ALAN WEST SHEEP TOPICS
GROWTH AND PROGRESS
48
What was an abundance of grass has turned into a bit of an embarrassment. I won’t say that I have too much grass; you can’t have too much, simply more than is needed for immediate requirements. After a recent walk around the grazing platform, I reckon that I have sufficient grass in front of the sheep to last them until probably the end of August, if it went dry tomorrow. It wouldn’t be the best of grazing, ultimately some would be standing hay, but it would keep them going, which really is quite reassuring. Having so much grass in front of the sheep at this time of the year is quite a novelty; aided by some fairly quick rotation around the paddocks and judicious use of the topper I hope to be able to maintain some sort of quality, with the weaned lambs taking priority. Despite dubious grass quality, the sheep have done well. The ewes look surprisingly well, some probably a little too well, and may need to be kept fairly tight to ensure they don’t overshoot on body condition score. It is not as if they haven’t been working hard; they have almost all done their lambs well. As is always the case some have done better than others, but there are none that I would call poor lambs. The first draw of some Suffolk cross Lleyn lambs averaged 43kg at about 14 weeks. I feel sorry for those that are waiting for a suitable weather window to make hay. But that’s farming. There is nothing that we can do to influence the weather, in the short term at least, and there is little point in worrying about things over which we have no control. Easy to say but, I’m sure, not quite so easy to live with, particularly if you happen to be a contractor with customers all demanding your services at the same time once we do get a suitable weather window. People will just need to be patient and understanding. Lamb prices have come back now. It was bound to happen, but they are still above where they were at the same time last year; producers have had a very good run so far this year. There is also positive news on the wool front. Prices are on the way up, not where they need to be but moving in the right direction, and trade is improving, significantly more for some wool qualities than others. New Zealand wool prices are also rising, a good indicator of a better global trading season for 2021. In addition, British Wool (BW) has made significant progress in reducing overhead costs and streamlined the collection, transport and grading process, with some depots closed and a number of regional wool drop off centres established (with no onward transport costs). Overall handling and servicing costs per kg of
ALAN WEST Sheep farmer
wool directed through BW have been reduced, giving producers a slightly bigger slice of the return for their wool. BW has also been directing more resources into the promotion of British wool to help grow the market for both British wool and products manufactured with British wool, capitalising on the growing trend among consumers to support British farm products. There is, however, still a bit of a fundamental misunderstanding among many wool producers as to the role and function of BW, the biggest misconception being that it is a buyer of wool. British Wool is effectively an agent for producers responsible for the collaborative collection, grading and marketing of wool produced in the UK. It does not set prices, which are determined by the market, an international market, and established at the regular auctions organized and run by BW. Covid-19 hit international trade in wool hard last year and this was reflected in global prices. The timely introduction of online bidding during lockdown has generated significant benefits, in particular ensuring sales continued throughout lockdown which has resulted in a minimal carry over of wool from last year’s clip, providing a stable base for the start of the 2021 marketing season. This useful online facility will, moving forward, be retained as an option in a more flexible and accessible marketing mix alongside the live auctions. One of the key advantages of BW lies in the
collection and grading of wool, a process that combines wool of the same grade, possibly from a significant number of individual producers, into large parcels that suit the requirements of the scouring plants. The vast majority of wool produced in the UK will begin its processing journey in one of two large scouring plants, both of which rely on high throughputs in order to be able to process at a sensible cost; they need wool of the same grade in large, 50 tonne lots, something that would almost certainly not happen without the grading and amalgamation services provided by BW. Without the economies of scale, processing costs would increase, making wool less competitive. Similarly, without the quantities of graded wool that can be supplied via BW, profitability would be significantly reduced in the scouring plants. A loss of one of these plants would reduce the domestic processing capacity by about 50%, the consequential impact of which would decimate the UK wool industry. The whole system is closely integrated and requires the economies of scale generated by the support of wool producers across the UK. Every additional fleece has a positive, if only marginal, impact on reducing costs and increasing prices paid per kg of wool to producers. Definitely still very much a work in progress but certainly moving in the right direction and a development that certainly needs and deserves the support of producers. At the end of last month I paid a visit to some old acquaintances at Brinsbury College, West Sussex. Brinsbury is where my formal agricultural education started some 50+ years ago in the shape of evening classes working towards and achieving (at distinction) the City and Guilds Full Technical Certificate in Agriculture, which sounds very grand, and it did provide a good basis to go onto
> It is a long time since sheep producers have been embarrassed by so much grass in July, you can never have too much grass, but?
AUGUST 2021 | WWW.SOUTHEASTFARMER.NET
