WOOL STORY Much of the wealth of the Westcountry is built on wool. Churches, great manor houses, even parts of our language and culture, owe their very existence to the fleece of the sheep and the many garments, blankets and even shrouds for the dead it was once made into. But cotton and man-made fibres now dominate the garment trade; woollen carpets no longer cover the floor of every home and many sheep farmers, who once bred animals for their fleece as much as their meat, now look on shearing as an essential chore with a poor return. At least that was the case for many years. Things are improving, however, and the British Wool Marketing Board, (BWMB) the last remaining agricultural commodity board in Britain, is playing its part. One of its leading proponents is Alan Derryman, 56, senior sheep shearing instructor for the BWMB in southern England and one-time international shearer who represented England at six world champions, winning a third place in New Zealand in 1988 and a fourth in 1996. His flock of 900 Romney and Hampshire ewes on 500 acres of mainly pasture at Home Farm, Sidbury, East Devon, had almost finished lambing in late April and most were sporting fabulous fleeces that Alan will be shearing as spring turns to summer. The Romney and the Hampshire are noted for the quality of their wool and Alan can command a premium price of between £7 and £8 per fleece. He said: “It is white wool for a start, which means it dyes easily. White wool is always in demand; some other breeds have black fibres in the fleece. The Romney has a long staple and there is a lot of it – four kilos per ewe, where most other breeds produce two kilos.” Getting the fleece off the ewe’s back, however, is a skill that Alan is keen to impart to others. Not that long ago if you called in at a sheep farm at shearing time the chances are you would hear Australian or New Zealand accents once the noisy electric clippers were turned off. Aussies and Kiwis flocked to Britain to shear sheep in the summertime. Now, thanks to 25 years of instruction in the art of sheep shearing, by Alan and others with the BWMB, work for the Antipodeans has all but dried up as home-grown shearers take over. Contractors, however, are still a big part of shearing time, but with many more shearers in Britain, there is little need to hire anyone from overseas to do the work. Alan said: “At the BWMB we run courses for beginners and youngsters who want to have a go. The idea is that those who want to take it further come back for further courses and lot of them go into contracting. “It is very successful. A few lads do take off and go to New Zealand and basically shear their way around the world but most are local contractors, shearing in May and June and managing their own flocks or doing other farm work the rest of the year.” He said over the past ten years the BWMB had trained 1,100 people to become sheep shearers. “Twenty years ago there used to be a lot of Australians and New Zealanders around shearing sheep in the Westcountry; today it is local lads shearing the sheep.” At one time the BWMB offered a guaranteed price for wool. Now, like the private wool buyers, the board is subjected to the fluctuating global market but still reckons to be able to get the best deal for farmers, across the board. Gareth Jones, producer communications manager, said whether a farmer has five sheep or 5,000 and whether his sheep produced classic long-staple white wool for quality carpets or fleeces destined to be insulating material, the BWMB – unlike some rivals – would guarantee to buy. Alan agrees the BWMB deserves support. “It is a producer co-operative,” he said. “The wool board doesn’t run to make a profit but the more farmers that sell their wool through the board, the lower the cost is of running it. I think that without the wool board a lot of farmers would struggle to sell their wool.” That is certainly the situation for some other European countries, without a similar system. Alan said: “In Italy I believe they build a fire before they start shearing and simply throw the fleeces on it.” But with shearing in the UK costing around £1.50 per ewe, farmers need a return. At current prices, most of them can achieve that even if – for the poorer quality wool on some of the hill sheep, there is no fortune to be made. Sheep shearers, on the other hand, can make a good living. If they invest £150 plus VAT in a BWMB shearing courses – and around ten a year run in the South of England – they can earn up to £250 a day, providing they can manage an average of 30 ewes an hour. Alan runs his farm, as a tenant of Sir John Cave, on a low-input basis. His ewes lamb outside, feed most of the year on pasture and as well as a beautiful fleece make for beautiful eating too. He also rears beef cattle. The market for wool is international, with China taking many of the UK fleeces. Often they go to the far east for scouring and processing, then back here to be woven into various products. The hotel industry, where carpets are still the norm, helps to support British wool and a growing industry in traditional items of country clothing, like tweed, also boost sales. Things are unlikely to get back to the days when a whole region’s prosperity could be built on the back of a sheep’s fleece but lamb is here to stay and most sheep need shearing. So long as that remains the case the BWMB and experts like Alan will have a job to do. WESTCOUNTRY FARMER: Shearing sheep is a vital part of managing the flock westernmorningnews.co.uk Much of the wealth of the Westcountry is built on wool. Churches, great manor houses, even parts of ...
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 07:42:06 +0000
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