Really fascinating & informative video. I'm amazed how these guys can immediately look at each fleece & tell breed of sheep, if fleece been on too long or if sheep been rubbing etc. Knowledge, skill, patience, attention to detail and experience at its best! 👌
A decent honest job working with sheep and wool, not like insurance adjuster in America, where you have to lie all day long and deny reality. (sorry, I just watched a roofing video where the roofer was trying to tell the adjuster that the roof was not repairable) It's amazing how people really do tend to look like the animals they keep. When I was in France at the market, The lady who sold chickens looked like a chicken The man who sold snails looked like a snail.
in Grahamstown SA we had to class our own wool into distinct sets. we actually as kids were allowed to stamp the wool down. my mum produced rare fine wool from only 700 merino sheep. the only time we were Ever allowed to miss school was to go to the auction and hear China fighting to get my mum's wool. we were so proud.
I have so much more appreciation after watching these two videos. I've worked with wool for a decade and know on my end how versatile it is, but there is a lot of work and a lot of hands on the material before it can become a great product many people don't even think twice about. Thank you so much for this tour!
We could easily sit and moan about wool all day but this is a great video and an insight into something I personally have never seen before. I'm seriously impressed with the boys knowledge of sheep breeds just buy looking at the fleece! I know boys that wouldn't know the breeding by looking at the whole sheep!
Hi Cam, we’re mixed farmers Central West NSW, Australia - we run Merino ewes at around 19 micron - just wondering what prices you receive for your wool. Price here has recovered close to Pre COVID days - we average 1800c /kg clean at the moment & 6kg per ewe. Farmers with cross bred ewes here are flat to cover their shearing costs - lucky to get 800c clean. Award wage for shearing is $331.98/100 sheep. Really enjoying your vlogs showing how it’s done over your side of the world!!!
Hi Amanda! Sounds like an impressive outfit! Our wool is worth less than the cost of shearing. Generally I am £1.50 to shear a sheep that will produce 2-3 kgs of wool valued at roughly £0.30 / kg just now. Pre covid many breeds here would be around £0.60 / kg so even then it was usually running at a loss. We do not breed for wool here though so our wool is of poor quality and is poorly presented so the person we sell it onto has a lot of work to do to it to make it usable.
Us fiber artists love this vlog. If you ever make it to Jamison & Smith that would be a real treat! BFL and Shetland are my favorites to spin, there's a good market for raw fleece to spinners online- you'd get more $$$.
@@TheSheepGame you raise Cheviot and BFL crosses, correct? Spinners, weavers and knitters would LOVE those to spin and work with, if you add a little attention on fleece maintenance next shearing season. ;-) find your local spinning guild, they grade fleece differently than the big wool brokers.
I like your vids and the learning Cammy. I'm wanting to get a small flock going on my new 5 acres. Seeing the wool as a product and how it is valued is fascinating! Teapadh leat!
Historically, even the coarser wool with more kemp and guard hairs would be used for fabric, it would just have different qualities than the finer wool, and be useful for different things. One of its advantages is that it sheds water better than fine wool, especially if it's been fulled and brushed right, so while it might not be as easy to dye all sorts of colours it is very suitable for coats and cloaks. Bring back the frieze and get rid of the plasic!
Great video! I'm a hand spinner and knitter. I subscribe to your channel because I am interested in the all the steps of wool processing; lamb birth & husbandry to shearing, grading, spinning, etc. A video of wool scouring or spinning mill would be nice too.
Great insight into the British Wool Board & the work inside the depot Cammy. Good to hear the guy sorting each fleece grade it. I would have a couple of ‘black fleece’ ewes & I’ve always put each one in small plastic bag, then into the pack with the lot. Well I have been in New Zealand & see how they work in sheds so I can see the reason for keeping black wool separated. 👍 Here in Ireland 🇮🇪 it’s impossible to get a price on wool. Super interest in your video’s. 😎🇮🇪
Thanks for the comment Colette u are obviously onto it! I didn’t know that trick for the black wool till i went to the depot! Part 2 is out Wednesday! 😁
I think your video will change the focus of some breeders and the way some sheep are being handled. Enlightening, please don't leave anything out of part two. Many thanks.
When they started grading your wool, some of those fleeces the wool was so long. It’s interesting to watch, especially since you shear a variety of breeds.
I was starting to worry you had stopped doing your vids 😱 ...Brilliant and interesting vid looking forward to part 2....the grading men are so clever 🐑🐏....I think Archie wants to get in on the grading 🤭... loving it 🥰
I’m going to drop to 1 video per week i think Catherine. Sundays at 10am. Then just do the odd Midweek one when i can. I won’t have as much footage through the winter especially when i start scanning every day. It’s quite boring stuff to be recording all the time!
Probably one of the most interesting videos I've watching Cammy, just got 67€ ourselves for wool, 5cent for blackie and 10c for cross bread...support your wool board it's a shit show in Ireland
Really interesting video. Never really thought much about what the process was. Once the wool leaves us the only time it's thought about again is when the cheque arrives and we have a laugh at how terrible the price we get for it is. It is an amazing product that has so many uses but people seem to favour man made products and until that changes we will struggle to get any better prices for our wool.
Cgm 29 in New Zealand and Australia, the most important part of the whole shearing process is the care and handling of the wool after it comes off the sheep, the shed hands are highly skilled people, who actually go to schools and earn certificates in wool handling, Every fleece goes over the table in the shed, and is classed in the shed, so it’s only the same class of wool that gets baled in the shed, approximately 200 kilograms per bale, Completely different emphasis placed on wool and wool preparation over here
Yeah Nz and Oz is a different game altogether. The big thing is that we are keeping sheep for food production and we produce poor quality wool. Even presented in the best possible form it would still be worth pennies compared to fine wools.
The Sheep Game yeah but actual fine wool is a very low percentage of NZ wool, and most sheep farms actually run duel purpose sheep, Romney, Border / Romney cross, Coopworth, Perendale, ( which is very like a Cheviot) so are 50/50 wool and meat,
Very intressting vlog cammy really shows the skill the graiders have have. Never been to a depot before since ours is takon of the island by lorry which is ridicusely expensive
I was wondering what happens to the blankets. I love seeing these gents working in a traditional industry. Who needs sustainable sweaters when there is good old wool!
So they should, how can the bosses justify their 100k wages when us producers get Jack for the wool 🤷♂️ all my wool has been tipped this year because they would take it but I would have had to pay them
Interested to hear your wool weight / delivery cost Glyn. I hear a few stories like this but as long as i was at least breaking even i’d always rather it was used than wasted. Cheers.
When we started keeping sheep, we took our two wool sheets to the depot as transport is very costly for small amounts. I told the man who received the wool that i had brought some nice Lleyn wool. He replied “ they all say that”. When we moved into winter shearing, I found it nearly impossible to roll as it didn’t hold together.
Maybe when u said that he thought u meant “clean” 😂. I suppose it’s like any business there can sometimes be bad experiences but I’ve never had an issue and the guys were great with me. 😁
Covid stopping production around the world is the main issue. I still believe it’s important to support the BWMB if we want to keep them running and doing what they can for us. It’s bad this year but it has to recover (in some form) at some point!
I rent a few buildings off a farmer who when he was a lad his dad would send him to take the fleece off any ewe that had died such was the value of wool
We would be getting a severely worded email or phone call from the wool store if we sent wool into them with raddle not taken out of the fleece, also any black wool at all, even a few strands of black, and it would be tell off time, As we are shearing we yell black wool, and the rousie takes it out on the board L
@@MyWKC I think the Scottish blackface are over 32 micron, if I remember right. But the BFL, Cheviot and Shetland run in the mid-high 20's. Very soft handle and nice crimp. Spins wonderful and makes great garments for weaving and knitting. The Shetland can even get into fine grades like Merino.
Aye i know Tony and in fairness the boys at the wool board know that too. They don’t ask much from us to be fair. Roll the fleeces and keep black ones separate is all they really ask for.
Dad was a master dyer, working in the woolen mill gave him a love of good fire and fabric
Really fascinating & informative video. I'm amazed how these guys can immediately look at each fleece & tell breed of sheep, if fleece been on too long or if sheep been rubbing etc. Knowledge, skill, patience, attention to detail and experience at its best! 👌
Please thank thevman who let you bring your camera through and explain everything for us! Talk about interesting! That's a LOT of wool!
Was a great tour, lots to learn and some very knowledgeable people
Sheep and Wool are literally the most renewable resource - that is not only good for our bodies, minds - But most importantly, the freaking LAND!
Amen to that 🙌🏼
A decent honest job working with sheep and wool, not like insurance adjuster in America,
where you have to lie all day long and deny reality.
(sorry, I just watched a roofing video where the roofer was trying to tell the adjuster that the roof was not repairable)
It's amazing how people really do tend to look like the animals they keep.
When I was in France at the market,
The lady who sold chickens looked like a chicken
The man who sold snails looked like a snail.
Cammy has curly wool on top of his head too 🥰🥰
A very informative video and helps raise awareness of what the British wool board is all about.
Thanks Max! That’s the goal!
Brilliant vid Cammy! So interesting! Love Archie roasting you throughout it too 🤣👍
Cheers Joanne. It’s more of the same in part 2 when they open an old bag of wool i took in😂
10:37 Archie sniffing the fleeces 😂 I love you guys.
in Grahamstown SA we had to class our own wool into distinct sets. we actually as kids were allowed to stamp the wool down. my mum produced rare fine wool from only 700 merino sheep. the only time we were Ever allowed to miss school was to go to the auction and hear China fighting to get my mum's wool. we were so proud.
That’s a great story Margery thanks for sharing!!
I have so much more appreciation after watching these two videos. I've worked with wool for a decade and know on my end how versatile it is, but there is a lot of work and a lot of hands on the material before it can become a great product many people don't even think twice about. Thank you so much for this tour!
We could easily sit and moan about wool all day but this is a great video and an insight into something I personally have never seen before. I'm seriously impressed with the boys knowledge of sheep breeds just buy looking at the fleece! I know boys that wouldn't know the breeding by looking at the whole sheep!
Haha very true! I found the whole thing fascinating!
Thanks for the video, never seen this process before, as a kid always wanted Wensleydale sheep. But ended up with Cameroon 🤣 right now for part 2
It was very interesting and I learnt plenty from the visit.
Very interesting video, amazing how much they can tell just from looking at the fleece.
Yeah i was loving it John. I’ve cut plenty out but the boys were so experienced it was great to listen and learn
Do you know if they down grade older wool, I still have last years in the shed.
Only if it’s damp. In Part two they open a bag of mine that’s from last year. It goes as an ‘F’ grade. Less money.
How interesting to watch! Thanks for taking us along.
Thanks Liz!
Hi Cam, we’re mixed farmers Central West NSW, Australia - we run Merino ewes at around 19 micron - just wondering what prices you receive for your wool. Price here has recovered close to Pre COVID days - we average 1800c /kg clean at the moment & 6kg per ewe. Farmers with cross bred ewes here are flat to cover their shearing costs - lucky to get 800c clean. Award wage for shearing is $331.98/100 sheep. Really enjoying your vlogs showing how it’s done over your side of the world!!!
Hi Amanda! Sounds like an impressive outfit! Our wool is worth less than the cost of shearing. Generally I am £1.50 to shear a sheep that will produce 2-3 kgs of wool valued at roughly £0.30 / kg just now. Pre covid many breeds here would be around £0.60 / kg so even then it was usually running at a loss. We do not breed for wool here though so our wool is of poor quality and is poorly presented so the person we sell it onto has a lot of work to do to it to make it usable.
Us fiber artists love this vlog. If you ever make it to Jamison & Smith that would be a real treat! BFL and Shetland are my favorites to spin, there's a good market for raw fleece to spinners online- you'd get more $$$.
I’m going to try and get to the scouring plant post Covid! Would be great!
@@TheSheepGame you raise Cheviot and BFL crosses, correct? Spinners, weavers and knitters would LOVE those to spin and work with, if you add a little attention on fleece maintenance next shearing season. ;-) find your local spinning guild, they grade fleece differently than the big wool brokers.
@@CriaAndKiddFW will do! Might make an interesting vlog.
Very true!
Thanks for the tour. It is quite interesting.
I like your vids and the learning Cammy. I'm wanting to get a small flock going on my new 5 acres. Seeing the wool as a product and how it is valued is fascinating! Teapadh leat!
Good luck and thanks for watching!
Historically, even the coarser wool with more kemp and guard hairs would be used for fabric, it would just have different qualities than the finer wool, and be useful for different things. One of its advantages is that it sheds water better than fine wool, especially if it's been fulled and brushed right, so while it might not be as easy to dye all sorts of colours it is very suitable for coats and cloaks. Bring back the frieze and get rid of the plasic!
Great video! I'm a hand spinner and knitter. I subscribe to your channel because I am interested in the all the steps of wool processing; lamb birth & husbandry to shearing, grading, spinning, etc. A video of wool scouring or spinning mill would be nice too.
That’s great Marianne. Hope u are finding it entertaining and helpful!
Great insight into the British Wool Board & the work inside the depot Cammy.
Good to hear the guy sorting each fleece grade it. I would have a couple of ‘black fleece’ ewes & I’ve always put each one in small plastic bag, then into the pack with the lot. Well I have been in New Zealand & see how they work in sheds so I can see the reason for keeping black wool separated. 👍
Here in Ireland 🇮🇪 it’s impossible to get a price on wool.
Super interest in your video’s. 😎🇮🇪
Thanks for the comment Colette u are obviously onto it! I didn’t know that trick for the black wool till i went to the depot! Part 2 is out Wednesday! 😁
Fascinating!! Amazing how the graders know all about the fleeces. Exactly what I, as an end user, would like to know! Thanks!
Glad you found it interesting Jill, the graders have a lot of experience and are super efficient at their job 👍
Thanks a lot for these two videos!
Good to hear the Ayrshire from everyone.
Aye James u would be really tested with this one. 😁 hope u caught enough of it.
I think your video will change the focus of some breeders and the way some sheep are being handled. Enlightening, please don't leave anything out of part two. Many thanks.
Thanks for the comment. Hopefully people find it interesting and maybe encourage a few more to support the bwmb. 👍
When they started grading your wool, some of those fleeces the wool was so long. It’s interesting to watch, especially since you shear a variety of breeds.
Thanks Judy! Yeah i didn’t make it easy for them. Told them they were all mule fleeces then they pull our texel crosses and half bred fleeces 😂
Great video cammy keep it up
Cheers Ross!
I was starting to worry you had stopped doing your vids 😱 ...Brilliant and interesting vid looking forward to part 2....the grading men are so clever 🐑🐏....I think Archie wants to get in on the grading 🤭... loving it 🥰
I’m going to drop to 1 video per week i think Catherine. Sundays at 10am. Then just do the odd Midweek one when i can. I won’t have as much footage through the winter especially when i start scanning every day. It’s quite boring stuff to be recording all the time!
Probably one of the most interesting videos I've watching Cammy, just got 67€ ourselves for wool, 5cent for blackie and 10c for cross bread...support your wool board it's a shit show in Ireland
Cheers mate i appreciate that!!
Those guys really know their wool!
Yeah was very impressive!
Archy is just a worker has to keep busy and do something 😂 its quite cool the boys know what sheep the wools from
Aye he’s just keen. The lads were amazing. Some eye on them.
More to the point and not comeing on to you 😂 but your eyes look blue as out 😂 in that vid
Really interesting video. Never really thought much about what the process was. Once the wool leaves us the only time it's thought about again is when the cheque arrives and we have a laugh at how terrible the price we get for it is. It is an amazing product that has so many uses but people seem to favour man made products and until that changes we will struggle to get any better prices for our wool.
Cgm 29 in New Zealand and Australia, the most important part of the whole shearing process is the care and handling of the wool after it comes off the sheep, the shed hands are highly skilled people, who actually go to schools and earn certificates in wool handling,
Every fleece goes over the table in the shed, and is classed in the shed, so it’s only the same class of wool that gets baled in the shed, approximately 200 kilograms per bale,
Completely different emphasis placed on wool and wool preparation over here
Yeah Nz and Oz is a different game altogether. The big thing is that we are keeping sheep for food production and we produce poor quality wool. Even presented in the best possible form it would still be worth pennies compared to fine wools.
The Sheep Game yeah but actual fine wool is a very low percentage of NZ wool, and most sheep farms actually run duel purpose sheep, Romney, Border / Romney cross, Coopworth, Perendale, ( which is very like a Cheviot) so are 50/50 wool and meat,
Woohoo! They're playing one of my favorite 1980 songs in the background "Electric Dreams" by Giorgio Moroder. Not a bad movie either. Damn I'm old...
it would be nice if you would offer a few fleeces on your merch site for us hand spinners. Great traceability! Jo Lori D. from West Virginia, USA
Very intressting vlog cammy really shows the skill the graiders have have. Never been to a depot before since ours is takon of the island by lorry which is ridicusely expensive
Yeah £300 on average for lorry. Wild.
Delivered into Bradford with bale's from Ireland, it's unbelievable how many tons of wool are stored there
Awesome Paul. I’ll need to try and get down post Covid.
Good video looking forward to next vid.are there too many grades?.haulage costs slowly killing the wool board.🐑🐏👍
There are around 80 grades at that depot! Crazy!
Great video watching from Tyrone in Ireland
Cheers Sean!
I was wondering what happens to the blankets. I love seeing these gents working in a traditional industry. Who needs sustainable sweaters when there is good old wool!
APPRECIATE YOUR NEW UPLOADING VIDEO.. VERY INTERESTING.. HELLO 🇨🇦
Cheers Azamy!
Great video👌👍. Don't know where they take mine too. I just take it to local meal man.
Make sure the BWMB get it next time Gareth 😁😁
Wow .... I didn’t know the wool was hand sorted like that 🐑
Same! It was great to see!
Good lad I’m a haulier for wool board in Bradford and also a farmer 👩🌾 British wool been getting a lot of stick lately not there own fault
So they should, how can the bosses justify their 100k wages when us producers get Jack for the wool 🤷♂️ all my wool has been tipped this year because they would take it but I would have had to pay them
Glyn Jones prick you don’t have to pay them to take it to many farmers ill in formed
Interested to hear your wool weight / delivery cost Glyn. I hear a few stories like this but as long as i was at least breaking even i’d always rather it was used than wasted. Cheers.
Appreciate the supportive comment Cumbrian Farmer but keep it friendly 😁
When we started keeping sheep, we took our two wool sheets to the depot as transport is very costly for small amounts. I told the man who received the wool that i had brought some nice Lleyn wool. He replied “ they all say that”. When we moved into winter shearing, I found it nearly impossible to roll as it didn’t hold together.
Maybe when u said that he thought u meant “clean” 😂. I suppose it’s like any business there can sometimes be bad experiences but I’ve never had an issue and the guys were great with me. 😁
The Sheep Game yes Cammie it was his joke! We had a good laugh.
Haha clever!
You should list where we can buy British wool products.. so we can support them...
He man that’s what’s going on with the wool it’s a pitty the price is so low good video 👍
Covid stopping production around the world is the main issue. I still believe it’s important to support the BWMB if we want to keep them running and doing what they can for us. It’s bad this year but it has to recover (in some form) at some point!
Very interesting seeing the other side after clipping time 💪🏻💯👌
Cheers John!
Good vid they know there stuff them boys
Yeah was real impressive.
I rent a few buildings off a farmer who when he was a lad his dad would send him to take the fleece off any ewe that had died such was the value of wool
That’s a great story. My dad used to tell me it paid his father’s farm rent when he was wee.
I buy all my wool for knitting from the UK. I buy nothing made in China. I live in the USA. I do find pure wool coarse and prefer a wool alpaca blend.
Mon the British wool!
🐑🥰
If I understood correctly, there were a number of fleeces that were cotted. What caused the wholes fleece to be cotted?
There is a lot of cots as it’s common for hard working ewes to be a bit cotted of the wool. Ewes rearing two big lambs might be an example
Those are good girls cute sheep nice video do you want to watch mine
We would be getting a severely worded email or phone call from the wool store if we sent wool into them with raddle not taken out of the fleece, also any black wool at all, even a few strands of black, and it would be tell off time,
As we are shearing we yell black wool, and the rousie takes it out on the board
L
Was just a wee bit of black wool👀👀😂😂
We put black fleeces in empty dog food bags at home
@@d4ngru5h83 clever mate. That’s perfect. Was a trick i didn’t know until i visited the depot!
That was very interesting. Quite different from how wool is sold here in oz. Look forward to the next chapter.
Thanks David. Totally different. Our wool is poor quality compared to the fine wool types u have there.
The Sheep Game we run Merinos and xbreds. The xbred wool is around the 20-30 micron range, which I guess is similar to your wool.
@@MyWKC I think the Scottish blackface are over 32 micron, if I remember right. But the BFL, Cheviot and Shetland run in the mid-high 20's. Very soft handle and nice crimp. Spins wonderful and makes great garments for weaving and knitting. The Shetland can even get into fine grades like Merino.
@@TheSheepGame eh, not all of it, don't sell yourself short!!!
THANK YOU.......EH
It's hard to put the effort into your wool when it feels like your so poorly paid for it , if your paid at all!!
Aye i know Tony and in fairness the boys at the wool board know that too. They don’t ask much from us to be fair. Roll the fleeces and keep black ones separate is all they really ask for.
Do you have Icelandic sheep in Scotland?
Yeah melissa i have a friend with some.
What is a cotty fleece?
has meg had her pups?
Hi Frazer. It was Skye (red one) that was due and aye she’s had them. Pulling together a wee vlog of them. Only 2 pups.
I bet he’s got the softest hands…
How match in the wool?
How much? I won’t find out until it is sold at Auction. It’s a complex process.
None to cottage industry any more ?
Reeee
Reeeee
Can't understand there English