Wool v cotton land use — C I R C U M F A U N A (original) (raw)
Australia is the leading wool exporter, and a leading cotton exporter.
So which fibre is more land friendly?
Calculated by Emma Hakansson, verified by Faunalytics
Total yields
Wool
There are around 70 million sheep in Australia
Total annual wool yield of 340 million kg greasy (shorn wool prior to treatment)
Bales should weigh between 120kg and 204kg
(unless the wool is under 18.6 microns, in which case they may be a min. Gross weight of 90kg)
Average bale weight (2013/14) is 176kg
AWEX
Total wool yield / average bale weight = 1.93 million bales
Cotton
More than 5 million bales of cotton were produced in 2011/2012
Australian cotton bales weigh 227kg (industry standard)
Cotton Australia, Queensland Government, USDA Foreign Agriculture Service
From this we learn that a whopping 367 times less land is required to grow one bale of Australian cotton, as compared to growing one bale of Australian wool.
Note that both wool and cotton bales must be scoured and processed, so yield of usable fibre for yarn is less than bale weight.
Regardless, it is clear that cotton is a far superior fibre in the context of land use efficiency.