It started with The Dagman in Masterton. The company has over 500 local suppliers. They arrive at the farm, take your dags and pay you 10c a kilo. While that won’t buy you a new tractor, it does give a return and is getting wool out into the community as a natural product.
Gav Fair sells wool for mulching in 200kg bags. They cost just $50. The wool is thick and moist. It mulches well around fruit trees, doesn’t blow away, the birds ignore it and it breaks down into the soil. As there are dag remains in the wool, it is also a slow release fertiliser.
The wool mulch is a by-product of the powdered sheep manure. It is in huge demand from both hardware stores and garden centres. What I hadn’t realised is that as a result of covid-19, people are taking up gardening in droves and natural products appeal to their newfound interest.
The Dagman has also purchased a suction machine, called the Dagman Super Sucker, for cleaning out under woolsheds. It’s the only one of its type in NZ and will lead to new natural fertiliser products being developed in Masterton.
Ranfurly farmer Eric Laurenson is using his own wool to carpet his homestead. And as a farmer and wool classer, he is a disciple for wool. For a start, he wants to bring townies out to his farm at shearing time so that they can see the process for themselves.
Along with Carrfields Primary Wool subsidiary NZ Yarn, they have created a ‘farm fleece to farm floor carpet’ initiative – farmers can send their wool to NZ yarn with specifications and the carpet would be created for them.
Carrfields Primary Wool chief executive Colin Mackenzie is enthusiastic about the project.
“We’re doing more of this for heaps of farmers,” he said.
“Farmers drop off eight or nine bales of greasy wool, which we turn into 200 metres of broadloom. That’s enough for three or four large houses. It works out at 50-60% of the wholesale price.”
Another farmer initiative from Otago is a wool carding business near Rae’s Junction, called Tally Ho Wool Carding. Run by Barb and Stuart Peel, it produces 80 carded products, including natural and dyed wool.
They process wool from the home farm, buy wool in and card to order. They also export carded wool to countries including Russia, Japan, Australia, Malaysia and England. The enterprise has a total of six staff and the carding machines they use were manufactured in 1922 and 1951. As Barb explained, “they are non-computerised and run on chains, sprockets and belts.”
If she can find someone who is “passionate about wool, she is happy teaching them the ropes.”
Barb suggested looking at the We Love Wool NZ Facebook page. It has over 4000 followers, with 75 joining in the last week alone. It is a most impressive vehicle that promotes NZ wool.
We’re lucky having individuals that have decided to develop products and promote our wool. They need support.
What I hadn’t realised was the carbon footprint of synthetic carpets. It is generated by the “extraction and processing of oil and gas into the different petrochemicals and plastics. The production of nylon fibre from crude oil is the largest source of embodied carbon emissions for most carpets.”
My point is that petro-chemical-based synthetic fibre production is unsustainable. The answer in respect to climate change is to use wool.
The argument is appealing. It seems that on an almost daily basis we’re getting hit by the Wellington brigade vociferously claiming that farming pollutes.
The counter to that is farmers produce wool, a natural, sustainable fibre. The problem is most politicians and the vast majority of bureaucrats wouldn’t have a clue.
They clothe themselves in petroleum products and lounge about on synthetic carpets and pollute NZ far more than the agricultural sector does.
The problem is considerable. Two-thirds of all textiles are now synthetic. Even washing them produces microplastics. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the average person ingests five grams of plastic each week – 5g equals a credit card.
Synthetic fibres are a massive threat to our health, the ocean’s and the land.
Getting that message out is a challenge for the wool industry, but it’s not difficult. As I’ve outlined, ordinary Kiwis are promoting wool. It’s time for the industry to step up.
It’s not hard. We’ve stopped oil and gas exploration and we are subsidising electric vehicles, while totally ignoring the environmental destruction and massive carbon footprint of the textile industry.
There are sustainable products such as wool and silk available now.
