Farmers search for a future in wool

With the national sheep flock reduced to 34 million (half the number of 50 years ago) due to a continuing decline in wool income and the growth of dairy farming, there's a big question mark hanging over the future of sheep. Farmers are experimenting with ways to eliminate the workload associated with wool and focuse on the meat.  Sheep that naturally shed their wool are increasingly sought after reports The Taranaki Daily. There are now 60 registered studs of the self-shedding breeds, which include the Dorper, Dorset Horn, Wiltshire Horn, Damara and Meatmaster. Hill country farming needs a sheep and cattle mix for weed, pasture and parasite control. In a farming region as diverse as Taranaki, sheep farming traditions have been abandoned as farmers try new strategies. John Earney, who breeds self- shedding Wiltshires at Huiroa, says his Avonstour Farm ram sales are doubling every year. These sheep lose their belly and crutch wool after the first two crosses and don't need shearing at all after the third cross. They will lamb twice a year and require little drenching for worm control. Mark Ogle, of Te Popo, a Romney farmer who switched to Perendales, began buying rams from Avonstour three years ago. He was heading seriously into a fully self-shedding flock when he made a major change in policy and decided to quit ewes completely and just fatten bought-in store lambs. "If I'd stayed with breeding ewes, it would have been the Wiltshires," he says. "They were everything I'd been told: no dagging, no footrot, no belly fleece, little drenching. There was no downside." The decision to cross with self- shedders wasn't difficult, "because it was costing me $1.70 to shear a sheep, plus associated costs, and that was more than the value of a kilo of wool. I think it's the way of the future. "If wool suddenly has value again, you can easily swap back." [ad#agridata-468x60