WOOL PRICES are 'on the floor' this season, prompting calls from industry for wool to be properly recognised as a valuable commodity.

With many farmers and crofters reporting making pennies for their fleeces, The Scottish Farmer was told that wool is too often being viewed as a waste product.

Straiton based sheep farmer and contract shearer Stevie Dunlop, said that most farmers were making a loss at clipping time: “Farmers know we are doing an important job, but they begrudge the fact that it doesn’t pay to clip them, but it also doesn’t pay to not clip them down the line.”

He packed off 800 fleeces from his own flock to British wool this season for grading and made £269.13 in return – averaging out at 14 pence per kilo. It would have cost him four times as much to clip them, going at his own rate of £1.30 per sheep.

“If I had a pound for every farmer who asked me to take wool away instead of paying me, I’d be a very rich man,” he continued.

“The problem now is that people are viewing wool as a waste product when there are so many valuable uses for it. Given there is such a big drive towards green energy, wool is a fire retardant and very good for insulation – it makes logical sense that we are using it in our homes.”

NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy concurred: “Wool is a product that itself is a carbon sink, is 100% renewable, has high natural insulation, water repellent and fire-retardant qualities and, in this day and age, should be used ahead of synthetic products derived from fossil fuels,” he said, adding that better utilising the wool available on our doorsteps would not only be a win for climate change and the environment but would also generate economic activity.

He recalled that 40 to 50 years ago, the wool cheque would pay the rent for the farm for the whole year or pay a shepherd’s wage for that time but that now it “doesn't pay to get the wool off the sheep's back.”

NSA Scotland chair and Biggar sheep farmer Jen Craig reported that some members had decided to store it on farm or use it to aid the planting of trees and hedgerows: “Sadly some have also chosen to burn their wool and whilst I fully understand the reasons why, it poses serious questions as to why that is a viable option?

“There is something seriously wrong when a renewable material so readily and sustainably available isn’t valued and could play a major role in our society becoming more sustainable.”

British Wool confirmed that there have been isolated incidents of wool being burnt or discarded, but reported that they have already received over 700 tonnes of wool this season from producers who chose not to send it in last year.

“Over the last 12 months we have sold 31m kgs of British wool, the largest annual volume for ten years,” said CEO, Andrew Hogley. “We are optimistic the price recovery we have seen in recent months will continue during the next year. With a healthier stock position, reduced cost base and recovering auction prices this puts British Wool in a much stronger position to deliver better value for our producers in 2021.”