A marked decline in buying by Aus-ralian and New Zealand woollen carpet mills was among factors that caused the 2004-05 wool selling season to end on a dull note. Traders are not hopeful that the opening sales of the new season will be much better. This year - for the first time for many years - the organisers decided not to take the usual six-week mid-season break; thus the first sale of the new season will be held around a month earlier than usual on July 14. The switch to an earlier date has been driven by a change of shearing patterns. In the past little wool was shorn in mid-winter, but these days there is a lot of shearing, including Shearing of ewes before lambing. "The idea is to get the wool to market as soon as possible," says Andrew Campbell of J. S. Brooksbank.
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