£7.49

[gone up the hill]

I wonder what the wage bill is for every kg of wool that would determine how good the board is for the farmer.

Apparently the top man at the BWMB is paid 175k a year for a 3 day week.

No idea if that's correct or not!

 

[essexpete]

Do you have an address?

10 Downing St, London, SW1A 2AA

 

[Radio]

Err,if there’s wool to be processed it would be difficult not to have staff working and otherwise they will be on furlough.

Are Tesco shelf stackers getting a pay cut because there are less shoppers going through the doors?

No but it looks like their suppliers will have to

 

[ollie989898]

Wool is a quality product with many useful properties.
It is long lasting whilst being bio-degradable.
It's carbon footprint must be negligible.
It requires no inputs/ resources beyond sun, water and grass.
I appreciate that this is an extraordinary time being in the middle of a global pandemic, but if a marketing board can't market this product it is a bad show.

This is all true, however it needs to be heavily marketed and promoted as this. It's sustainable, biodegrades and has clothed people for centuries if not longer. You would think in today's climate it would fly off the shelves.

 

[cudota]

I’m sure the Irish buyers have got our best interests at heart.

Irish buyers ......the ones from Bradford

 

[ollie989898]

There is always the freedom to wash your fleeces,process them and knit wool jumpers.......then complain you can’t sell them because it costs too much.(ooh and scratchy.)

I have several wool garments that are the very opposite of scratchy, softer than cotton and very warm, too.

The wool industry should be pointing out the fact that many other textiles shed plastic microparticles when washed...

 

[jendan]

I have several wool garments that are the very opposite of scratchy, softer than cotton and very warm, too.

The wool industry should be pointing out the fact that many other textiles shed plastic microparticles when washed...

That should be a massive selling point. No microparticles from wool.

 

[Munkul]

The best suits in the world are made from natural wool. They aren't prickly either...

i work in cellulose film manufacturing, another "dying industry" a few years ago.
Blue Planet was aired, showing the environmental damage of plastics etc. Resulting in massive demand for biodegradable, eco friendly packaging films, huge profits and re-investments.

No-one can say "wool is too old fashioned" - it's the exact right material needed for today's woke generation!

 

[andybk]

Disposal would make no difference to the value - removal of the entire UK clip would not make a jot of difference to the world market. And where would I store it? I need every inch of shed space for farming.

Happy to have the board store it for me, sell it when they can (for what they can) and send me the money when and if they have anything left at the end.

yes thats fair enough , but if this is an annual event whats your next step ? now customers have now basically been given the product how hard is it going to be to get them to pay more in future,no doubt their savings wont be passed on down the line to joe public , be just more profit for carpetrite and marks and spencer or their suppliers when retail is up and running , are you still going to pay the shearers to keep their retail profits up .
I sell rams and this happens to us from time to time and the only way to get through it , is to stop selling even if i have to hold them till the following year , and then sell them as seed corn at a discount to the shearlings , as an industry you cant give your work away or its a race to the bottom

 

[spin cycle]

stop moaning and swimming agin the tide...throw it on the muck heap....then get some shedders ? ?

 

[ollie989898]

stop moaning and swimming agin the tide...throw it on the muck heap....then get some shedders ? ?

I've seen sheep in other countries where it looks like they just leave the fleece and let it fall off on it's own basically. If there are sheep which shed it themselves or even don't grow much fleece in the first place that may be a solution long term? Or just accepting the job is a cost and nothing else, a bit like the annual hedge trimming bill?

 

[Highland Mule]

yes thats fair enough , but if this is an annual event whats your next step ? now customers have now basically been given the product how hard is it going to be to get them to pay more in future,no doubt their savings wont be passed on down the line to joe public , be just more profit for carpetrite and marks and spencer or their suppliers when retail is up and running , are you still going to pay the shearers to keep their retail profits up .

They haven't been given the product away. Most is still unsold in BWMB warehouses. All is sold for market value though, which is a product of the laws of supply and demand - something that farmers often struggle to understand when we produce more and more and the demand is shrinking....

tbh, its pretty much a waste product from animal welfare for me, and I don't have the energy to sell it myself so am happy for then to try. Some, I do retail to hobbyists, but not much.

I don;t have any hedges, so can't relate to that part. Or at least my advice would be to rip them out or buy a farm without any, if that bothers you. Just like you could get some shedding sheep....

 

[neilo]

I’m sure the Irish buyers have got our best interests at heart.

I saw a facebook post from an Irish sheep farmer last week, with a photo of his wool receipt. He had received 5c/kg for this year’s wool.

 

[Grassman]

There is virtually no market at the moment. China isn't buying. Similar to the scrap market. China isnt buying.
You can't really blame the wool board for this predicament.
Just leave it in a shed. Things will pick up eventually .

 

[neilo]

I have several wool garments that are the very opposite of scratchy, softer than cotton and very warm, too.

The wool industry should be pointing out the fact that many other textiles shed plastic microparticles when washed...

Most British wool isn’t fine enough to make ‘non-scratchy’ garments, apart from @yellowbelly ‘s Lincolns maybe. Most UK wool goes into carpets, etc.
Some of the poorest comes from our hill breeds, hence the OP’s thread starter.

 

[Highland Mule]

Apparently the top man at the BWMB is paid 175k a year for a 3 day week.

No idea if that's correct or not!

It's not. You could just fact check this sort of thing before you post it, you know.

 

[Goweresque]

Apparently the top man at the BWMB is paid 175k a year for a 3 day week.

No idea if that's correct or not!

The accounts for 2018/19 are here:

https://www.britishwool.org.uk/ksupload/userfiles/British%20Wool%20Annual%20report%202019.pdf

The CEO Joe Farren was paid a total remuneration of £166k in 2018/19, which included some pension contributions and other non-cash benefit. Cash salary was £137k. It will be interesting to see if his salary went up in 2019/20, given the obvious deterioration in wool sales from the 2017 to 2018 clip.

The Board members shared £125k between them, most getting about £9k each, though the chairman got £30k.

 

[neilo]

There is virtually no market at the moment. China isn't buying. Similar to the scrap market. China isnt buying.
You can't really blame the wool board for this predicament.
Just leave it in a shed. Things will pick up eventually .

I currently produce about 35 bags a year. Like many others, I don’t have room to keep that much back, on the hope that the glut by doing so caused next year would see a reversal of wool’s fortunes.

It might well be sensible for the wool board to hold a lot back in bales sorted into grades, as they do already for auction.

 

[neilo]

It's not. You could just fact check this sort of thing before you post it, you know.

Why change the habit of a lifetime?

 

[Munkul]

£125k + £166k = £291k which sounds suspiciously close to the entire year's turnover of wool at this year's prices