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Author Topic: Storage of fleeces  (Read 1808 times)

juliem

  • Joined Aug 2014
Storage of fleeces
« on: June 15, 2018, 11:36:45 pm »
My tenant has had his sheep sheared...wool now stored in my barn (from 28 ewes..packed in one of those bags) He usually takes it to more neighbouring farm where it is picked up but his trailor is off the road at the moment)
Just how long is it ok being left in the barn....are they vulnerable to rats/mice?And does this wool marketing boatd just collect it once a year...
Can you find the collection points online.
I just have this suspicion he is going to leave this wool in my barn.....and if it wont burn how do you dispose of it ?

juliem

  • Joined Aug 2014
Re: Storage of fleeces
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2018, 11:17:44 am »
problem solved....fleeces miraculously have been removed from my morning when I checked this morning..wool.must be worth more than I thought! I did have a look at the British Wool Marketing Board website which was interesting. Lots of prices but nothing which makes any sense to me.
I am very partial to Brintons carpets but does any wool get used in the British carpet industry anymore ?


shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Storage of fleeces
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2018, 11:46:54 am »
I know your wool has gone but to answer your questions . Wool stored in a dry barn on a pallet (as it wicks up any moisture ) can last for years , farmers used to store ( if able) when the price fell then sell if the price improved years later .  Vermin don't seem to like it , suppose it depends how many have  . The wool board collects or you can take to a depo most of the year

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Storage of fleeces
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2018, 12:24:24 pm »
problem solved....fleeces miraculously have been removed from my morning when I checked this morning..wool.must be worth more than I thought! I did have a look at the British Wool Marketing Board website which was interesting. Lots of prices but nothing which makes any sense to me.
I am very partial to Brintons carpets but does any wool get used in the British carpet industry anymore ?

Yes, British wool is still very much used in carpets, upholstery, bedding, etc. :)

Wool is worth more than most people realise, yes.  On the Cumbrian upland farm, with good commercial sheep with nice fleeces, we used to get an average of £3-£3.50 for each of ours from the British Wool Marketing Board.

The BWMB is a farmers' co-operative and does not make a profit on the wool they sell.  They deduct their costs and pass the rest of their income back to the farmers who brought in their clips.

The BWMB grade fleeces according to type and quality, and then pay pro rata against a tariff for those types of fleeces.  What they pay is what they realised in selling the fleeces that year, less their operating costs, so in fact they pay mostly in arrears, as they don't know how much they'll be able to sell the fleeces for until they're all sold!

Each year, each farmer gets a single payment which comprises:

- the balance from the sale of their last year's clip
- an advance on the clip just submitted

The latter is a conservative estimate of what the BWMB will realise from selling the fleeces just submitted, and will vary according to:

- how the fleeces actually grade (the advance is based on the weight of the submitted sheets, the farmers' assessment of the types of fleece within, and the history of that farm's clips)
- the actual weights graded (for instance, wet fleeces will grade lighter, as they'll have dried out by the time they are graded)
- the previous year's wool sales worldwide, trends in the marketplace, and other factors. 

One year the global wool price crashed, and the BWMB was very nearly in the perilous position of having overpaid on advances that year.  So they estimate rather more conservatively now!

All of the above makes the wool sales through BWMB very fair, but rather hard for the farmer to know how s/he is doing.  One year the advance may have been low, then the balance the following year would be high and the advance perhaps higher too, having learned from the previous year, so the cheque might be quite large.  Then there may be another blip, prices globally falling again, so the balance the following year might be quite small and the advance reduced again in the light of what had just happened, so the next year's cheque could be considerably less.    It is years like that which result in farmers saying that the price of wool is woeful and threatening to burn their clip - but in fact, if they looked at a rolling three or five year total, they would see that in general, the price for most British wool is rising steadily.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

 

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