The Woolclip

Today we had our ewes clipped. We pay a contractor (Craig) to come and do it and he charges £1 per sheep. That's actually more than we get for the fleeces as the market for British wool is so weak. In fact, most wool used in Britain comes from New Zealand and Australia, though this may start to change as they seem to be altering their farming to service the growing Chinese market for milk and meat.

The ewe looking at us is the decoy. She stays there to lure the others up the race from the pens behind. They are then pulled out and clipped at a rate of nearly one a minute. It's hard work, especially in the hot, muggy conditions like today, but it has to be done - once all the old fleece is removed, the sheep are much less appealing to blowflies which can cause horrendous problems to sheep.

This weekend we are going to take some of our best fleeces to Woolfest and see if any of the artisan spinners, weavers and general wool enthusiasts have any bright ideas about what we can do with them.