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For Farmers and Crofters

Whether you have a small flock, or a few favourite sheep out of a large flock, transforming their precious fleeces into clean fluff, or carded batts ready for crafting or selling is a fantastic way to get more value from your wool!

​These are some things to consider:

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Breeds

There are so many different breeds and crosses, and each of their fleece types have qualities to make them suitable for various purposes.  The Woolist has a great guide to get you started.

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Shetlands spin up lovely soft yarn, Hebrideans make gorgeous felted fleece rugs, Cheviots have bouncy fleeces good for filling cushions, Scottish Blackface have hardwearing fleece for rugs and carpets. Whatever breed you keep, there is a use for their fleece - there's no such thing as 'waste' wool - even the worst fleeces can serve as mulch or compost!

Sheep Care

Fleeces show the tough times of the year, so good nutrition and minerals are really important for a good fleece - to prevent breaks and ensure high quality fibres.  Breeding can put stress on a ewe's fleece, while shelter can help prevent cotting, and your method of feeding (particularly hay) can make a big difference to how clean the fleeces are, as can the seeds and field scrub present.  Minimise markers and paints too, for a cleaner end-products.

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Fleece Preparation

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Have you ever prepped fleece for small mill processing before? It's a more thorough process than prepping for the wool board, for storage, or for industrial mills, and prepping at all will be new to many of our farming friends who haven't tried a mill before. All fleeces sent to our mill should  be skirted, cleared of all dags and clags, with as much vegetable matter picked out as possible.  Though more will fall out during our picking and carding processes, how thoroughly prepped the fleece is by you, before you deliver it to us, will ultimately determine the quality of the final product - this is a team effort!  Our equipment is smaller than at the industrial mills, and we do a lot of the process by hand, so working with you is an important factor in the quality of the final product we deliver. Also, as we charge per kilo incoming, you don't want to pay for VM that's only going to end up on our prep floor!

If you've never prepped fleece for a mill before, contact us to learn about ways we can help you with the process. And watch this space for a handy video to come soon.

Type of processing

The type of processing that suits you will depend on:

  • the sheep you have, their fleece type and condition

  • the use you or your customers will put it to (eg carded batts for felting, slivers (coming soon)for spinning, fluff for cushion stuffing)

  • how much you want to invest  in the processing

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