolcheque?
• Who maintains the price estimates on the site?
• Which Region do I belong to?
• What is a WSA and how can I find out what mine is?
• Which yield should I put into the worksheet?
• How often are prices updated?
• Does the "Find auction lots" function cover all wool offered in Australia?
• How do Woolcheque prices relate to my wool broker’s valuations or my auction sale prices?
• What is the difference between the premiums and discounts provided by Woolcheque and the weekly AWEX P&D report
• How do I get up-to-date market reports?
• How are the averages that are on the bottom of the worksheets calculated?
• How does the site convert from a clean price to a greasy price?
• Is there a time limit when using Woolcheque?
• Are the prices a gross or net figure?
• How does Woolcheque protect my privacy?
• How soon can I access my presale lot data on Woolcheque?

 What is Woolcheque?
Woolcheque is a wool pricing tool for Australian wool producers funded by Australian Wool Innovation Limited. Woolcheque allows you to quickly price lots against daily market values, as well as view similar lots sold at auction to verify the price estimates. The site also explains different wool characteristics, shows historical trends, and offers tips that may be useful to woolgrowing enterprises.

 Who maintains the price estimates on the site?
The Woolcheque site is maintained under contract by the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX). AWEX is responsible for the running of wool auctions as well as providing Market Information services to wool trade participants and others. Their large auction database provides the basis for the prices on this site. 

 Which Region do I belong to?
Woolcheque data is derived from auction data from the following centres:

• Northern: Sydney, Newcastle, Goulburn;
• Southern: Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide, Launceston; and
• Western: Fremantle.

 What is a WSA and how can I find out what mine is?
WSA is the acronym for Wool Statistical Area. Each state is divided into a number of Wool Statistical Area’s which are used for statistical and data collection purposes.

The WSA’s were originally drawn by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and are widely used in the wool trade to define the general source of wool. The area’s are not necessarily aligned with shire boundaries or postcodes and some larger geographical areas may have multiple WSA’s, for example the New England region of NSW is N02 and N03. You can find your WSA on sale details or you can contact your wool broker or advisor. Another way to find WSA is by clicking on the following link:

http://www.awex.com.au/AWEXMAIN.3473742:STANDARD:893945218:pc=PC_12 and click on view Wool Statistical Areas.

 Which yield should I put into the worksheet?
The pricing calculator uses exclusively the Schlumberger Dry Yield.  Carding types (Locks, Crutchings, etc) are often quoted in Scoured or Carbonising yields. However, these yields are often unavailable to woolgrowers. Check your account sales from your wool broker to get an estimate of your yields, or use the "Find auction lots" function to find your clip from last season.

 How often are prices updated?
The pricing tables on Woolcheque are updated daily in order to bring you the latest price estimates on your clip.

 Does the "Find auction lots" function cover all wool offered in Australia?
The "Find auction lots" tool searches the AWEX database, which contains all lots offered at auction. This includes all the brokers that utilise AWEX auction services, as well as lots that are offered through the AWH auction (Elders, Landmark, etc). The search function will not find lots that are sold privately by any of these wool brokers, including any wool that is sold through electronic offer boards.

 How do Woolcheque prices relate to my broker's valuations or my auction sale prices?

Woolcheque prices are estimates based on historical auction data only, with daily prices based on the last auction sale day for your region. Woolcheque estimates are based on the prices achieved for all wool sold of that type on that day. Valuations from your wool broker or advisor generally take into account characteristics of your clip compared to other wools sold on that day. Wool brokers also apply their understanding of anticipated market movements to give you an estimate of what your wool may make in any future sale. Woolcheque does not do this and hence you may prefer to seek advice from your wool broker or advisor. Please read our market disclaimer for more information.

 What is the difference between the premiums and discounts provided by Woolcheque and the weekly AWEX P&D report?

The weekly AWEX P&D report is produced for each region, i.e. north, south and west. It contains clean prices for predominate fleece types, skirtings, lambs, locks and crutchings. It also contains relevant premiums and discounts for a range of variables e.g. colour, VM, strength, cotts, etc.

The Woolcheque price is also calculated using premiums and discounts, however the technique is slightly different.  Multiple discounts on a line of wool are not necessarily best priced by deducting all or the discounts off the base price.  Instead the site attempts to replicate market behaviour by ranking the discounts from largest to smallest in value.  The largest discount will always be used, however where there is 3 or 4 deductions present, only portions of subsequent discounts may be used.  The final price will rarely be exactly the same as the AWEX Premium & Discount report, but is found to be the most accurate way of estimating prices.

Example:

Consider a line of wool such as a good topmaking fleece line which is part tender, has light colour and cott (AWEX ID type MF5S.W1H1C1). Using the Premium/Discount approach, this line of wool would incur a number of discounts, namely:
W1 (part tender)   - 30 cents
H1  (light colour)  - 20 cents
C1  (light cott)   - 15 cents

In theory, this line would incur a 65 cent discount off the base price; however the actual discount at auction may only be 40 cents. This is due to buyers often downgrading such a lot into a ‘secondary type’ and is especially true when large discounts are evident. Consequently when this wool is priced using Woolcheque, the discount would be 40 cents, not the cumulative total of 65 cents.

As a reminder, the most important part of Woolcheque is the actual clean/greasy price estimate, with the premiums and discounts provided as a guide only.

For more information see 'Show Price Calculation'.

 How do I get up-to-date market reports?
You can receive regular market reports by fax, email, or SMS by subscribing to one of these services from AWEX. Visit www.awex.com.au/reports or phone (02) 9428 6100 for more information.

For market reports on a more ad-hoc basis you can retrieve reports via poll-fax on 1902 942 070, or via a recorded message on 1902 942 045. 

 How are the averages that are on the bottom of the worksheets calculated?
The totals (weights and total value) are a sum of the lots that have the "Incl." check-box at the left of each lot ticked. The averages (all test results as well as clean and greasy prices) are weighted by clean kilograms, and are separated into three groups: 

• Fleece - all adult Fleece wool (excludes lambs and weaners e.g. MWF).
• F.P.B. - Fleece, pieces and bellies wool.
• All - All lines of wool.

 How does the site convert from a clean price to a greasy price?
To calculate from clean to greasy use this formula:

• Clean price multiplied by yield, divided by 100.

To calculate from greasy to clean use this formula:

• Greasy price divided by yield, multiplied by 100.

 Is there a time limit when using Woolcheque?

Yes. In order to maximise performance for all users the Woolcheque session expiry has been set to 1 hour. If you have not entered, edited, priced and/or saved data in the worksheet within 1 hour, your session will expire and you will be required to begin again. It is therefore recommended that if you leave your PC for any length of time, first save your worksheet in the "awi" file format. This will enable you to reload your information at a later time and not lose any data.

 Are the prices a gross or net figure?
All prices represent a gross valuation if the wool was sold at auction, exclusive of GST. There are a number of charges that are not taken into account and will be deducted before you receive your proceeds. These include wool tax, testing charges, wool broker commission, warehousing and insurance. 

 How does Woolcheque protect my privacy?
Woolcheque uses a combination of your brand and wool classer stencil number to limit the chances of other users viewing the details of your clip. The wool classer stencil number provides some security although this number will sometimes be known by others, particularly if you use an external professional classer. However, only publicly available wool data such as test results and appraisals are available for retrieval on this site. All of these details are published in sale catalogues which are freely available to anybody visiting an auction showfloor.

  How soon can I access my presale lot data on Woolcheque?

Presale lot data can be accessed approximately two to three days prior to the day you are rostered to sell your wool. However, the availability of this will depend on the region or selling centre and the day of sale.

For a full privacy statement view the Privacy statement.