Wool What Will You Do With It?

[reverand]

It is true that NZ has had a difficult time selling wool this last year. This has not been helped by farmers holding on to wool so there has been a large amount left to sell.
British wool has been very competitively priced over the last few months with NZ. The first sale of 2017 wool was held at Bradford last week and was a relatively small entry. Prices were very slightly down but 96% was sold.

The differential between the price of fine wool and medium is at a record gap and with NZ sheep numbers continuing to decline all the medium term indicators are for the price to rise. Wool is a very volatile commodity in price and the swings in value can be as much as 50% in one selling season, only the bravest speculators can survive those swings. This is why the BWMB is a very stable way to trade wool.

I am convinced we will see the finer, medium wools lift in price considerably as manufacturers look to cheapen their sourcing of raw wool by taking higher micron to blend, this then has the effect of pulling up the price of all wool. The next sale at Bradford is in just over 2 weeks time.

Where can you see the sale reports or is it private?

 

[Tim W]

Where can you see the sale reports or is it private?

http://www.britishwool.org.uk/sales.php @reverend

 

[Guiggs]

They were building the flock up so all ewe lambs retained.

Males ringed at birth and kept for life for the wool.

Some females exported as nucleus flocks to Europe.


The ewes weren't hugely dissimilar to a poll Dorset in shape so I guess they'd kill ok, but they were genuine wool merinos, the hosts explained that the trouble with crossing or even just breeding for better shape came at the expense of wool quality.

Circa £15/ kg for the wool.

How many kg of wool would those castrated males be carrying?
Must be quite a bit to justify running them all year round just for a wool crop?

 

[scottish-lleyn]

How many kg of wool would those castrated males be carrying?
Must be quite a bit to justify running them all year round just for a wool crop?

This way of farming is very popular on high country blocks in new zealand and oz and the falkland islands weathers are easier kept than a ewe and produce the same wool. Did a winter shearing in nz and was mostly weathers i did.

 

[CharcoalWally]

How many kg of wool would those castrated males be carrying?
Must be quite a bit to justify running them all year round just for a wool crop?

Used to be commonly done here in Scotland too where Blackie wethers were left on the outlying hills for three years to take the crops of wool off them.

 

[GrannyAching]

Even if they do I expect @neilo is shrewd enough to negotiate a discount on his 'out of season' shearing - how busy can they be in August?

So, bearing in mind heart of rural Pembs, I asked my shearer about coming back to do my ewe lambs in August and he said - well I can but give me plenty of notice because I spend two weeks doing (angora) goats every August plus the other customers who August shear. He won't do alpacas.

Should I keep my (35) August fleeces til next year or arrange for my whole (3 bag crop) to go in September, please? My current pick up date is end of July.

 

[Guiggs]

Used to be commonly done here in Scotland too where Blackie wethers were left on the outlying hills for three years to take the crops of wool off them.

I'm assuming that was quite some time ago?
Is blackie good quality?
I thought hill breed wool was really poor?

 

[yellowbelly]

Should I keep my (35) August fleeces til next year or arrange for my whole (3 bag crop) to go in September, please? My current pick up date is end of July.

I'd go for sept collection - you might throw the whole world wool trade out of kilter if you stockpile your production for 12 months

 

[Old Tip]

Used to be commonly done here in Scotland too where Blackie wethers were left on the outlying hills for three years to take the crops of wool off them.

Same here with Herdwicks, partly for the wool and partly to hold the heft, the resulting mutton was very popular and often smoked or salted like ham

 

[Guiggs]

Same here with Herdwicks, partly for the wool and partly to hold the heft, the resulting mutton was very popular and often smoked or salted like ham

What do you mean by "hold the heft" ?

 

[Nithsdale]

I'm assuming that was quite some time ago?
Is blackie good quality?
I thought hill breed wool was really poor?

In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't be that long ago. Some places within living memory.

Blackie wool is 60p/kg - a good 30-40% more valuable than Swale. But still only good for carpets.

What do you mean by "hold the heft" ?

Sheep are 'hefted' onto the open hills/communal grazing.
It means, over many generations the ewes have been held/kept to their part of the open hill ground and they instinctively stay on their part. That's how different farms could graze their neighbouring hills long before fencing or dyking and the Enclosures Act, without sheep constantly getting mixed.


Sadly many big estates have seen it wise to remove historic hefts. How sheep will (if ever) be returned to these hills is beyond me, as the job will be too big.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Used to be commonly done here in Scotland too where Blackie wethers were left on the outlying hills for three years to take the crops of wool off them.

There's still a fair few hills with wether flocks on, to act as tick sponges for the grouse.

 

[CharcoalWally]

I'm assuming that was quite some time ago?
Is blackie good quality?
I thought hill breed wool was really poor?

I'm thinking back to my grandfather's time in the 50's and 60's. Back then the wool crop was a valuable thing and would have earned a far greater % of the year's income. It was certainly worth doing on the harder, wetter hills that wouldn't have produced a strong lamb for sale.

 

[GrannyAching]

What do you mean by "hold the heft" ?

In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't be that long ago. Some places within living memory.

Blackie wool is 60p/kg - a good 30-40% more valuable than Swale. But still only good for carpets.




Sheep are 'hefted' onto the open hills/communal grazing.
It means, over many generations the ewes have been held/kept to their part of the open hill ground and they instinctively stay on their part. That's how different farms could graze their neighbouring hills long before fencing or dyking and the Enclosures Act, without sheep constantly getting mixed.


Sadly many big estates have seen it wise to remove historic hefts. How sheep will (if ever) be returned to these hills is beyond me, as the job will be too big.

I remember at least one lecture at college on the value of hefted ewes and how small children were sent to sit at the top of the hill for days at a time -with bells and whistles to send animals back down until they were hefted if you had to do that. This is many years ago and my lecturer was at least a 100.

A local farmer accessed his grazing rights behind our house last year for the first time in a long while and he hefted his sheep in about three weeks by coming up every day with his dog and bringing them back down to the bottom so they never seemed to get over the top before he fetched the back. Excellent dog that he trained himself and he's young and fit, too......... Not that I would ever objectify another human being.

 

[Nithsdale]

There's still a fair few hills with wether flocks on, to act as tick sponges for the grouse.

That's a recent trend, since SFP and CAP reform... 12 years ago those hills would have had ewes on them.

 

[Nithsdale]

I remember at least one lecture at college on the value of hefted ewes and how small children were sent to sit at the top of the hill for days at a time -with bells and whistles to send animals back down until they were hefted if you had to do that. This is many years ago and my lecturer was at least a 100.

A local farmer accessed his grazing rights behind our house last year for the first time in a long while and he hefted his sheep in about three weeks by coming up every day with his dog and bringing them back down to the bottom so they never seemed to get over the top before he fetched the back. Excellent dog that he trained himself and he's young and fit, too.........

The the old 'herds here in the Southern Uplands have said it's an almost impossible task to heft a flock from scratch.

A few stragglers, fine. But to train 800-1000 ewes on a 2500acre hill... you won't have much hope.

 

[GrannyAching]

The the old 'herds here in the Southern Uplands have said it's an almost impossible task to heft a flock from scratch.

A few stragglers, fine. But to train 800-1000 ewes on a 2500acre hill... you won't have much hope.

Wasn't arguing and of course he was working his ewes within the existing ewes who are hefted all be it to a much bigger area than he worked.

 

[Old Tip]

The the old 'herds here in the Southern Uplands have said it's an almost impossible task to heft a flock from scratch.

A few stragglers, fine. But to train 800-1000 ewes on a 2500acre hill... you won't have much hope.

I did it twenty years ago and a lot round here had to do it after F&M but it rely so. The other Herts being stocked and regular gatherings to show them where home is.
As to putting wethers out @Guiggs tgey helped hold the heft as they were out when the other sheep were in for tasks such as lambing and weaning. It was said they tended to go higher up the hill and so shoved the neighbours sheep back and they didn't eat a lot as they had nothing to do but grow wool.

 

[Nithsdale]

Wasn't arguing and of course he was working his ewes within the existing ewes who are hefted all be it to a much bigger area than he worked.

I should say my post isn't exactly accurate.

Ofcourse it could be done - to heft a brand new flock...
But it would take 10-15 men, at least, with good dogs, working every day for a month - probably 6-8 weeks.

It isn't so much un-doable, but who could afford to pay those men?

 

[GrannyAching]

It isn't so much un-doable, but who could afford to pay those men?

And you just can't get the small children with bells and whistles these days!