Grower advice: Take care to avoid being penalised for over-weight bales.

For safety and efficiency, industry standards require that over-weight bales must be reduced. Excess wool will be re-packed into lighter-weight bales within the same line. In the case of several over-weight bales within a consignment, leftover wool will be transferred into additional wool packs, therefore creating extra bales.

Growers need to know that the maximum allowable weight of a wool bale is 200 kilograms gross. This ensures safe handling, transportation, and warehousing of wool throughout the wool pipeline.

Before shearing each year, growers should service and re-calibrate their press. When contractors supply a wool press, the grower’s responsibility is to ensure this is calibrated correctly. Particular care is necessary when fleeces are greasy, and yields are low. An over-weight bale is most likely to have come out of a no-tramp wool press. Oddments can similarly result in overweight bales.