No 11. Sheep Performance Recording in New Zealand. History - Wool

 

By Dr Clive Dalton

 Fleece weight and wool quality

Fleece weight was always an important trait for Sheeplan breeders in the days when wool was worth improving. Today it’s a different story, although it cannot be totally ignored – and there’s always somebody talking up a great future for wool. Farmers have heard this talk for the last 40 years!

Recording in the woolshed

Hogget fleece weight (HFW) was the key trait for Sheeplan breeders to record as it was a good indication of lifetime wool production (i.e. it had high repeatability) and was regularly passed on to future generations (i.e. it had high heritability. 

HFW was also easy to measure, as all you needed was a set of scales and a tray to hold the wool. Many breeders used banana boxes to hold fleeces while waiting to be weighed. Nothing could be simpler  - and another simple and cheap idea from somebody which we publicised in MAF publications.

If you needed to record more data on the fleece like staple length, soundness etc, you could grab a mid-side sample from the fleece on the floor or the person on the wool table could take one. With fine-wooled flocks more data were collected by the shed wool classer.

Breeders soon developed slick routines to weigh wool, and shearers were most cooperative to allow the brass tag to be read (usually for a higher pay rate), when opening up the belly.  This was why we always recommended that sheep should be tagged in the left ear (which stuck out behind the shearer’s left arm), as most shearers were right handed.

Our technicians at Whatawhata and at other MAF research stations were always coming up with improvements, and I was always keen to use our MAF Flock & Herd magazine to publish these, and ideas that Sheep and Beef officers had seen in their own areas.  Bram Uljee was a master at developing new tricks, which we tried out at Whatawhata and improved on where possible.  Along with my technician David Hall we can claim one invention – the shearing lectern!

The shearing lectern

The Dalton/Hall lectern - 40 years old!

We had a slick wool shed operation at Whatawhata with no time to daydream or yak.  It started with first reading the brass tag in the sheep’s left (nearside) ear as soon as the shearer started on the belly, and the ear stuck out behind the shearer’s left upper arm. If you missed this opportunity to read the tag, the only other option was to read it on the last side, as the sheep’s head was ready to go down the porthole, which was not a good choice.

It was best if you could read the tag (in the sheep’s left ear) without having to touch it and certainly not to pull the tag clear, as an extra jump by the sheep was not appreciated by the shearer. 

After the tag was read, the number went on a ticket, which you then kept, usually between your lips while you swept the board with the broom or rake.  You then had to find a place for your pencil (ballpoints were no good with the wool grease) and I envied our staff who could hold a pencil behind their ears – I couldn’t!

After the last blow you first put the broom down quietly on the floor (dropping it near the shearer’s left ear at your peril), picked up the fleece, belly and pieces to put on the scales with the ticket on top. By this time, the shearer had the next sheep on the board and it was rapid fire again.

It was the job of another staff member to write the fleece weight on the ticket, which then sat it on the fleece before being given to the records technician on the way to be thrown on the table.  If the table was wooled up, the fleece was put in a queue on the floor.

 The record’s technician filled in the large data sheets, which went to Ruakura and via punched cards disappeared into the maw of the computer which at that time filled a whole wing of the main tower block.  You can get this power today in a laptop!

The record’s technician had to be wide-awake all the time, with the main problem being mis-read tags and duplicated numbers.  While reading the tag, it paid you to say the number out aloud, to keep eye and brain in sync.  Anybody who we discovered had a touch of dyslexia was banished from tag reading.

This circus got to the stage where David Hall and I were sick of shearers’ expletives from falling brooms, holding dirty paper tickets in our mouths, using our knees as writing desks, and finding places to hold greasy pencils.  A wee lectern was the obvious solution.

David and I did a sketch and took it to Neil Wood our station engineer and invention genius, and Neil mocked up a prototype which worked like a charm from the word go.  The lectern held the tickets, the pencil hung on a string, and that broom had a special clip all to itself on the side - all in one place and saving a extra bending.

The design was a joint venture we seem to remember, but I insisted on having my name alone on the side clip for the blardy broom! I could never resist giving mock blessings from the lectern to stir things up, and enjoying the shearers’ unprintable responses.

Technology has thankfully moved on, and breeders today have a massive range of electronic wizardry to record fleece weigh, if indeed it’s worth bothering about.  All this was all 40 years ago, so you can imagine the thrill I got when at a recent Whatawhata Field Day in the woolshed I saw our four now rusting lecterns still there.  I had to set one up for an historic photo. But I somehow resisted giving the crowd a blessing!

Fleece weight from liveweight

The other way you could select for fleece weight in Sheeplan was through liveweight, as if you kept on breeding heavier hoggets, you’d end up with sheep that produced more wool because of the high phenotypic and genetic correlation between fleece weight and body weight.

So all you needed a set of scales, which in those days were a crate to hold the sheep suspended on a spring balance.  These were ugly noisy contraptions with doors banging just at the moment the tag reader called out the number. We tied bits of old bicycle tube on the gates to deaden the noise.  You could never wait till the scale pointer came to rest so took the middle reading of the pointer’s vibrations.

A company called ‘Donalds’ made both sheep and cattle scales where the weight forced a liquid up a tube on a scale, and we used them for a while before the wonderful arrival of the first electronics.

So right from the start, through our MAF publications we encouraged commercial sheep farmers to put their top Sheeplan rams over their hoggets that had high fleece weights.  This was a challenge as commercial sheep farmers hadn’t tagged sheep before or weighed wool.  But good ideas seemed to emerge – and it’s a pity now we can’t remember where they came from – like the one below.

The cardboard computer

Somebody came up with the idea of a two-piece waterproof label on a bit of elastic to go around a sheep’s neck, and a cardboard box with 20-25 divisions inside to put the labels in.  The labels were called Tallitags and Allflex sold them, and we can’t remember who sold the boxes – maybe the same company.

Picture from Bram Uljee's book showing the wool on the scales, then the Talitag being put into the appropriate hole in the box, then the box at the end with raised lid showing the distribution of the fleece weight tags.

This was the basic routine:

1.     Decide on the range of fleece weights in the mob in 100g steps, and mark these weights on the holes in the box lid, starting with highest in the top left hole. The box had a hinged lid to indicate the front and to avoid errors incase it got turned around.

2.     Just before each shorn hogget goes down the hole, stretch the Tallitag on its elastic cord around the sheep’s neck, tearing off one half to go with the fleece on the scales. 

3.     The other half stays on the hogget and will be legible for at least 10 days.

4.     After weighing the fleece, write the weight on the tag (as a double check) and post it through the appropriate hole of the box. 

5.     At the end of shearing, opening the lid reveals the range in fleece weights in the mob.  

6.     Work out how many hoggets you need to keep, and work back down through the compartments with the declining weights until you have the number you want. 

7.     On a nice dry day, bring the hoggets back in, and put a permanent brass tag in the keepers and mark the rest as culls.

This was such a great way to introduce ‘population genetics’ to farmers through such a simple illustration of what a ‘normal distribution’ or ‘bell curve’ was – and most important of all, how to use this bit of applied statistics to improve the flock.

This simple box  full of Talitags showed farmers that most of the mob (two thirds) was around the average; the 1/6th culls at the bottom end, and then the special 1/6th hoggets at the top end of the distribution. These top sheep always looked a picture – so it wasn’t hard to get farmers to give them a permanent tag and call them ‘the elite group’ or a ‘nucleus group’.  Our SBOs went flat out to promote this concept, and that it was worth paying decent money for Sheeplan rams to put over these top hoggets to ensure rapid genetic gain.

The concern over the price of tags and the extra work in the woolshed and office suddenly faded away!

The simple Talitag to identify the hogget's fleece weight.
Photo from Bram Uljee's book

Wool - has it a future? Prince Charles to the rescue!

By Dr Clive Dalton

‘Farmer Prince Charles’ and ‘Farmer King George III’
Prince Charles was once reported as saying that King George III (‘Farmer George’) was a favourite ancestor and he had done a lot of research on him. George III was famous for promoting English textile prosperity by bringing in superfine Spanish Merinos (by fair means and foul), from where he spread them to Australia and North America.

See H.B. Carter (http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5563327546075276103&postID=6172011363920526286).

So we should not be surprised to see that Prince Charles is determined to help the struggling British wool industry. ‘Good on him’ is our Kiwi response.

A canny lad
For those of us living in the far reaches of the former British Empire, and who still recognise the Queen as our Head of State (for how much longer we're not sure), and who are very concerned about the future of sheep and wool, we currently think that Prince Charles is a ‘good joker’ because he's trying to do something about promoting British wool! His favourite ancestor would have been proud of him.

In Northumbrian terms he’s a ‘canny lad’, and although he’s had his ups and doons in recent years, his actions over trying to save British wool has been well noted in New Zealand – and we are all behind his actions.

He and I share the same birthday (Nov 14), which is also the day the tups are set away to the hill in the North Tyne. And his other great quality (in Northumbrian eyes) is that he’s the patron of the Border Stick Dressers’ Association, and was instrumental in getting the daft EU regulation to incinerate all rams’ horns and heeds (because of BSE) hoyed oot.

His concern for wool
The Prince’s concern for British wool drove our NZ Minister of Agriculture (Mr David Carter) to call in for a cup of tea and a bit crack with him at Balmoral in Scotland on a recent trip to `Europe. They talked about the UK's 'Campaign for Wool' of which the Prince is patron.

The press release said:
'The Prince of Wales is a champion of the efforts of Commonwealth farmers to grow wool and restore profitability to the sector, and this was a significant opportunity to discuss increasing the demand for wool, recognising its qualities as a naturally renewable and sustainable product' Mr Carter said.

He also said that the Prince's campaign mirrors the New Zealand government's efforts to get our strong wool industry back on track. His Royal Highness is a passionate advocate for wool and was keen to hear of NZ efforts to ensure consumers understand the benefits of this wonderful and sustainable fibre'.

NZ Minister of Agriculture (David Carter) and the
Prince of Walesat Balmoral 2010
(Both wearing wool!)

If the Prince can do anything to help the noble fibre keep a foothold in the world’s textile industry, then he deserves to be made King straight away and he’d be welcome to come and live in New Zealand and commute from here to do the rest of his Commonwealth shepherding.

Killed by synthetic fibres
The death of wool as a textile fibre started the day a chemist drew a strand out from a chemical brew in a test tube in the late 1940s - 1950s, and nylon was born. The rest is history, and their massive research and development by international companies like Dupont and ICI has never stopped, first mimicking the unique qualities of wool, and then improving on them.

Wool never had a chance, and many believe it’s a waste of time trying to compete with the massive multinationals in the synthetic fibre business. Wool currently only occupies 1.5% of the textile fibre market.

But thankfully, there are believers like Prince Charles, supported by wool growers in Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Africa to name just a few.

It’s all about price, and clothing, carpets and furnishings made from synthetic fibres will always be cheaper, especially when mass-produced in countries where labour costs are low. Sheep farmers have to find customers who will pay for the benefits (real or perceived) of wearing and walking on ‘natural fibres’; sadly there are not a lot left in the world.

Wool and fashion
Sheep farmers and wool enthusiasts live in hope that in the weird world of ‘fashion’, among the outrageous rags that appear on walking skeletons wobbling their way down catwalks, some designer will feature the magic of wool! It happens now and again, but like everything in the fashion world, it's always short lived.

We all used to hope that another ‘oil shock’ would increase the price of synthetic fibres, which are all born as fossil fuels, and allow natural fibres a comeback. It never happened; it just made the chemists and manufacturers smarter and more efficient.

The carpet industry is the main end-user of the world’s coarse wools (fibre diameter above 30 microns), such as those grown in New Zealand from our Romney sheep. These are in direct contrast to the fine wools from Merino sheep and their crosses which are used for high quality clothing (fibre diameter around 20 microns).

Before the advent of synthetic fibres, the best thing that could happen to wool was to have a war in a cold climate. We Northumbrian Daft Laddies on farms in the 1950s well remember wearing the WWII ex-army tunics, trousers and especially the greatcoats, which were certainly warm but weighed a ton. Modern armies wear synthetic fibres regardless of the climate they work in.

The Korean war was the last such event when wool was King again, and it's said that Australian wool growers were buying Rolls Royce cars as farm vehicles to use up the money. The ‘Rollers’ were very reliable and there was plenty of room in the back for the dogs and a few sick sheep. You got a pound Sterling for a pound of wool in New Zealand at that time.

Wool marketing shambles

The start of wool's journey - newly-shorn coarse wool
Border Leicester ram fleece.

History has shown some awful examples of bad marketing, resulting in stockpiles of wool around the world, and especially in Australia and New Zealand where governments bought the wool at auction to keep the price up. They then had to hold it for years, releasing it on to the market in dribs and drabs to get their money back. They will never do this again. Farmers will have to meet the market.

The overseas buyers knew where all the wool was, so they only bought what they wanted, and didn’t have the cost of buying forward and storing it, as happens when prices are volatile and in short supply. Wool is a bulky product so needs space and cost to store.

Countries pulled out of international marketing organisations like the International Wool Secretariat (IWS) with the “Woolmark” as it’s famous world-recognised logo. For a while nothing bad happened, but now the years without promotion of wool have come to account. Wool has no international image any more.

The best example of this is the recent campaign by New Zealand farmers to inform American architects (by bringing them here to show them wool being grown and harvested), and that it’s ideal for carpeting high-rise buildings. Wool doesn't burn like synthetic fibres and this basic fact had been missing from their building codes. Hopefully they have now got the message.

Costs from sheep to shop

Costs of production have killed wool and they seem set to continue. Here are a few reasons:

• Wool varies enormously over the sheep’s body, so has to be sorted by hand, and the easiest place to do this is when it first comes off the sheep on the shearing board.
• A wool fibre varies along its diameter with the feeding level of the sheep. This can cause 'tenderness' or 'wool break' and in the worst cases (and see in primitive breeds), the woll breaks and is shed.
• The finest of all wool fibres are described as 'hunger-fine' wools, grown when sheep were suffering starvation. These wools can be around 10 microns in diameter and individual fibres are hard to see with the naked eye.
• The skill of ‘wool handling’ (along with shearing) has improved out of sight in recent decades, as a result of local and international competitions around the world.
• The return from the wool harvested in most countries over the last few years, has hardly covered the costs of shearing and handling.

Research continues to take the human effort out of shearing.
Robotics and chemical defleecing are still being worked on.
(Ian McMillan in veterens' demonstration shearing)

• As wool grows on the sheep in the wide-open spaces of the world, all sorts of things can get mixed up in the fleece, which in processing stage have to be removed. Plant material and weed seeds are the best examples.

Plant material in belly wool - costly to remove

• Classic examples are the New Zealand ‘Bidibid’ (Acaena inermis) and the Australian Bathurst Bur (Xanthimum spinosum) and the Scottish heather (Caluna vulgaris). New Zealand Bidibid travelled with wool to the mills in southern Scotland, then down the Tweed into the North Sea on to the Farne Islands where it is a hazard to young fledgling seabirds.
• Wool is a bulky product and there’s a limit on how it can be compressed for transport around the world. Cheap transport moves slowly and there has been talk recently of using wind power to move ships carrying wool – back to the old ‘Clipper’ days to avoid the cost and carbon footprint of power by fossil fuels.

Wool pressed into bales in the woolshed after being trucked to the merchant.
For export these are 'double dumped' - two pressed into the space taken up by one bale

• Weight and bulk can be reduced by scouring (washing) in the country of origin, and this also has the advantage of leaving the pollution behind.
• Farmers are also directed not to dip sheep for at least 60 days before shearing to avoid pollution during scouring.
• The wool handling chain is better now that 30 years ago but it’s still full of fragmentation with too many people competing and ‘clipping tickets’ as the wool moves from farm to processor. Wool goes from the farm to a merchant who may sort it further (more than in the woolshed), and then it’s shipped to mills across the world.
• Then there’s all the handling at the processor’s end to get it to the clothing or carpet manufacturer. It’s just goes on and on with more ticket clipping on the way.

NZ Wool merchant sorting wool purchased direct from farmers.
This is labour intensive and costly. From here it is baled and shipped to
processors around the world.

Old direct marketing
It’s amazing now to remember the days when the North Tyne fells were alive with sheep before the forests banished them.

(See http://woolshed1.blogspot.com/2008/10/daft-laddies-lost-farms-of-tyne-rede.html).

The late Willie Robson told of when their family were at Willow Bog, they sent their wool direct to Otterburn Mill to be made into tweed to cloth the family. What a wonderful example of direct marketing! Small offcuts were even used to ‘breek the hoggs’ – washing them after every season so nowt was wasted.

Ignorance & complacency
Tar branding
For generations, the marking of sheep to record their farm of origin was done with tar. It was totally weatherproof and had a very long life on the wool. The trouble was it couldn’t be scoured out and small specks of it could do enormous damage to textile machinery. It took the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) around half a century to get farmers to appreciate this and take action.

I remember going to Henry Bell’s wool store in Hexham while a student at Kings College in the 1950s and getting 'the tar message' from the wool classer who was sorting wool from farms that had just been packed into bales with no preparation done on the farm,other than rolling the fleece. Tar branding had a long slow death and it was the financial penalty that drove it.

Bloom dipping
When I was a Daft Laddie on North Tyne farms in the 1950s, we ‘larned’ the art of ‘blooming sheep’ for sale and show, and the practice must have gone on for many decades before that. In the early days farmers used the natural earths and peat before modern’ pigments were available, heavily promoted by ‘the dip man’ or the Northern Farmers rep when he called to get the yearly order.

I remember as students at Kings College going to the famous Border Leicester stud at Rock in the north of Northumberland and seeing tups being prepared for the Kelso sale. They varied in hue from bright orange through yellow to pink. I felt sorry for the tups – they themselves must have felt stupid entering the sale ring. There was never any logic in the practice, but fashion is fashion and defies logic.

I used to joke about what a yowe on heat must have thought when she looked around to see a bright yellow or orange creature creeping up on her from behind!

Helen Brown’s Tarset blog ( "http://blog.tarset.co.uk/" http://blog.tarset.co.uk/) gives a very clear explanation of the reasons for blooming sheep in UK.

I cannot believe that it still goes on, and that the buyers of sheep are so daft as to see value in it. Sheep farmers wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t financial benefit. Apparently it's all about making sheep look 'even' and 'healthy'.

Sheep at a local show illustrating the modern range of fashionable colours
(Photo by kind permission of Helen Brown).

The poor yellow sheep in this pen looks embarrassed! The bloomed ones will probably think the white one is odd! Apparently brown is the most popular choice at present.

Blooming sheep has been on the hit list of the BWMB for decades but from what Helen Brown says – it’s had little effect. Farmers clearly don’t understand that the dying of wool fibres should be decided by the textile manufacturer, and not by the shepherd! You can’t make contaminated wool lighter – you can only make it darker.

Herdwick sheep - their natural colour. Popular for home crafts.

Bloom dipping reached New Zealand and was used sporadically till the 1950s. But it died a rapid death when price penalties made farmers appreciate the costs it was adding to marketing and processing. Financial penalties are they way to fix things, and clearly price differentials have never had any effect in UK.

First job for Prince Charles
So there’s the first job for Prince Charles – to banish bloom dipping. We sheep and wool enthusiasts in New Zealand wish him well as it looks an uphill battle.

It's easy to ask when wool is worth so little, why bother trying to prepare it better for the manufacturer? The answer to that is that if you want to sell it at all, rather than putting it into landfill, good preparation is more important than ever.

Old 'Daft Laddie' keeps his hand in
Sixty years after my first battle with a sheep to part it from its fleece, I remove the wool from a Border Leicester ram using the 'North Tyne' 'clipping' (shearing) method, where the sheep is held on its side for most of the action - especially effective for large rams. This way of clipping provides plenty of opportunity to stop and chat to fellow clippers and 'hangers on' that the event always seemed to attract - many of them with an eagle eye looking for skin cuts!

The author versus Border Leicester ram 'William'

Sheep Farm Husbandry - breeds and breeding

By Dr Clive Dalton

Which breed to farm?
There is a wide choice of breeds available in New Zealand. Some of these are the ancestors of a wide range of breeds that came from Britain and Australia in the 1860s and early 1900s, and some have been developed in New Zealand from merging (crossing) other breeds.

Others were imported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for research and testing in the 1970s and were released eventually to commercial farmers, while private companies imported others.

Choice of breed can be based on many things such as availability and predicted economic return from meat, wool or milk. But personal fancy is also taken into consideration as it’s very important to keep a breed that you like, whether it’s a commercial or a hobby enterprise. Here’s a list of breeds classified by their function and where they came from:

Meat breeds

• Dorset Down - (Britain)
• South Dorset Down - (NZ from Southdown and Dorset Down)
• Polled Dorset - (Britain)
• Dorset Horn - (Britain)
• Suffolk - (British)
• Shropshire - (Britain)
• Hampshire - (Britain)
• South Dorset - (NZ from Southdown and Dorset)
• Southdown - (Britain)
• South Suffolk - (NZ from Southdown and Suffolk)
• South Hampshire - (NZ from Southdown and Hampshire)
• Ryeland - (Britain)
• Texel - (Holland)
• Oxford Down - (Britain)
• Wiltshire - (Britain)
• Dorper - (South Africa)
• Awassi Fat Tailed - (Middle East)
  

Wool breeds

• Merino (fine wool) – (Spain via Australia)
• Boroola merino (fine wool) – (Australia)
• Polwarth (fine wool) – (Australia)
• Drysdale (coarse wool) – (New Zealand)
• Tukidale (coarse wool) – (New Zealand)
• Black and Coloured (both fine and coarse coloured wool) – (New Zealand)
  

Woolless breeds

• Wiltshire
• Dorper
  

Dual purpose (meat and wool) breeds

• Romney- (Britain)
• Coopworth – (NZ from Border Leicester x Romney)
• Perendale – (NZ from Cheviot x Romney)
• Cheviot – (Britain)
• Corriedale (NZ from Lincoln or Leicester x Merino)
• Border Leicester - (Britain)
• Borderdale – (NZ from Border Leicester x Merino)
• English Leicester – (Britain)
• Lincoln – (Britain)
• Finnish Landrace or Finnsheep – (Finland)
• East Friesian – (Holland)
• White Headed Marsh - (Germany)
  

Milking breeds

• East Friesian – (Holland)

Pelt breeds

• Gotland pelt – (Norway)
• Karakul – (Central Russia)
  

Rare breeds

• Campbell Island sheep (NZ Campbell Island)
• Raglan Romney – (NZ Raglan)
• Hokonui sheep – (NZ Hokonui, Southland)
• Fiordland sheep – (NZ Fiordland)
• Stewart Island sheep – (NZ Stewart Island)
  

For more contacts for Breed Societies and Breed Associations – see NZ Contacts in Agriculture (Website www.contacts.co.nz. Email: office@contacts.co.nz).

How do breeds compare?
This is a difficult question to answer, as when breeds have been compared in official independent trials, there have always been problems. One of my sheep breed comparison trials with six New Zealand breeds went for 11 years, and I was not on many stud breeders’ Christmas card list!

Supporters of each breed were rarely happy with the way trials were run, and were never happy if the results came out negative for their breed. The major concerns were first trying to get stock that truly represented each breed, and then running them in an environment and managing them so that everyone was happy. This was rarely if ever achieved. In today’s research environment breed comparison are part of history and it’s maybe a good thing.

When you look at information provided by breed organisations, you could easily conclude that all breeds were perfect. We read that each breed has high fertility, high growth rates, good wool, and good carcass conformation with low fat content. The ewes are also good mothers, have great longevity and are not prone to diseases! If all this was true, why do we need so many breeds? The answer is not technical –it’s more about personal fancy – and fortunately there’s no law against keeping breeds that you like the look of.

The table below gives some old (if not ancient data), and is probably only useful for the wool traits or staple length and fibre diameter details which will not have changed much over time. But you could probably add 10kg to the live weights of today’s sheep, much to shearers’ concerns about having to haul all this extra weight over the shearing board.



Today’s better feeding regimes have also increased fleece weights by 0.25 –0.5kg. Lambing percentage used to be included in these tables but they are so dependent on feeding levels and live weight that presenting average figures for today’s breeds is of little value.

Conclusion: Apart from the specialist wool breeds, consider all the meat breeds and all the dual-purpose breeds to be so similar that farming them will produce similar financial returns. You can get good performance out of any breed with good management.

Why bother with wool?
Over recent years. with the very low returns from wool, interest in sheep that either grow little or no wool, or shed what they do grow, has come and gone. Farmers on small blocks are most keen to have woolless sheep.

Wiltshire ewe showing shedding genes

Breed photos
Breed societies can get very upset when they see photos of their breed in print that they don't like - for a wide range of reasons. It's not an easy job to present one photo to show all the characteristics of the breed - especially to please a committee.

The following are photos I have taken over the years and are certainly not blessed by any Breed Association of Society. Contact the appropriate breed organisation for an approved photo.

New Zealand Romney


Coopworth mixed-age ewes


Perendale ewe hoggets

Drysdale rams

Corriedale rams

Cheviot mixed-age ewes

Merino ram

Suffolk mixed-age ewes

Black and Coloured mixed-age ewes

Disclaimer This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Sheep Farm Husbandry - Preparation for Shearing

Shearing preparation, sheep, facilities, yards, woolshed and plant, pressing, branding, documentation

By Dr Clive Dalton

How to keep shearers and wool handlers happy

• Shearers and wool handlers have never had a great image, and despite the best efforts of their Union and what used to be the NZ Wool Board that championed shearer training and welfare, they are still struggling for full recognition of their skills.
  
• This is now more serious as young people are loathe to enter the industry and can find much easier ways to make a living in other occupations.
• So if you want your sheep shorn, here’s a few suggestion to get your shearers and wool handlers to want to come back next time you need them.
  

Ronney ewes waiting to be second shorn

Preparing for shearing
The key to a trouble-free shearing is good preparation and the thing you must avoid at all costs is to hold the shearers up as you are depriving them of their income and they don’t like that. Here’s a series of check lists for the various parts of the operation.

Yards and shed

• Check all gates are swinging freely and not dragging on the ground.
• All gate and door catches should be working and be reliable.
• Repair all broken rails and broken gratings to prevent broken legs.
• If you have drafted sheep before shearing, tie the gates up with extra twine, especially over night to avoid mix-ups.
  

Woolshed

Shearing plant

• All machines in good working order – greased and oiled.
• Electrical wiring on motors and flexes are safe.
• Have spare guts and other parts available plus the appropriate tools.
  

Grinder

• New emery paper on the grinder.
• Spare paper and glue available.
• Water containers to soak off old emery paper.
• Pendulums hanging in place and adjusted to the right length.
• Plenty of light above the grinder to see what you are doing.
  

Shearing board

• Well ventilated with no drafts.
• Piece of soft pine in place to “finish” combs (saves ripping the studs).
• Floor washed clean and dry.
• Knock in all sticking-up nails.
• Repair all splintered boards.
• Return-spring on catching pen and straps to prevent over-wide opening.
• Working and full oil cans on each stand.
• Bulk supply of correct oil available.
• Wash trays, screwdrivers and brushes all there.
• Wool brooms, sweepers or boards all present along with spares.
  

Lighting

• Leave some lights on in the shed overnight to prevent panic among sheep.
• Replace all blown bulbs with correct wattage to provide good light.
• Windows and skylights cleaned.
• Check no direct sun gets on the shearing board – have a means of blinding off any offending windows.
  

Wool room

• Have the correct recommended lighting above the wool table. Check with your shearing contractor.
• Plenty of wool packs available.
• Correct branding gear available – stencils, ink and brushes.
• Wool press in good working order and safe to use.
• Plenty of space for pressed bales.
• Bale hooks present plus spares.
• Bale trolley for large shed.
• Needles and twine always available and kept in same place.
• Brooms or boards present to keep the place tidy.
• A clearly visible blackboard to show pen tallies and for other shed notes.
  

Tally book

• A new tally book with a new sharp (soft lead) pencil tied to it.
• A spare book and pencil.
  

Washing facilities

• Ensure there is plenty of clean potable water available.
• Check the water heater works.
• Clean the sinks and make sure each one has a plug.
• Clean the showers and check they are working. Place non-slip mats in them.
• Clean the toilet and make sure there are plenty of rolls of paper – soft paper!
• Provide plenty of towels – paper ones are best, and have a rubbish bin for the used ones.
• Have liquid soap in a dispenser rather than a dirty block that gets lost.
• Keep all the ablutions facilities clean during shearing.
  

First aid

• Have a large, clearly-marked first aid box up on the wall.
• Check all the basic materials are present and keep checking them during shearing.
• Have a bottle of disinfectant ready mixed and clearly marked in a prominent place.
• Have a trained designated person to be the first point of contact in case of accident.
• Always have a mobile phone handy with key phone numbers recorded.
  

Sheep

Daggy sheep are a health & safety risk to shearers.
Dag all sheep before the shearers arrive

• Minimise the stress on all sheep to be shorn.
• Dag all sheep before shearing.
• Draft by breed and wool length.
• Treat all flyblown sheep before shearing.
• Draft off any sick or injured sheep to be shorn at the end (by negotiation with the shearers).
• Don’t hold sheep in the catching pen overnight as it will be too slippy for the shearers.
• Do not offer damp sheep for shearing. The wool will mould on pressing and the shearers will get boils.
• Have good feed and shelter for all sheep after shearing.
  

Emptying out sheep
Farmers have always been aware of the need to empty out sheep before shearing to avoid pen stain of wool, but recently this need has been reinforced by OSH guidelines to reduce the risk of handling injuries to shearers, less risk of tripping on slippery floors, and reduced chance of shearers contracting Leptospirosis from urine spray. The recommendations are shown in the table below.



Key points from the table

• Exceeding the maximum times with pregnant ewes may trigger metabolic diseases.
• Where practical, lambs should stay with their mothers until they enter the woolshed for shearing and their separation kept to a minimum.
• Special care is needed when handling pregnant hoggets. Exceeding their maximum could easily trigger metabolic diseases.
• Exceeding the times for lambs could trigger diseases too.
  

Wool preparation

• Have a clear plan on how you want the wool prepared before shearing and give clear instructions to the shed hands.
• If you are not sure about certain aspects, seek the advice of the wool handlers, many of whom now have had formal training.
  

Fleece weighing

• Make sure the scales are working and recording accurate data.
• Check they are in a good position for working and are securely positioned.
• Have extra trays or boxes for the wool on the scales.
• Have plenty tags, tickets and pencils if needed for manual recording.
• Read the sheep’s tag when it causes least disturbance to the shearer so they don’t have to stop.
• This is the advantage of having the brass tag in the left ear so you read the tag when the belly is being shorn and the ear is sticking out behind the shearer’s left arm.

General

• Have you given the contractor or non-contract shearers plenty of notice?
• Will there be plenty of shed hands all with clearly allocated jobs.
• Is the food organised? Diet advice has changed over recent years. Shearers are athletes and need energy foods and not protein. So they don’t need to be fed on endless mutton – they need carbohydrates. Check with Meat & Wool NZ for details of diets.
• Have plenty of clearly marked rubbish bins in visible places.
• Have some coat hooks for clothing.
• Shearers gear is valuable and they often get it stolen so provide some metal lockers for their spare gear.
• As a final check, get someone to go around to test everything is working.
• And if the pet lamb has to be shorn, make sure it’s collar is removed – and have a biscuit ready as a reward for its indignity!
  

Wool bales
Because wool bales are not opened and emptied after packing in the farm woolshed until they reach the mill, it’s very important that the job is done properly.


Preparation
Here are the important points:

• For a single lot or line of wool, use all synthetic packs. Jute packs are now history.
• Recycled packs. If they are used make sure that:
• They don’t show any old brands.
• All rips and tears must be repaired.
• Must not have any unraveled or burst seams, raw edges or loose threads.
• Must not be repaired with patches.
• Must not have any base or seam repairs.
• Must have a sound clean or new cap of the same fibre type as the pack.
• Must have a sewn-on label identifying the rehandling company and date of rehandling.
• Must only be repaired/rehandled by a company prepared to meet the standards of the code of practice for packaging wool.
  

Before pressing
Before starting to press wool, check the press and the equipment needed – packs, clips, permanent marker pens, bale/tally book, newspaper and pen.

• Check the work plan with the farmer or person supervising the shearing.
• Ensure the pressing work area is tidy and free from contamination.
• Load the pack into the press.
• Enter the agreed description of the new bale to be pressed into the bale book.
• Press the wool.
• Close the bale, brand the bale according to the bale book description and tick off as done.
• Remove the bale and store in a place to avoid congestion and need for minimal movement.
• Repeat pressing process for each bale.
  

Pressing

• Press bales to near their maximum weight.
• 200kg is the recommended maximum.
  
• Overweight bales have to be repacked at the grower’s expense.
  
• The minimum bale weight is 100kg.
  

Common faults with pressing
With the downturn in wool profits, there’s always a temptation to cut corners, or only be able to hire staff without the necessary experience. So wool merchants are having to put out information to keep up wool pressing standards. Here are their current concerns:

1. Poor clipping technique. All clips must go straight across. Clips must be at least 25mm (one inch) from the seam edge. Poorly inserted clips can twist and protrude being a danger to handlers.
2. Poor overlap of the flaps. All flaps must have at least 50mm (three finger widths) overlap. This ensures the wool is not contaminated and flaps get caught during handling.
3. Bales not evenly pressed. Ensure that bales are pressed evenly so they stand up straight. Unevenly pressed bales can make truck loads unstable. Place wool evenly in the bale before pressing.
4. Data on the specification form not matching the bales received. Always check off each bale pressed with the bale book with a tick. A major problem is many bales with the same number. Have a good process and stick to it.
   

Branding

• Brand each bale before it leaves the press to avoid errors.
• Brand with the correct information and using the approved ink.
• Complete the tally book before the bale leaves the press.
• Do not use black shoe polish as it fades rapidly.
• Do not use aerosols as they go through the pack and stain the wool under the brand.
• Only use black for branding as the shipper uses red ink.
• The brands placed on the cap and side of the bale differs in the North and South Island of New Zealand, so check with your wool merchant or Stock company.
• A lot of subsequent information has to be added to the cap and you need to leave at least two-thirds of it clear for shipping brands. Wool brokers prefer the shipping brands on the top of the bale next to the farm brand (and not on the base).
• Put the farm brand on the top left corner of the cap, and if the farm has a long name it can extend along the top. In this position there is less chance of it being rubbed off by abrasion between bales during transport.
• Lettering: Height should be 50-75mm with 50mm preferred. Letters should be of adequate thickness. Use a stencil with uniform strokes.
• If wool is not correctly described it will not be offered for sale and will incur a cost to the grower.
  

Documentation
Bale tally book

This is the final part of the process so you have to get it right if you want to avoid problems and delays in payment. Make sure that:

• All bales are branded.
• No numbers are duplicated.
• All descriptions are correct.
• Separate lines are clearly marked.
• All bale fastening is sound.
  

Written specifications
To allow brokers to handle your wool quickly and correctly, your written specifications must be with the wool merchant when the wool arrives. Each load of wool that leaves the farm needs a specification and it must indicate whether lines are complete or not. Here are some important points to check:

• Keep a duplicate specification.
• Check that the number of bales stated agrees with those specified. Let bale numbers run through for the season and don’t start each consignment off at number 1.
• Ensure that your written brand (on the specification) agrees with what is on the bales.
• Make sure the name and address are correct.
• Give an accurate description of the bales.
• Make sure that in the bale numbers there are no duplications or deletions.
• Record the total bales in each line and write the selling instructions clearly as well as the method of disposal.
• Note that in failing to give clear instructions, the company will use its discretion in handling the wool.
• Make sure you indicate clearly whether this is the complete clip, or only part of it with more to come.
• Any specific instructions or comments need to be clearly stated e.g. at which sale you want the wool sold at.
• If the wool is consigned by a farming company, make sure the full and correct company name is given so correspondence will go to the correct place.
• Wools from different farms in a company may be very different but may be are consigned as one line. Make sure the specifications recognise this.
• Make sure the specification is signed by the person responsible for the clip. Check that the phone number for urgent contact is correct.
  

Abbreviations used on wool bales
Here is a list of abbreviations required by the wool trade to avoid confusion.

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Sheep Farm Husbandry - Wool types and Handling

Sheep, husbandry, wool, marketing, preparation, hand spinning wools, when to shear

By Dr Clive Dalton

In the old days, depending on how much (or how little) preparation was preparation done on the farm, wool went as greasy wool to a “wool merchant” with massive woolstores. Here staff and "wool classers" unpacked the bales, and classed the fleece wool into similar lines before it was repacked and offered for sale by auction.

The exception was in the larger clips where the wool was classed and sorted at the time of shearing in the woolshed on the farm. So if wool growers offered poorly-prepared wool for sale, the wool merchant’s staff sorted it out - at a charge.

When the lines of wool were valued prior to auction, the bales were laid out in rows in the week before the sale. Buyers dug deep into a sample of opened bales with their hands and pulled the wool out to make sure they saw a good representative sample. All these opened bales then had to be repacked by the staff immediately after the sale. It was a very costly business and things had to change. Here's a brief summary of what happens today:

Wool's journey to market
The first big change was driven by wool importing countries not wanting New Zealand grease and dirt with their purchase, as with freight being charged on a weight basis it cost more to transport greasy wool.

• There was also increasing concern over the effluent from the wool scours polluting the waterways of the destination country, as well as a bonus of New Zealand weed seeds.
  
• So now about 90% of our exported coarser wools are scoured after being sold and before being shipped.
  

Wool from small flocks

• The wool is generally put into "fadges" (often by the shearer).
  
• Everything goes in except the dags and it is either given to the shearer to pay the costs, or is taken to a wool merchant who pays the grower on greasy weight - usually the lowest possible price commensurate with the lowest value wool in the mix!
• The wool merchant sorts it along with wool from other sources and bales it for direct sale to a buyer or through the auction system described below.
  

Wool from large flocks

• The wool is shorn and prepared (to whatever standard) in the farm woolshed, pressed into bales and branded with the farm brand and the wool's specification (see later).
• It may be purchased in the shed by a wool merchant who will take a hand-grab sample from a number of bales to be sent to a wool measurement laboratory for testing. The grower may then be offered a price based on the test results and this is often seen as the easiest option for the farmer these days.
• If the farmer sends the wool through a stock and station agent, the wool is transported to their wool broker's store where a number of actions are taken in preparation for sale.
• On arrival each bale of a straight type of wool is compressed and four sharpened tubes are forced into it from the top to draw out a "core sample" under pressure. This sample results in short pieces of cut fibres.
• The core samples are used to measure yield, fibre diameter, fibre curvature, colour and sometimes core bulk.
• Then the bale is turned over and a hole cut in the side from which a mechanical grab draws a sample producing full-length staples.
• This grab sample is used to check the wool type against the documented specifications sent in with the wool. It measures staple length and in the case of fine wools, staple strength.
• The grab samples from the line are then sent to the wool selling centre (currently Napier and Christchurch), put together into a box for display along with the testing certificate for the buyers to inspect and value before the auction sale.
• After it is sold, most of the wool is transported to a wool scour where it is blended with other wools to meet the purchaser's specifications and is then scoured.
• Wool due for export is pressed into high-density bales, wrapped and bound with steel straps to reduce its volume for shipping in a container.
  

Implications of preparation on the sale of wool
Here are some important points to remember when deciding how much work to put into preparation of your clip:

• Do nothing and your wool will be valued according to its lowest common denominator!
• Core sampling and grab sampling are very accurate and will expose anything you have tried to hide in the bale.
• Disasters can happen by negligence in the woolshed resulting in damage to modem high-speed combing machines. This results in claims back on wool exporters who set their prices accordingly.
• Only wool should go into a wool bale. You need systems to make sure nothing else does (see later).
• Things that have been found in wool bales are amazing - from shearers' moccasins, parts of hand pieces, black singlets, towels, steel needles, grinder plates, sand paper, baler twine, wire, sheep skins and cigarette butts. Metal detectors will only find some of these.
• Synthetic fibres from baler twine are an exceptionally serious contaminant.
• Valuable fine wool Merino clips should be packed in nylon packs to minimise contamination from polypropylene packs.
  

Wool preparation (all flocks)
Here are some important principles to consider before you decide how much work to put into wool preparation. Decide how far you want to go based on experience from previous sale returns. Little will have changed since then.

• The main return comes from “body wool” which is the wool from the main body of the sheep, minus the "oddments" (wool that is not body wool) which may well lose you money in a sale.
• The oddments include necks and backs, bellies, bulky pieces, very short pieces (called locks or lox), and stains. The debate is mainly over how many of these items you take out to meet the final very important objective of "putting like with like and taking out what does not match".
• Necks and backs are taken out if they contain seeds and bits of hay. Bellies and pieces are taken out because they are greasy and the wool is usually yellow.
  

Action plan

• Make a good job of preparing the woolshed (see later).
• Sheep should not have been treated for external parasites for at least 60 days for strong ols, 90 days for mid-micron wool, and 120 days for fine wools.
• Make sure sheep are dry before shearing - never shear sheep where you can feel the slightest sensation of dampness or coldness from the wool.
• Dag all sheep before shearing and do a proper job removing all dirty wool.
• Shear sheep of different breeds and wool types separately.
• Don't put wool of different types in the same pressed bale unless it is going to be resorted by the merchant or broker. Separate different types with a sheet of newspaper.
• If sheep vary in staple length, draft them into lines of similar staple length and shear them separately.
• Separate the belly wool which is short and greasy. Bellies from rams and wethers will also be urine stained so remove them. This is very important as the stain cannot be scoured out and has no value.
• Separate yellow-stained wool from white wool.
• Keep all cotted (matted) fleeces separate.
• Remove any wool that has raddle (coloured) marks on it. Any raddle used should be approved as "scourable" where the dye can be washed out. Even so, it’s not worth sending it away these days. Use it as garden mulch!
• Remove any wool stained by dung (pen stain) caused by penning sheep too tight before they have emptied out, and where dung could not escape from their holding area.
• Remove short greasy pieces around the edges of the fleece unless the fleece is yellow.
• Shear lambs separately.
• Extra care is needed with lambs' wool. Take out all discoloured or dirty wool.
• Keep all pigmented (black, grey and brown) wool well away from white wool as this can be a serious contaminant with high penalties.
• Wool bales must be clearly and correctly branded (see later).
  

For small flocks

• For small flocks shorn outside, shear on a board (e.g. an old door) or tarpaulin to keep grass and rubbish out of the wool.
• Take out dags, urine stains, and bacterial stains and raddle marks.
• If you put different wool types (e.g. from different breeds) in the same fadge, then separate the layers with sheets of newspaper to help the wool merchant when resorting it.

When to shear?
There are many options and combinations to choose from so the answer to this question is often confusing. Here are some key points:

• Ideally with today's high-speed computerised processing machinery, wool should be 75-125mm long before shearing, so let this be your main guide in deciding when to shear. Finer wool can be shorter than coarser wool.
• The most common shearing regime was (and still is) to shear the whole flock once-a-year, usually in late spring/early summer before it gets too hot. Fleece wool shorn once a year is called "full wool".
• Wool grows faster and is coarser during the summer than during the winter.
• Leaving a long fleece on sheep during the summer results in it turning yellow and becoming cotted or matted.
• Breeds with long coarse fleeces such as the Romney, Border Leicester, English Leicester and Lincoln are best shorn twice a year in spring and autumn.
• Winter shearing is still common but shearing at this time has a poor image with the public who are concerned about its animal welfare implications.
• To meet these concerns winter shearing should be done with cover combs to leave more wool on the sheep than with conventional combs. Shelter and good feed must be provided immediately after shearing.
• Shearing lambs at weaning at 4 months old helps to prevent flystrike, and is done for this reason more than intending to make money from the wool.
• Shearing when there is adequate green feed available to the sheep (high in energy and protein) can result in increased body and wool growth, whereas shearing when feed is short or mature and dry (low energy and protein), can result in decreased body and wool growth.
• Key point: Shear as early as possible in the season to coincide with the time when the wool fibre is at its finest, and before yellow discolouration develops.
  

Wool for hand spinning

• When first choosing wool for hand spinning, it can be alarming to find the large variation between sheep of the so-called same breed, and equally enormous variation within the fleece from a single sheep.
  
• This variation is seen in staple length, coarseness of the fibres over the body, the extent of entanglement between fibres, crimp and the all-important “feel” of the wool as well as the extent of discolouration (mainly water stain yellow).
  
• Some of these qualities still exist after the wool has been spun into yarn so greatly affects its end use. So the two extremes would be coarse wools for rugs and fine wools for baby wear.

The table below shows a broad classification of what the main wool types can be used for:



The main things to look for
When choosing a fleece for spinning, or selecting sheep to produce one, then look for:

• Good long staples – the longer the better.
• Clearly-defined staples making the fleece “free-opening”.
• Sound wool free of break (tenderness). Test this by pulling on each end of the staple and if it’s tender you will feel it break. If you keep pulling you’ll end up with two short staples!
• Free from cotting.
• Good colour – especially free of yellow water stain. Other possible stains are pink tips on the staples or bands of green, brown, apricot, purple and blue. Only the blue is readily scourable. Faecal green stains should also be avoided.
• Free of vegetable matter.
  

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Sheep Farm Husbandry - Glossary

Extensive glossary of technical and commonly used farming terms concerned with sheep farming, shearing and wool preparation, and preparation of sheep skins.

By Dr Clive Dalton



SHEEP

• Alpha lambs: Unweaned lambs too heavy for the beta trade, and up to 18-20kg live weight. They are not tail-docked or castrated.
• Beta or bobby lamb: Milk fed lamb fed on the ewe from 1 to 3 weeks of age, going for slaughter at around 14kg live weight. They are not usually tail-docked or castrated.
• Cast-for-age (CFA): Old ewes culled from the flock because of age; usually over 5 years old.
• Cast sheep: Sheep found lying on its back unable to get up, usually because it is heavy in lamb or has a heavy fleece.
• Cryptorchid: There are two meanings. A true cryptorchid is a male with undescended testicle or testicles, but the term is also used to describe a lamb that has been made infertile (ie castrated) by applying a rubber ring below the testicles to remove the scrotum, leaving the testes pushed up against the body (see Castration below).
• Dry ewe: Did not produce a lamb.
• Dry/dry: Did not produce a lamb – barren or did not get pregnant.
• Drift lambing: Where un-lambed ewes are moved quietly from among ewes that have just lambed.
• Easy-care: System where shepherds leave ewes to lamb on their own - called “minimal care”. They go round to help any ewes having problems but cull them later.
• Ewe: Mature female sheep, usually over two years old.
• Fecundity: Ability to produce and rear offspring.
• Fertility: Ability to produce fertile eggs (ova) in the ewe and viable semen in the ram.
• Flock: A group of sheep of any size.
• Flock ram: Non registered ram used in a commercial flock.
• Flushing: Feeding a ewe on a rising plane of nutrition three weeks before mating to stimulate more eggs being shed from the ovary.
• Four-tooth: Four permanent incisors in place - from 21-24 months to 30-36 months old.
• Full mouth: All eight permanent incisors in place - older than 42-46 months.
• Hogget: Young sheep from weaning at 4 months to the time when it’s central permanent incisors erupt at about14-16 months of age. The hogget stage usually ends when they are shorn at around 14 months of age.
• Joining: Putting a ram out to run with ewes.
• Lamb: Young sheep between birth and weaning (up to about 3 to 4 months old). Note: the meat industry uses the term “lamb” for sheep that have not yet got their first pair of permanent incisors, i.e. up to a year old or a little older.
• Long tailer: Male with tail left undocked to indicate that it was not castrated.
• Perinatal lamb mortality: Lambs that die within three days of birth.
• Ram: Male sheep of any age.
• Shear: Term used mainly at saleyards in the South Island for male or female sheep denoting how many times they have been shorn and hence their age, eg one-shear or two-shear ewes. It's more common to see them described them by their teeth.
• Shearling: Male or female sheep 14-16 months of age after being shorn once.
• Stud ram: Ram registered with a breed association or society.
• Tail-up, chaser or follow-up ram: Ram used at the end of joining to mate any late-cycling ewes.
• Six-tooth: Six permanent incisors in place - from 30-36 months to 42-46 months old.
• Slink: Lamb either born dead or died soon after, processed for its skin.
• Teaser: Vasectomised ram.
• Two-tooth: Two central permanent incisors in place - sheep from 12-18 months to 21-24 months old.
• Tupping: Mating or joining (a tup is another name for a ram).
• Weaning: Permanently removing lambs from their mothers.
• Wet/dry: A ewe that produced a lamb but did not rear it.
• Wether: Castrated male.

WOOL

• Bale: Package of wool in a regulation wool pack weighing at least 100kg. The maximum packed weight is 181kg for fleece and lambs wool and 204 for oddments.
• Bale cap: The top of the bale on which you stencil the details.
• Belly wool: Wool from the underside of the sheep.
• Blades: Hand shears.
• Blade shearing: Sheep shorn with the blades leaving more wool on the body for cold conditions.
• Blend: A line of wool resulting from thorough mixing within or between types.
• Body wool: Wool from the main body of the sheep.
• Brand: Coloured mark used for identification of a wool bale or on the side of a sheep.
• Break: A weakness in a wool fibre usually caused by low feeding levels. It causes the fibre to go thin and lose tensile strength.
• Britch wool: Wool off the lower thighs or britch of the sheep.
• Broken: Pieces of wool from which the short dirty ends have been removed.
• Bulk: The resilience of “bounce back” property of wool.
• Burr: Hooked seeds in wool that cause problems in manufacture.
• Catching pen: The pen next to the shearing board that holds the sheep for the shearer.
• Chalkiness: Property by which Down breed wools and very hairy wools reflect light. Sometimes called whiteness.
• Character: A composite term used to describe a staple of wool. The amount of crimp in the staple is an important part of it.
• Classing: Grouping similar wools into saleable lines.
• Clean wool: Scoured or washed wool.
• Clean weight: Weight of clean usable fibre obtained from greasy wool.
• Clip: The wool produced from a farm or group of sheep.
• Coarse wool: Same as “strong” wool characteristic of some breeds.
• Colour: The washability factor of wool. Colour is measured by an instrument and affects wool’s ability to accept dyes.
• Comb: The part of a shearing handpiece that enters the wool to hold it while it is cut by the cutters.
• Condition: The amount of yolk, sand or earth present in greasy wool.
• Core sample: Sample of wool cut from each bale by hollow steel tube under vacuum.
• Cott: Fleece that has become matted during growth.
• Count: The old term to describe the fineness of greasy wool. Now micron measurements are used.
• Crimp: The natural wave formation of wool. In general the smaller the crimps the finer the wool.
• Crossbred wool: Wool produced by Romney, Perendale, Coopworth, Leicester and Lincoln sheep and their crosses – other than with the Merino.
• Crutchings: Wool removed from the rear end (the crutch) of sheep. Normally much coarser than the body wool.
• Cutter: Part of the shearing handpiece that reciprocates across the comb to sever the fibres.
• Dags: Wool contaminated with faeces from the rear of the sheep.
• Dead wool: Wool from a dead sheep.
• Dingy wool: Discoloured wool caused by condition or dust.
• Double fleece: Fleece wool of more than 12 month’s growth.
• Down-type wool: Wool from Down-type meat breeds such as Southdown, Suffolk, Hampshire and their crosses. Sometimes called short-wools.
• Early-shorn wool: Fleece wool usually of 7-10 months growth that hangs lightly together as a fleece.
• Eye clips: Trade term for wool removed from the side of the sheep’s face at crutching.
• Fadge: Package of wool in a wool pack weighing less than 100kg.
• Fibre: Single strand of wool.
• Fleece: Body wool shorn from a sheep.
• Fleeco: Person who handles the newly-shorn fleece in the shearing shed.
• Flyblown wool: Wool contaminated with blowfly maggots. Typed as dead wool.
• Follicle: Structure in the skin out of which a wool or hair fibre grows.
• Fribs: Shorter, tightly curled and discoloured wool from the brisket and four points of the sheep.
• Full wool: Ten to 13 months growth of wool.
• Grab sample: Wool sample drawn at random from the bales in a line. Needs to average 250g per grab and a minimum of 4kg per lot. Placed in display boxes for buyers’ appraisal.
• Grading: Sorting out wool for sale into lines.
• Greasy wool: Wool as shorn from the sheep and containing the natural impurities of wax, suint and dirt.
• Hair: Fibre similar in chemical composition to wool but containing a medulla.
• Halfbred wool: Wool from Corriedale or New Zealand Halfbred or similar sheep containing between one quarter and three quarters Merino blood.
• Handle: The feel of wool.
• Handpiece: The handheld part of the shearing machine.
• Hunger-fine wool: Wool that has grown much finer than normal due to low feeding levels or starvation.
• Kemp: Short white brittle medullated fibres which are shed from the fleece. Common in carpet breeds like the Drysdale and some others such as the Cheviot.
• Lambs wool: Wool shorn from lambs.
• Lanolin: Natural product derived from the grease in wool.
• Line of wool: Several bales of wool of similar type.
• Locks: Short wool that has either fallen through the slats on the wool table or been swept from the shearing board.
• Longwool sheep: Sheep of British origin that grow coarse wool more than 100mm in staple length in 12 months, e.g. Romney, Coopworth, Lincoln and Leicester.
• Lot: Line of wool offered for sale. Minimal number of four bales (460kg) or under special conditions may be offered as a star lot or ten bales.
• Lustre: Sheen characteristic of some coarser wools, e.g. Lincoln and Leicester.
• Medium wool: Middle of the range of a specific type of wool in terms of fibre diameter.
• Medulla: the cavity up the centre of hairy (medullated) fibres.
• Merino wool: Type of wool grown by sheep with more than three quarters Merino blood.
• Micron (µm): Unit used to describe the diameter of a wool fibre. One micron equals one millionth of a metre.
• Moit: Vegetable matte other than seeds and burrs.
• Mulesing: Cutting wrinkled skin from around the anus of Merino sheep.
• Neck wool: Matted collar wool from around the neck of a sheep.
• New wool: Wool used in the manufacture of fabrics for the first time.
• Oddments: Parts of a fleece other than the body wool that are sold separately, e.g. belly, neck, crutchings, locks and pieces.
• Open faced: Breeds with no wool on their heads so they can see easily.
• Overgrown wool: Fleece wool that is more than 12 month’s growth.
• Pieces: Body wool trimmings removed from the fleece when it is skirted after shearing.
• Pizzle stain: Unscourable urine staining in wether and ram belly wool and ewe crutchings.
• Pre-lamb shearing: Shearing ewes during late winter or early spring before lambing.
• Pressing: Compressing loose wool into bales in the shearing shed.
• Quality number: An old subjective system to estimate the fineness and consequent spinning capacity of wool. Based on the Bradford worsted yarn count system,
• Quarterbred wool: Wool from sheep containing between five- and seven-eights Merino blood and the remainder Longwool blood.
• Raddle: Paint, aerosol spray, greasy crayon or chalk used to put a mark on a sheep’s fleece. It must be approved as being scourable.
• Rouseabout or Rousie: General hand working in a shearing shed.
• Sale by sample: Method of displaying wool before an auction where only a sub-sample withdrawn mechanically from the line of wool (minimum of 10 bales), is displayed in a cardboard box for buyer evaluation along with a yield test certificate.
• Scouring: Washing wool to remove the natural impurities of wax, suint and dirt.
• Second cut: Wool fibres which are cut twice during shearing by poor technique. The short pieces are of little value.
• Shearing board: Area in shearing shed where sheep are shorn.
• Shearing gang: Group of people employed by a farmer to shear, sort and bale the wool clip.
• Shearing shed: Building where sheep are shorn.
• Shedhand: Person other than a shearer who works in a shearing shed.
• Shed-up: Confining woolly sheep in a shearing shed before shearing – usually to prevent them getting wet.
• Sheepo: Person in a shearing shed who fills the catching pens. Shearers shout “Sheepo” to indicate their catching pen is empty.
• Sixty-nine: Call made to let shearers and shedhands know ladies or visitors are entering the woolshed.
• Skep: Pronouncied “skip”. A trolley to carry loose wool in a woolstore or mill. Also called a dobbin.
• Skirting: Removing oddments from a fleece after shearing.
• Slipe wool: Wool recovered from pelts in an abbatoir.
• Sound wool: Wool without any weakness in tensile strength.
• Sox: Kempy fibres growing between the sheep’s knee and hoof.
• Stain: Discoloration of wool caused by water, bacteria, fungi and dirt that cannot be scoured out. Examples are – canary stain, log stain.
• Stand: The area on the shearing board where each shearing machine is placed.
• Staple: Naturally formed cluster of fibres in a fleece. Staples are joined by cross fibres which bind the fleece together.
• Star lot: Small sale lot of specialty type wools of usually one to three bales.
• Steely wool: Wool with a shiny appearance that lacks crimp. Associated with copper deficiency.
• Stringy: Wool with a thin staple.
• Strong wool: Wool with a coarse fibre diameter.
• Style: Combined assessment of the degree of excellence or fault of wool.
• Suint: Natural water soluble impurity of wool grease.
• Sweat locks: Short, heavy-condition staples from the upper inside of the legs.
• Sweepo: Person who sweeps the shearing board during shearing.
• Tally: Number of sheep shorn by a shearer or a gang in a nine-hour day, or the number of sheep in a group.
• Tender: Wool with a tensile weakness. A less severe form of break.
• Threequarterbred wool: Wool types judged to be from sheep containing between three-eighths and one-eighth Merino blood and the remainder Longwool blood.
• Tippy wool: Wool with a very pointed tip to the staple.
• Topknot: Wool shorn from the top of a sheep’s head.
• Type: Suitability of wool for a particular form of processing and end use, or the wool from a particular breed.
• Unsound: Wool with a tensile weakness. Incorporates both tender and broken wool.
• Vegetable matter: Seed, small twigs, foliage, chaff or hay embedded in a fleece.
• Webby: Mild entanglement of fibres within a fleece. Early stage of cotting.
• Wigging: Shearing wool from the head of a sheep. Also called topknots or wigs.
• Wool away: The shearers call to clear the wool away from the shearing board.
• Woolblind: Sheep that has so much wool over the face that it cannot see.
• Wool broker: Person or company that prepares and offers a grower’s clip for sale on a fee or commission basis.
• Wool buyer: Person who buys wool from a grower either privately or at auction on behalf of a processor and arranges shipment to the processor.
• Wool classer: Person trained to put wool together in groups of similar types.
• Wool grease: Natural impurities of wool (wax and suint) secreted by glands attached to the wool follicle. Also called yolk.
• Wool merchant: Person or firm trading in wool.
• Wool table: Slatted table on which the fleece is skirted and classed.
• Woolgrower: Anyone who farms sheep to produce wool.
• Woolly hog: Fleece from a hogget unshorn as a lamb.
• Woolpack. Jute or polypropylene bag of regulated dimensions or packing wool.
• Woolscour: Plant where wool is washed or scoured.
• Woolshed: Same as shearing shed.
• Woolstore: Place where wool is prepared and offered for sale.
• Yield: Proportion of usable fibre present in a lot of greasy wool expressed as a percentage.
• Yolk: Natural impurities of wool(wax and suint) secreted by glands attached to the wool follicle.

SHEEP SKINS

• Cockle: Lamb/sheep skin pelt defect. A preventable disease that shows nodules over the pelt surface.
• Dresser skin: Woolly lamb skin suitable for processing into leather with the wool attached for rugs, car seat covers, etc.
• Fellmongering skin: Woolly lamb/sheep skin which has been processed into leather after the wool has been removed.
• Fellmongering: Factory or department of an abbatoir or meat works where wool is removed from lamb/sheep pelts.
• Grain: Surface layer of pelt, hide or leather containing wool or hair follicles.
• Green skin: Undried skin from farm or slaugher facility. Such skins have no keeping quality.
• Paint: Chemical mixture capable of penetrating the skin and loosening the wool fibres.
• Pelt: Lamb/sheep skin after wool has been removed.
• Pickled pelt: Lamb/sheep pelt preserved for export with brine and sulphuric acid. The product from a fellmongery.
• Pinhole: Lamb/sheep pelt defect. Small holes in the grain caused by wool fibres growing in groups. Prevalent in fine wool breeds.
• Ribby pelts: Pelts of wrinkly sheep such as Merino that have restricted value for leather manufacture.
• Skin: Derived from a sheep, goat, deer or possum.
• Slink skin: Derived from a lamb that has either been born dead or died soon after birth, and is processed for its skin.
• Wet blue: Hide or skin tanned with chromium salts which also colour it blue/green and is kept in a wet state.
• Wool pull: Estimate of weight of wool able to be removed from a skin in a fellmongery.
• Wool puller: Person or machine used to remove wool from a lamb/sheep skin after it has been chemically loosened.