Electronic bale tags recording which farm wool comes from and who classed it, as well as a description and specification, cannot come soon enough for Elders Western Australian wool manager Danny Burkett.
“I just can’t wait, electronic tagging will stop a lot of (industry supply chain) problems, improve efficiency and save everyone some money,” Mr Burkett told 12 trainee wool classers touring Elders show floor and wool store last week.
As reported in Farm Weekly last week, the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX), which operates the Western Wool Centre at Bibra Lake, will trial an e-Bale radio frequency identification (RFID) tag next year in Western Australia.
The operational proof-of-concept trial will see the RFID tag used on about 40 per cent of next year’s clip sold through the Western Wool Centre.
It has already been tested to withstand the shearing shed-to-shipment supply chain – including dumping, where two or three bales are pressed into one for containerisation.