The executive chairman of meat processor and exporter ANZCO Foods says the return on wool rather than meat has been a disaster for sheep farmers.
Graeme Harrison says lamb meat prices have recovered strongly, and farmers are now getting more than $100 a head.
Poor wool and pelt returns are the biggest obstacle to Federated Farmers achieving the target in its $150-a-lamb campaign, he says.
He says decisions made by farmers in the 1960s and 1970s, around the time of the Batelle report, contributed to the situation.