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Wool Industry Report. By Jessica P. What is Wool ?.
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Wool Industry Report By Jessica P
Wool is a natural textile protein fibre that is produced by sheep, other animals produce wool like fibres such as angora from rabbits, it is the world’s foremost animal fibre. In Australia the main wool producers are wool sheep, the wool from a sheep is called a fleece. The world wide annual wool production is about 2.1 million tonnes, Australia produces about a fifth of this. Other major sheep producers include New Zealand, United States, China, India and Argentina. • About once a year sheep are shorn by shearers, wool classers sort the wool into different lines due to the wool’s quality and type. Once this process is finished the wool is pressed into wool bales, stencilled and ready to sell. • Approximately two-thirds of the wool produced is used to produce woollen garments such as coats, sweaters, beanies, scarves, gloves, suits, dresses and active sportswear. The left over third is used in the production of woollen blankets, carpets and upholstery. Industrial business use bonded coarse wool and use it as thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, as well as using it as pads to soak up oil spills.
Wool has the following properties:- • Renewable- Wool is a renewable source, every year after shearing sheep start to grow another fleece ready for next year. This is a cycle that goes for most of a sheep’s life, repeating again and again and again. • Natural Insulator- Wool is a hydroscopic fibre meaning it absorbs or attracts moisture in the air, this also means dye can remain colourfast without chemicals. When the humidity in the air changes (rises or falls), the wool absorbs and releases the water vapour. During this stage, heat is generated and retained within the fibre making it a natural insulator. When wool is used in the home, it can prevent energy escaping into the external environment and can reduce energy costs. • Breathable- Wool has crimps in it and when this fibre is closely packed together it forms air pockets. This is an unique structure and it again allows the wool the absorb and release moisture, either the perspiration from the wool wearer or moisture from the atmosphere. It does this without affecting it’s thermal abilities. Wool can also absorb a moisture vapour level of up to 30 percent of it’s own weight when next to skin. These properties make it extremely breathable.
Resilient and Elastic- Wool fibres are able to bend back on themselves 20, 000 times without breaking and are able to resist tearing. Because of the crimps in the wool, it has a natural elastic ability so garments that are made out of wool have that ability too. They are able to stretch comfortably with the wearer and then return to their natural shape, so no wrinkling and sagging from your wool products! Also wool is able to keep up it’s appearances for longer, giving more value to the lifespan and to the product. • Multi-Climatic- Wool can constantly react to changes in the wearer’s body temperature, due to it’s hydroscopic abilities. Meaning it can keep it wearer comfortable in hot or cold weather, all year round. • Odour Resistant- Wool is more effective than other fibres at absorbing sweat from the body and releasing it into the air. It does this before the bacteria has a chance to develop and produce an unpleasant smelling body odour. • A Safer Solution- Wool does not promote bacteria growth and is not known to cause allergies to people. The fibre has microscopic scales that are able to trap dust in it’s layers until is vacuumed away, this reduces the amount of floating dust in the atmosphere. Because of wool’s high water and nitrogen levels, wool is a naturally flame retardant material and has a far higher ignition level than other synthetic fibres. Wool will not stick to the skin causing burns, will not melt and will produce less noxious fumes in the cause of a fire. Also wool has a naturally high UV protection making it better for your health to wear during summer.
Where do Sheep Live In Australia and Why Does This Environment Suit Them?
Sheep live in most areas throughout Australia, as can be seen from Map 1; NT is to dry, hot and wet for many sheep to live there. They generally live in the more inland areas of Australia, away from the coast with it’s higher rainfall. The reason for this being that sheep, especially wool sheep, are prone to fleece rot, which leads to flystrike, and footrot, which are caused by humid conditions. A large central part of Australia has dry and hot conditions, this solves the problem of footrot. But it could brings up other problems such as the possibility of less water, less grazing and less natural protection from the elements. Also parasites in certain areas and certain weather conditions can affect where it is best to keep, sheep, e.g. the liver fluke is common in areas with a rainfall over 600mm or in irrigation areas and is especially common in south eastern NSW. Therefore where most sheep can be found in Australia is in the mid rainfall range and mid temperate range with good soil for good pastures. The Lachlan area in which we live in has been according to the NRM map (Natural Resource Management) has the most amount of sheep per area, with about 6,155,657 sheep. Prime lambs are mainly produced in southern Australia with the largest concentrations being in the wheat–sheep and high rainfall zones of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, including irrigation areas in the Victorian and New South Wales Murray regions. Cross breeds, due to their less dense wool are able to live in higher rainfall areas such as the subtropical highlands and the temperate highlands. Also sheep farmers can be found in a higher density level near sale yards or abattoirs to reduce transportation costs. Some breeds of sheep such as Dorpers and SAM’s have been imported from arid countries such as South Africa to suit inland Australia.
Within the Merino Sheep breed there are different ‘strains’ these strains are like different types within a breed, in this case the Merino. There are four basic strains of Merino sheep that are the Peppin Merino, South Australian Merino, Saxon Merino and the Spanish Merino. • The Peppin Merino has long legs and large frame and so is mainly found in on the slopes and plains in NSW, the flocks in Queensland, through the north of Victoria, the mixed farming areas of South Australia and Western Australia. It is highly adaptable and can also be found in large numbers in the higher rainfall areas of Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. • The South Australian Merino is physically the largest ‘strain’ of the Merino breed in Australia, it is mainly found in South Australia but is also found in the pastoral areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. • The Saxon Merino is physically the smallest of the ‘strains’, but can be found in the higher rainfall areas such as the highlands of Tasmania, the tablelands of New South Wales and the cooler and wetter regions of Victoria. • The Spanish Merino is few in number and is has characteristics similar to the Peppin Merino as well as the same preferred climate conditions. • . Prime lambs are mainly produced in southern Australia with the largest concentrations being in the wheat–sheep and high rainfall zones of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, including irrigation areas in the Victorian and New South Wales Murray regions. • Cross breeds, due to their less dense wool are able to live in higher rainfall areas such as the subtropical highlands and the temperate highlands. Also sheep farmers can be found in a higher density level near sale yards or abattoirs to reduce transportation costs. Some breeds of sheep such as Dorpers and SAM’s have been imported from arid countries such as South Africa to suit inland Australia.
Farmers put many practises into place to help sustain the environment for the long term and to help improve it. • Tree planting is exactly what it sounds like, planting trees. This gives the sheep protection from the wind, rain and provides shade. From the environmental side, this prevents erosion by increases ground stability with the roots, the roots of the trees also stop soil salinity (salty soil) by sapping out the salty water before it reaches the surface. Having the trees there increase biodiversity, which means more fauna like birds come that eat insects such as flies which are a pest to sheep. This helps long term environmental sustainability by protecting the sheep and helping stop soil erosion which is bad for farmers. • Increasing ground cover is similar to tree planting, bare soil erodes easier than soil that has ground cover, this also decreases the chances of erosion causing huge trenches, especially on hills. Once these start appearing they are hard to stop and clean up, this can be a costly process that would be improved by preventing the situation early. • Cell grazing is a process that farmers use to give their pastures more time to regenerate after having sheep grazing on them. For example, if a farmer had 1000 sheep and 4 paddocks. He has 500 in 1 paddock and 500 in another, say after 4 weeks that they have eaten the feed and the farmer moves them to the other 2 paddocks. Again it takes them 4 weeks to eat the feed, this means the original paddocks only get 4 weeks to regrow, but what if the farmer put all 1000 of his sheep together in 1 paddock. With this many sheep the feed is gone in 2 weeks, so the farmer moves them to the next paddock and so on. By the time the sheep get back to the 1st paddock the paddock has had 6 weeks to regrow. If the paddocks were cut in half, the sheep would eat the feed in about 1 week. The farmer would keep moving the sheep around the 8 paddocks after 1 week, by the time the sheep get back to the first paddock the paddock has had 7 weeks.
The main part of Carbon Farming is carbon sequestration. This is removing carbon from the atmosphere and holding it in the soil where it is not doing damage to the environment. So farmers can plant trees so the leaves absorb the carbon, moving it down through the roots to the soil. There are many programs that run that make this into a profit for the farmers and a bonus for making the environment cleaner. • Holistic farming is a way of thinking that includes how the product, the environment and the money all interact with the people involved. You need to consider all of these things before making a decision concerning your farming. • Biological/ organic farming is a form of farming when no synthetic chemicals or substances are used in the process, this could be more expensive but could also help produce a better product at the end. It is also working in harmony with nature and not working against it. Organic farming aims to ensure water is clean and safe, increase long-term soil fertility, control pests and disease, produce nutritious food without harming the environment.
