When you mention Wales and Sheep Farming in one sentence, it’s what I would consider dangerous territories. Now, when you mention farmers and sheep, there’s only one thing that pops in to your mind. That’s right, you got it, it’s Wool. Wool is a wondrous material with properties unrivaled by any other material, be it man made or natural. Wool can keep you warm, it can keep you cool, it can be waterproof, windproof and sweat proof. It’s so amazing that astronauts wear it under their suits when they go jetting off into the ether- and that’s saying something coming from the company that allegedly spent $12m making a pen that works in zero-g.
So what is it that makes wool so damn great? Within the confines of the wool, there exist millions of tiny air pockets. This makes wool a phenomenal blocker and trapper of heat. This functionality is recreated in many man-made things that do the same job, ie. polystyrene cups. A testament to this functionality is that wool is being used as house insulation all over the world. So then, because it’s such a great insulator, and it’s all soft and fluffy, it only makes sense to use it to make clothing and blankets. The wool trade is booming globally and with increased international markets and demand, farmers and farms need to harvest and ship more wool than ever before. Because of the rapidly expanding market, it’s difficult to pinpoint the current worth of the industry, but in America, in 2011, 29,300,000lb of wool was harvested from 4,030,000 sheep. It was sold on from the farms at $1.67 per lb, and this brought the total worth of the harvest to $48,900,000. And, America make up less than 1% of the worlds wool production. During 2010, a survey was carried out, noting the top ten wool producing countries in the world. That list included China, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, among others and the total weight of harvested wool was just over 2,044,270 tons. Maybe now you’re kind of getting a sense of how big the industry is. If a pound of wool can make a jumper or a blanket and there is 2205lb in a ton, then globally that’s potentially 4,507,615,350 wool products made in 2010. All those products are being made for buyers and all those people can’t be wrong. And I know that’s a whole bunch of boring numbers, so if you don’t want to be a statistic in the global wool trade, then you better buy local, from local wool farmers who make quality welsh products.
So now, when you think about Welsh Sheep Farmers, maybe you won’t jump straight to that. Come on now, get your mind out of the gutter.
Slate House stock a range of 100% Welsh Wool Blankets from Tweed Mill.
https://www.slate-house.co.uk/products/Wool
