Wool What Will You Do With It?

Hilly

Member
Just store it until somebody comes and pays you what you want, it's not as if it's tying up vast quantities of capital. As mentioned Phil Day etc will not park up factories because they cannot get wool, they will buy it eventually basic supply and demand. Name me one other organisation that has operated successfully long term with a business model even close to that of the wool board.
Don't get me wrong I am not against the wool board but alternatives should be able to work alongside as I genuinely think they benefit each other and the producer in the long run.
Silage wrap is the model you will have if there is no wool board, use it or loose it, its simple.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I appreciate some wool, such as your Romney wool isn't a bi product and is actually valuable but the same can't be said of every breed can it?
What do they pay per kg/ tonne for Herdwick for example?
Should we be stacking our wool up and sitting on it for a couple of years to force the price up like you say about scrap?

Most lowland ewe breeds produce wool (thankfully in lower quantities than Romneys:whistle:) that are £1.10+/kg the last time I looked.
You can hardly compare that to the value of a Herdwick fleece, which is near unique in it's properties, none of which make it a very saleable product. If you produce any product with next to no demand, then you can't expect a premium price for it. What do the Irish pay for Herdwick wool I wonder?

Before anyone starts:rolleyes:, I'm not knocking Herdwicks as a breed. Their fleeces are one of the reasons they can survive in places most other sheep can't. It doesn't make it valuable though.
 

tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
Short wool that makes tight skinned fat lambs isnt all that valuable either but people keep breeding for it rather than a more valuable type of fleece worth shearing.
 

Hilly

Member
Most lowland ewe breeds produce wool (thankfully in lower quantities than Romneys:whistle:) that are £1.10+/kg the last time I looked.
You can hardly compare that to the value of a Herdwick fleece, which is near unique in it's properties, none of which make it a very saleable product. If you produce any product with next to no demand, then you can't expect a premium price for it. What do the Irish pay for Herdwick wool I wonder?

Before anyone starts:rolleyes:, I'm not knocking Herdwicks as a breed. Their fleeces are one of the reasons they can survive in places most other sheep can't. It doesn't make it valuable though.
Why do you say thankfully in lower quantities than a romney ? i shear my romneys once a year same time as everyone else just i have twice the wool everytime i shear a ewe, that is the only difference, if your going to shear a sheep shear one thats worth shearing, or keep sheders.?
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Why do you say thankfully in lower quantities than a romney ? i shear my romneys once a year same time as everyone else just i have twice the wool everytime i shear a ewe, that is the only difference, if your going to shear a sheep shear one thats worth shearing, or keep sheders.?

There are plenty of Romney breeders that reckon they're better shearing them twice a year, so suddenly up to twice the shearing cost (& hassle) to get that heavier fleece. My sheep have some Romney blood in them, which gives them a 'half way house' fleeec, heavier clip than a lot of breeds, but nothing that's going to need crutching, belly clipping in front of the udder or twice a year shearing. I'll take my 4kg average clip with less work thanks.;)
 

Hilly

Member
There are plenty of Romney breeders that reckon they're better shearing them twice a year, so suddenly up to twice the shearing cost (& hassle) to get that heavier fleece. My sheep have some Romney blood in them, which gives them a 'half way house' fleeec, heavier clip than a lot of breeds, but nothing that's going to need crutching, belly clipping in front of the udder or twice a year shearing. I'll take my 4kg average clip with less work thanks.;)
I see, i have never sheared twice a year and never thought any need, never belly clipped or crutched before lambing anything like that, usually clean arses end of may clip in june thats it same as any other sheep.
 

hally

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cumbria
The problem at the moment is that fat lambs with very tight skins can be £10 better than a heavier skinned lamb ( can't work out why myself ) when selling liveweight so we have been breeding tight skinned ewes for years. Downside less wool, upside less clutching dragging etc but assuming 175% lambing there is few other traits that give such a good return in terms of breeding. Even critical traits like dlwg will struggle to up a ewes output by £17 and certainly no wool traits such as quantity or quality, will come close
 

jemski

Member
Location
Dorset
The problem at the moment is that fat lambs with very tight skins can be £10 better than a heavier skinned lamb ( can't work out why myself ) when selling liveweight so we have been breeding tight skinned ewes for years. Downside less wool, upside less clutching dragging etc but assuming 175% lambing there is few other traits that give such a good return in terms of breeding. Even critical traits like dlwg will struggle to up a ewes output by £17 and certainly no wool traits such as quantity or quality, will come close

I sold some lambs live on Tuesday (haven't done for a very long time but these were heavy). Anyway, they topped the market. They were shorn in September, so looked tight skinned now.


@neilo the wool of a herdwick does have value, just only when it's on the sheep....
 

romneymarsh

Member
Location
Romney Marsh
What breeds do they mainly use ?

No expert on Chinese sheep but a lot of fat tailed hair sheep I think, the local breeds . The Aussies have been putting a lot of Dorper genes in there I think.Most of the flocks are very small , back yard type operations but there are some massive state run units . Sheep mostly in the North and west.
 

Hilly

Member
No expert on Chinese sheep but a lot of fat tailed hair sheep I think, the local breeds . The Aussies have been putting a lot of Dorper genes in there I think.Most of the flocks are very small , back yard type operations but there are some massive state run units . Sheep mostly in the North and west.
Very interesting, i had never given them a second thought as sheep producers !
 
Location
Kent
Now we know what we are not going to do with the wool just wondering if anyone has shore any yet? I did my rams and a few odd hoggets on Sunday and I must admit I ran them inside last night when it started to hail stone. Had a few calls about shearing tegs next week.
 

Gulli

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Was looking over the gate at my tups this afternoon and was tempted to get the clippers out.

Then i remembered the battle it is to shear the barstewards and decided they could wait a few weeks!
 

irish dom

Member
Now we know what we are not going to do with the wool just wondering if anyone has shore any yet? I did my rams and a few odd hoggets on Sunday and I must admit I ran them inside last night when it started to hail stone. Had a few calls about shearing tegs next week.
Sheared a few rams and dry hoggs today. Set to kick off with dried off early lambers on saturday. Judging by the forecast( 17 degrees) we will be full steam ahead next week with dry hoggs. Its feckin nippy here now though. Be 3 weeks before i think of touching my own.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top