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We put out about 3400 sheep this year, including weaned lambs. These are partbred Merino, bred up from the sheep we bought with the farm in 1983 - which were of Polwarth type, but not exactly an even bunch. By importing Merino rams from Dilys Bingham of Hurstmonceaux in Sussex (the British Merino Flock) we have improved both the wool and the sheep themselves. Our sheep are much more even nowadays and are far livelier with 'hybrid vigour' - not always a good thing!

Our sheep range many acres of moorland, being handled only at lamb marking (castration, earmarking and tagging of lambs), shearing and weaning time. They get no additional feed, and need no regular injections or any dipping since there aren't the diseases here that are usually familiar to sheep farmers. Fly strike only occurs on sheep which have grazed rich ground, eg re-seeds, when they get daggy rear ends. We don't have any such rich ground. (see The Land for more details). They learn as lambs to respect electric fences and dogs, but sadly have little respect for humans...

Our present micron range is 21 for the finest hoggetts (first shearing) through to the coarsest adult wethers at 26.6  micron. Our shearling wool this season (2005/6) was 22 micron and our A wool 22.8.    Our wool is clean and very white, with virtually no VM, just occasionally a small amount of peaty dust which scours out easily.

Around half our fleece wool is now processed into tops and yarns to be sold both here and in UK .  All the greasy wool we produce is pressed up as 175kg bales in our hydraulic press here on the farm, and the bales we don't need for our own use sold through a wool agent in Bradford, England. All  are shipped from the farm to Stanley by the local boat Tamar FI then on to England in a larger vessel. We pay the freight all the way, plus of course shearing costs and packaging, and half the core-testing charges in Bradford (which show the fineness or micron, yield, VM [vegetal matter] content etc).

We farm without the use of chemicals - (see Why the Green Sheep?) and are aiming to eventually sell all our wool with added value,  i.e.  as hand- and mill-dyed tops,  felt kits, knitting kits, handpainted and naturally coloured  yarns. See DHF Falklands section for details.

We have a sizeable coloured flock.  Their wool and some bought in from other farms is millspun for sale and for our own use.   We have already sold quite a few sweaters made from our wool, in the past, but have decided not to continue with this.  We prefer to supply fibres and yarns for other people to make items for sale, and to develop our feltmaking activities on farm as well as the teaching side of crafts.

We have a purpose built shearing shed, and handling pens which utilise lie of the land and 'escape' direction - sheep rattle into the shed at loading time prior to shearing because they are heading homewards i.e. back to their camps (huge fields). Some sheds in the Falklands and elsewhere can be a nightmare to load, with sheep having to run downhill (which they hate) and into the dark (ditto).

Our shed holds up to 500 sheep at a time - these are hoggetts ready for shearing. they come into the shed through big doors at the far R hand side of pic, downstairs (the large window at left makes it light inside - sheep run to the light - they also like to run uphill so it is easy to get them to then run up to the upper floor into pens there (slatted floors to let dung and piddle through. Then they are moved forward into catching pens for the shearers to grab them! Then exit after shearing down the chute to ground level and outside through a large pop hole. The large pen immediately inside the large doors has concrete under the gratings. In winter when the shed is cleaned out the gratings (slatted flooring) are lifted, and we use the hoist in the rafters to hang beef when it has been killed, in order to skin and gut it... nice full freezers then! (apologies to any vegetarians reading this). Clive built the shearing shed himself and has just added a loft to part of it for more storage space.

There is a new abattoir on the East, but some farms such as ours rely on wool alone for their income.   Sheep are worth little, and we sold ewes some years back  for £2.50 each and were glad to get even that. We have given away nearly 500 wethers in the past because we had no sale for them. Shipping isn't easy from here (see Shipping photo series).  But the new road when it comes will mean we can reach the ferry link to east Falkland that is being developed...

We only employ help at shearing time, when professional contractors come in. All the young dry [nonbreeding] sheep are shorn in November, the adult wethers [castrated adult males] in late December or early January. 

The ewes are shorn in mid to late February, when their lambs are also weaned. The rousie (wool handler) keeps the shearing floor as clean as possible while the shearer (in this case her husband) works, using her paddle to keep the second cuts etc swept away, and removes the belly as soon as it has been shorn away. She also skirts off all the stained wool she can, before picking up the fleece and throwing it onto the wool table where any other necessary skirting of stained wool etc is carried out. The fleece is then rolled up and pressed. All locks and second cuts are swept under the floor in our shed, and pressed at the end of the season. These go to make cigarette filter tips among other things!

Wool was the backbone of the Falkland Islands for many years, but the golden days are long gone and unlikely to return. Current prices are around a third of 1988 levels but costs continue to rise. We feel it is vital to add value to our wool in various ways, and are doing our level best to stay afloat. Government is helping Falkland Island farmers at present with limited grants, but cannot continue to do this indefinitely.

Try our wool and you will find it is amazing stuff. We are proud of it.

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last updated 2nd August 2006