The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: CornishFarmer on March 16, 2011, 12:23:50 pm

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Post by: CornishFarmer on March 16, 2011, 12:23:50 pm
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Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: woollyval on March 16, 2011, 04:09:24 pm
There are only 3 in the whole of Britain! Luckily they are all in the SW....The one I always recommend is Fenland Sheepskin at Bridgwater (Somerset) They provide a personal service for smallholders. Google the website and give them a phone WELL in advance of booking lambs into the abattoir. Ask for June Tinnion and she will tell you what you need to do to get your raw skins prepared. As you have Jacobs you will have a valuable product. Costs are around £20 plus vat and also you will probably get charged a fiver for getting your skins back by the abattoir. Once done a jacob skin with good markings is worth about £70
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: Elissian on March 16, 2011, 07:24:38 pm
I can second fenland, very friendly and helpful. we have a lovely 4 skin (sounds wrong!) rug as they will stitch the fleeces together if you wish.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: Fleecewife on March 16, 2011, 07:41:22 pm
Jacob skins from Fenland are absolutely gorgeous.  My last half dozen were in a friend's car when it was stolen so I never saw them again and now I don't have Jacobs.

Woollyshepherd - there is also Skyeskins which is in ......... Skye  :D
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: woollyval on March 16, 2011, 09:07:39 pm
 :D :D Sorry fleecewife......I forgot Skye!!!
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: daddymatty82 on March 17, 2011, 09:37:53 am
havent you got a certain amount of time to get them there from kill? i would love to get a shetland done 1 day just not known how to go about it
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: Fleecewife on March 17, 2011, 11:22:49 am
You need to collect the skins almost as soon as they are off the sheep, so you can salt them within a couple of hours.  I have info on salting which I can email to you - too long to put on here.  You need DVP salt from your agric merchant - buy that in first.  Salting takes from 1 to 3 weeks depending on air humidity.  Once salted you can roll and wrap the skins in waterproof sacks then send them in the ordinary post, being careful about weight.  But let Fenland know before you send them.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: woollyval on March 17, 2011, 12:36:32 pm
Just popped in....so v quickly... WG ask June at Fenland what to do and she will either email you a sheet on how to prepare them OR.....if you are within an hour of Fenland do what I do....tell june you are coming direct from abattoir and stick em in feed sacks straight off sheep at abattoir and drive them there for them to salt etc (costs £1 or so more)
Postage can add a lot to costs so seeing you are in the SW see if you can co ordinate it!
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: shetlandpaul on March 17, 2011, 02:22:55 pm
There are only 3 in the whole of Britain! Luckily they are all in the SW....The one I always recommend is Fenland Sheepskin at Bridgwater (Somerset) They provide a personal service for smallholders. Google the website and give them a phone WELL in advance of booking lambs into the abattoir. Ask for June Tinnion and she will tell you what you need to do to get your raw skins prepared. As you have Jacobs you will have a valuable product. Costs are around £20 plus vat and also you will probably get charged a fiver for getting your skins back by the abattoir. Once done a jacob skin with good markings is worth about £70
not true.
there are more than that up here. either salt or freeze. we had to wait for two weeks to get ours done this year. ours cost about 20-25. there are three people within 10 miles that does them professionally.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: woollyval on March 17, 2011, 03:32:47 pm
 :D :D :D But Scotland is another country!!! Italy is nearer to me than the Shetlands!!
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: Fleecewife on March 17, 2011, 04:02:24 pm
It is relevant to postage rates though.  From England and possibly southern Scotland, postage to the Highlands and Islands is more than to the rest of mainland Britain.  Conversely, if you are already in the Highlands and Islands, a local tannery will be much cheaper for postage.

Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: shetlandpaul on March 17, 2011, 04:32:53 pm
:D :D :D But Scotland is another country!!! Italy is nearer to me than the Shetlands!!
you said
Quote
There are only 3 in the whole of Britain
. as far as we are concerned we are a part of Britain. If not you owe us 30 years oil money.
anyway im not sure posting a skin is such a good idea. it really can go manky quickly. we have had to burry some in the past. postage via royal mail parcel force is the same. however lots of companies add money on.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: woollyval on March 17, 2011, 05:03:38 pm
 :D If well salted in the prescribed manner it will deffo not go manky!!!......if not eurrrrgh!!! I'm just a soft southerner!
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: shetlandpaul on March 17, 2011, 06:07:27 pm
just thinking if they did not salt enough the smell in the sorting office. worse still in brown paper. our shetlands make lovely little skins.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: Fleecewife on March 17, 2011, 06:15:54 pm
You have to keep adding salt for at least a week if not three, until there's no more run-off, then shake it all off and sprinkle a little fresh on.  Then roll and wrap in plastic feed sacks, then pack several together in another feed sack.  I have never had any leak in the postie's van done that way  ;D  They also weigh less when well salted than when fresh from the abattoir, for postage costs.  But I must admit I always worry something will go wrong and my skins will be left putrifying in the undelivered post section for years  :o 8)
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: shetlandpaul on March 17, 2011, 08:13:46 pm
that would teach them.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: Southfields on March 17, 2011, 08:20:11 pm
We looked at doing this and was told by our abattoir that we are not allowed the skins as we would need a license to transport them?  Anyone know if this is true or are they pulling a fast one??
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: woollyval on March 17, 2011, 09:29:15 pm
Of course you are allowed the skins ::) you just need to fill in an animal byproducts licence form which the abattoir will have to enable you to take them
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: shetlandpaul on March 17, 2011, 10:06:42 pm
they sell them. so they would want to keep the better fleeces. there maybe rules in fact there is bound to be. but its your property and you are paying them to perform a service for you. so if you want you property demand it.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: Fleecewife on March 17, 2011, 11:05:28 pm
There was a big hooha a few years back where skins were categorised as waste so were supposed to be treated as such and you could only deal with them if you were suitably licensed.  Big rebellion with folk like Nicki Port and the BCSBA fighting for our right to use sheepskins as part of our income.  So now all you must do is transport the skins in a closed container ie a plastic sack and take them onto your property via a different entrance to that used for livestock..... Also, at no point must livestock of any species come into contact with the skins while you are storing or salting them.  Those regs are very easy to comply with.  For a while Nicki Port was offering to speak with any abattoir which wouldn't let you get your skins back - she has all the arguments.  I thought every abattoir had now realised we can get them back, but yours must be behind the times  :D  Just let them know that the rules changed a while ago.
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: shrekfeet on March 18, 2011, 12:55:22 am
I used Fenland two years ago and the results were great. Used them again this year and seemed  to go downhill a bit. Wasn't too please with the way they stiched four together and also no keen on the holes they punch in the armpits to help them track whos skins they are. If you want to sell weigh up your market and prices as by the time you have shipped  them there and had them shipped back and paid for the tanning and the VAT they work out around £40 a piece (allow for your salting costs). Fenland take around 3 months to process them. |For shipping  I use Parcel2go.com who can ship 25kg for £8. THis will normally cover up to 4 rugs
Title: Re: Sheep skin rug processing
Post by: woollyval on March 18, 2011, 12:28:35 pm
Sorry you had a bad experience shrekfest.....I have used them for years and sold hundreds of sheepsking they have cured for me and other local farmers. They HAVE to do the hole punching in the armpit skin or they have no way of knowing yours from hundreds of others :D.....its a unique code.
Also just how huge are your skins if 4 weigh 25kg :o

You do have to be careful what you send in and when, for example great big long wool skins can be difficult to process if the wool is too long, ideally it should be about 3ins max so shesr first then grow out the tramlines and then kill.....even with lambs.
Also never try and cure skins between Dec and June as they tan poorly due to the new fleece growing and a weakness occurring leading to wool break.