SHEEP farmers who have come to regard wool as little more than an expensive nuisance – with the annual cheque frequently failing to cover the cost of gathering and shearing the flock – are in for a pleasant surprise following an announcement by the British Wool Marketing Board.
The shearing season, which is getting under way, will result in wool cheques being as much as four time higher than last year.
In former times, the wool cheque would just about cover the rent of a tenanted hill farm or pay the shepherd's w
ages. A return to that scenario is unlikely in the short term, but wool prices, in line with all commodities, are now on the rise as the cost of oil – a core component of the synthetic fibre industry – becomes increasingly expensive.
Last year, the BWMB made changes in the payment system that resulted in a very low wool cheque. However, this means current and future wool cheques paid to producers should be more consistent and more fairly reflect the value of wool.
Frank Langrish, the chairman of the BWMB who farms in Sussex, recognised that changing the pattern of payment had created a difficult situation for producers, but added the changes meant it "should avoid the wide variations in prices paid to producers over the past two years".
The BWMB has to meet rapidly rising increases in the cost of handling wool since 2001 in the wake of the foot-and-mouth crisis, while sheep numbers and the total weight of wool has declined every year since then. This has resulted in the closure of several depots and staff redundancies to keep costs under control.
New packing machines are enabling further efficiencies to be made and producers can help to reduce costs still further by improving the way they pack wool and by co-ordinating deliveries of wool with hauliers and neighbouring farmers.
Hugh Blythe, the board member for the south of Scotland, said: "This has been my first year and I came in at a very difficult time for wool producers. I have always supported the board and am glad to see my faith has been repaid by the wool cheque being so much higher than in the recent past."
The BWMB is the only statutory marketing board left in the UK and following a review by Defra (department of the environment, food and rural affairs) it will continue with only minimal changes. Blythe is happy with the review conclusions, particularly the recommendations that there should be a closer relationship with the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales.
The UK sheep breeding flock peaked at over 19 million 15 years ago, but has been in steady decline since. Huge numbers were culled in the FMD crisis of 2001 and many, especially on low ground farms, were not replaced.
The December 2007 census put the UK breeding flock at 14.8 million ewes, which was down by 0.8 per cent on the previous year. The decline in Scotland was more pronounced with the number of ewes falling from 2.38 million to 2.30 million.
However, the census reveals that there was an increase of 3 per cent to 605,000 ewe lambs retained for future breeding in Scotland. This could be a misleading statistic in that the very high prices of recent weeks for old season lambs (hoggets) may have tempted some producers to sell sheep they had intended to keep for future breeding.
Sheep numbers have been falling throughout most of the European Union for several years, especially in Ireland and France. Henry Burns, the chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association sheep committee, said: "Around ten years ago, we had 43,000 sheep producers in the country. But 10,000 producers have been forced out of business and breeding numbers have dropped from 4.5 million in 2000 to 2.9 million today."
The Irish are also concerned that if the current World Trade Organisation proposals on a 70 per cent reduction of import tariffs are agreed, their domestic industry simply could not cope with the competition from New Zealand and Australia.
However, there has been a noticeable fall in production due to the continued drought in Australia, while large numbers of farmers in the South Island of New Zealand have switched to milk production.
The full article contains 727 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
