In an interview at Fibre Select in Queenstown last week, Mr Brakenridge said merino wool was a great product which was being globally rediscovered.
However, farmers were battling rising on-farm costs - with fertiliser and fuel and particularly rent reviews.
Declining sheep numbers were a concern and with the amount of the high country being turned into conservation parks and the significant increase in demand for New Zealand merino, he felt a pragmatic approach could be taken with land being made available to be leased back, to negate the decline.
Mr Brakenridge said New Zealand was wonderful at producing primary products but largely fell short in marketing.
Consumers were now demanding traceability, knowledge of animal welfare and social responsibility, ingredients of what New Zealand was very good at doing.
"We naively perceive the rest of the world acknowledges New Zealand of those factors because we live in it," he said.
"We've got to get out there and burn the shoe leather and do the creative marketing. We need to do that as a country," he said.
Wool was an expensive fibre to produce.
It was very much a niche fibre and, through that, it was not without its challenges.
Success came through hard work, through people with passion and through getting that connection through to the market place by taking the points of difference and presenting them to retail brands.
"We've actually got to go to the market with an intention of making a retail brand more successful," he said.
New Zealand Merino marketing manager Gretchen Kane said people were concerned about quality, performance and ethics.
That had led to the development of the Zque brand to ensure quality, animal health and welfare, environmental, economic and social values were positively addressed in relation to New Zealand merino fibre.
Zque - which stood for substance - had an on-farm accreditation system and gave the credibility the market needed, Ms Kane said.
Peter Carey, commercial manager for Chargeurs in Melbourne, said while mulesing would not be banned in Australia, it was a practice that was not going to be accepted by the market.
Many growers who had been mulesing their sheep for years would like to educate their customers about its virtues, but that was a very hard thing to do.
The media power that groups like Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had was "incredible", he said.
While a lot of Australian growers were still hoping for a "silver bullet", many had changed the management of their operation.
It meant more labour and more chemicals.
New Zealand growers were encouraged to be flexible and prepare their wool in line with market requirements which might not be the same every season.
Results of Fibre Select classer awards:
Grower: Andrew Templeton 1, Andrew Sutherland 2, Paul Jarman 3.
Professional: Colin Wallace (for Moutere) 1, Barbara Newton (for Te Aka and Stonehenge) 2, Huia Whyte-Puna (for Tara Hills) 3.
Intermediate: Tina Rimene 1, Shirley Munro 2, Caroline Cameron 3.
Up-and-coming: Ian Kofoed 1.