Exclusive:Scottish farming: Young farmer highlights plight of British wool industry as shearing season is underway

With sheep shearing season in full swing, a young Scottish farmer has spoken about the plight of the British wool industry.

Nicola Wordie looks after some 900 ewes – both Scottish mule sheep and pure Texels – on her farm in Aberdeenshire.

The 24-year-old, with the help of some professional shearers, including her partner Davy Scott, 26, have just finished shearing her flock this season.

While completing the gruelling task offers a sense of relief for the farmer, Nicola said this time of year is bittersweet. She knows many good quality fleeces across the country will either be buried or burnt due to the financial precarity many farmers find themselves in the face of a declining wool industry.

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With the price of wool having plummeted over the years, it is cheaper for farmers to torch or chuck the material than to go through the effort and expense of trying to sell it.

According to UK Government figures, from the early 1990’s, wool prices have remained below approximately £3/kg with a more significant decline showing since 2015 where values fell below £1/kg for the first time.

Fleece values in 2019 saw an average price of £0.89/kg at auction, with total average return to producers of just £0.33/kg – this was in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which closed UK and international markets at the beginning of 2020.

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British Wool (BW), an organisation that collects, grades and markets British wool on behalf of sheep farmers in the UK, has depots across the country for producers to drop off the material for no charge in an effort to prevent it going to waste. BW then grades the wool and auctions it off.

By the time this process has taken place, the farmer is then paid a cut about a year later.

James Bickerton, of BW, said the percentage that goes to the farmer depends on the value of the wool.

“We made £1.8 million worth of cuts to efficiency to improve the amount of what we can pay to the farmer,” he said.

"This has resulted in an extra 2p per kilo for them.”

Despite the support, for many farmers, including Nicola, the set up is still not financially viable.

“For us to drop off our wool it’s about a half hour drive,” she said.

"That will then get packed off to BW where they process it.

“Once they've graded it, sorted it and sold it, we were, in 2021, getting roughly 30p to 35p per kilogram, and your average fleece would be about two to three kilograms. But it costs us £1.70 per sheep to be clipped.

“It really doesn’t add up. On top of that you don’t get paid until the following year.”

She added: "Many years ago when wool was more used, selling it would cover farmers’ rent.

“Now you can’t even cover the cost of shearing. It’s really sad.”

Nicola said she has contacted BW to encourage more action on educating young people about sheep farming and wool, to raise more awareness of the industry.

“At a local show I go to BW used to have a stand where they would have sheep and demonstrations on making things with wool, but it’s no longer there,” she said.

"It could be a funding issue, but it’s so, so important we keep educating youngsters about farming and wool.”

When asked what she’s done with her sheep fleeces this year, she replied: “We still send it to BW.

"It’s a brilliant, sustainable product that we should be making more use of.

"I couldn’t throw it away knowing it was going to waste so, while it doesn’t make us any money, at least I know it’s going somewhere where it will be used. But I know not all farmers are in a position where they can do that.”

Tied in with promoting wool, Nicola is an avid animal welfare campaigner and regularly pushes the importance of shearing sheep for their health on her Instagram page Livestock_farmher.

“If they aren’t shorn, there is risk of flystrike, which is when the flies attack them and get into their wool, lay their eggs and the maggots end up eating the sheep alive,” she said. “It’s truly awful.”

“Shearing also helps keep them cooler at this time of year, particularly at the moment when we’ve had some really high temperatures.”

Nicola’s efforts to raise awareness of the plight of the British wool industry for farmers, and the importance of shearing sheep come as the gates to one of Europe and the UK’s biggest agriculture shows opened on Thursday.

The Royal Highland Show, in Ingliston, Edinburgh, draws some 200,000 people each year.

The event, which runs until today, welcomed back the Golden Shears Sheep Shearing and Woolhandling World Championships, which has seen shearers from 30 different countries compete in the showground.