Where have all the sheep gone?

I was talking with a sheep farmer in the Wairarapa last month who has Gotland/merino crossbreeds.  I bought some carded fleece, which had been combed so all the fibres are aligned in one direction, ready for spinning into knitting yarn. I paid $30 a kilo. Jane told me that a wool merchant offered her $17 for the whole fleece! Seeing as a full-grown sheep produces about 5kg of useable fleece, that price seems like daylight robbery and must barely cover the cost of animal husbandry and shearing.

They say that New Zealand was built on the sheep's back. When I was a wee lass in the 70s there were 60 million sheep dotted all over the New Zealand landscape. But the latest figures from MAF show the number has dropped to 32 million. Tourists must be wondering what we've done with them all "Did we eat them?!" 

Wool may have been relegated to the back seat in the era of modern and synthetic fibres, and cheap carpets and clothing are so readily available. But even with this decline, New Zealand still produces 30% of the world's strong wool clip.  In the UK, the value of British fleece to farmers has dropped by about a third in  the past 10 years, so farmers there have started a Campaign for Wool. It's an initiative backed by HRH Prince of Wales who is concerned that British Sheep Farmers have not been getting a fair price for fleece.
“The sad truth is that around the world farmers are leaving sheep production because the price they get for their wool is below the costs of actually shearing it”, he said. The aim of the campaign is to encourage people to buy more British wool, not only for handicrafts such as knitting and crochet, but also to encourage the public to buy British wool clothing as well as larger ticket items such as carpets, and even house insulation.

Wool Partners International, chaired by Theresa Gattung, is a commercial group set up to reinvigorate New Zealand's strong wool industry. Strong wool is wool of 28.5 microns or coarser, and is mostly used for carpets. The wool comes froms breeds like the Romney. Theresa thinks wool shold be a marketer's dream. In New Zealand, we produce the volume and quality needed by markets, backed by an excellent reputation for animal welfare and ethics, and fair employment rules. And of course wool is a sustainable product (totally renewable!). Wool Partners International are hoping to recreate the success of the fine-wool industry in New Zealand, emulating companies like New Zealand Merino Ltd which was formed in the mid to late 1990s to market merino. The company works directly with the clothing manufacturer Icebreaker in New Zealand and SmartWool in the United States, making a range of active outdoor clothing.  Theresa thinks that wool's time has come - again – big time.  I hope so.  Buy wool - wear wool!