Sheep meat & wool
History
Traprock Group members have in the past bred their own Merino sheep or bought them in from breeding areas such as the New England region of NSW. Due to the fluctuations in the wool market some producers have now moved away from wool production as their sole source of income to include sheep meat production as part of their enterprises or as the primary income earner. We have had producers rearing crossbred lambs using Suffolk and Dorset sires. In recent years we have seen the introduction of Dorpers and Damaras which do not require shearing. These are a meat sheep which cope with the conditions on the Traprock well.
The Traprock Group was originally founded in 1991 as the Traprock Wool Association Inc (TWA) with over 80 members from the traprock region of south east Queensland through to northern New South Wales, covering 400,000 hectares. Members produced some 6000 bales of merino wool annually. It had a structure that was well-suited to the effective management and use of a monitoring and reporting toolkit which persists today despite the overall change of membership to include other primary production.
The group was proactive in introducting a Quality Assurance scheme for wool harvesting, a scheme recognised throughout Australia as one to emulate, and moved on to develop an Enterprise Management System, known as the Traprock Integrated Management System (TIMS). The first management manuals for the TIMS were distributed to participating landholders in April 2006. This placed Traprock Wool as a brand to be recognised throughout Australia and these quality programs persist today to ensure maintenance of our quality wool product.
Traprock wool is clean, stylish, fine and superfine merino wool. This quality is controlled and maintained due to the following key activities:
The introduction of a Quality Assurance scheme developed to ISO 9000 standard for wool harvesting, a scheme recognised throughout Australia as one to emulate. Traprock Wool is grown and harvested under the Traprock Quality Management Scheme. This minimizes the possibility of chemical and other contamination, as well as demonstrating growers commitment to quality and excellence in wool production.
The development in 2006 of an industry leading Management System incorporating an Environmental Management System (ISO 14000) and the Quality Assurance (ISO 9000), into what is termed Traprock Integrated Management Systems (TIMS).
Jointly planning and participating in a sub-catchment planning process to plan the future landscapes of the Traprock region.
Jointly developing and participating in Land Water & Wools Integrating paddock and catchment planning: a wool producer-driven approach to sustainable landscape management project, resulting in the production of a biodiversity toolkit.
Traprock Group Association Sheep and Wool Committee
The Sheep and Wool committee membership incorporates a broad cross section of Sheep, Lamb and Wool representatives. These representatives meet to discuss objectives that the Traprock Group Association members request, to improve the sheep and wool enterprises within our geographical area.
Traprock Group Association key platform that the committee oversees is the “TRAPROCK TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT & QUALITY ASSURANCE SCHEMES”.
The Traprock Total Quality Management and Quality Assurance schemes are grower initiated programs that have been established by Traprock Group Association Inc. to provide a uniform and professional standard for the harvesting and preparation of members’ wool.
OBJECTIVE
The Traprock Group Association’s Total Quality Management (TQM) and Quality Assurance (QA) schemes require a leading standard of husbandry and preparation to ensure our wool can be purchased with confidence. The audited schemes use a uniform set of procedures, which are reviewed annually, to minimise the risk of contamination and dark fibre levels in all combing wool.
QUALITY POLICY
Traprock Group Association is a regional group of specialist woolgrowers producing clean, stylish fine/medium wool for the textile industry. Each woolgrower member owns and controls their own wool producing operation and is directly involved in the wool production and harvesting operations. These woolgrowers are committed to producing wool free from contamination or dark fibre and which is prepared in such a way as to satisfy the requirements of wool buyers, and/or meet specific customer specifications.
The application of modern scientific and business principles to wool production and marketing, and the establishment of effective communication with customers are important policies of the Association.
Wool prepared and harvested according to the requirements of the Traprock Total Quality Management and Quality Assurance schemes will have the word TRAPROCK appearing after the station brand on the bale and in the sale catalogue (where the station brand is being used).
The Association places quality management ahead of all other aspects of wool production. The commitment of members to the Traprock Total Quality Management and Quality Assurance schemes are demonstrated by their actions in developing this program and implementing it on their properties.
The Traprock Total Quality Management and Quality Assurance schemes have been designed in accordance with the ISO 9002 standard.
The Traprock Group Association Sheep and Wool Committee also facilitates workshops to cover Animal Nutrition, Wool Preparation and meat quality.
See one our associated partners AWI
Chair Sheep Meat & Wool Committee:
Matt Bartlett
Phone: 0409 895 764
Email: traprockgroup@gmail.com