6. Wool Training Spring 2024

Having had a very busy few months, an update is well overdue! In early February I travelled to deepest Somerset in England, to participate in a week of wool training. Fernhill Farm is a specialist wool and sheep farm, owned by Jennifer Hunter and Andy Wear who manage their 3000 strong flock using regenerative farming practices. They are leading advisors on wool production as a valuable primary resource, and run countless farming & creative classes, events, competitions and workshops throughout the year to educate people on wool farming. I was lucky enough to spend a few days there. It was an extraordinary experience, and to see such knowledgeable experts at work was just a privilege.

Andy is a nomadic shepherd, who through his life has travelled the world shearing and shepherding sheep. 13 years ago with his partner Jen, a wool producer and all round expert, he bought a run-down farm which showed great potential for them to restore and revitalise. Both being passionate advocates for the value sheep bring to the land and the economy, they developed a wool school shortly before COVID, and through this are superb educators for commercial farmers, hobby farmers, craftspeople, student textile designers and more.

Over the space of 4/5 days I learnt as much as my brain could take in about the importance of soil health and how it affects sheep health which directly affects wool quality. I learnt about different shearing practices and how the different methods and timing impact wool management which impacts the shorn fleece quality at harvest time. I learnt about lambing and it’s impact on wool not just how the fleece degrades as lambing approaches due to demands on the ewe biologically, but how lactation impacts wool quality hugely also often causing “wool break” where the whole fleece just falls off the sheep overnight.

To outside observers, shearing seems an unnecessary stress and discomfort for sheep, however this is absolutely not the case. Without shearing annually, sheep are susceptible to deadly fly attack in summer. Blowflies lay miniscule eggs on the wool which hatch virtually overnight into skin eating maggots, damaging a sheep severely within hours, burrowing into the skin almost invisibly and eating the animal alive. It is something I have experienced once and never, ever want to again. The eggs are undetectable so shearing reduces the egg laying significantly and allows the sheep to be more comfortable in warm weather. If sheep are unhealthy and their faeces is sticking on their wool around their tail area this massively increases the threat of flystrike. If sheep suffer this, their wool is impacted very negatively as well as their overall health.

Blade Shearing at Fernhill Farm

After learning about the theoretical aspects of shearing, it was onto observing blade shearing happening in real time - the traditional way to shear sheep without using machines. The skill of Andy was just incredible to watch. Removing a full fleece by hand without causing stress to the animal as she was essentially rolled about the shearer’s legs quietly and calmly, is not an easy thing to do, but within about five minutes she stood up, beautifully shorn and wandered off non-plussed.

Every single detail was described, from the ewe needing to have an empty stomach to avoid discomfort, to being fed immediately afterwards to activate thermoregulation (ruminants generate heat for their bodies through eating forage and ruminating at rest afterwards). The build and design of the shearing shed was explained, again in great detail and fleece quality was discussed at length, highlighting the need to assess and grade the fleeces according to suitability for different wool processing methods such as spinning, weaving and felting.

We were subsequently taught each of these skills over the course of the four days: peg loom weaving, spinning, wet and needle felting. Having studied floor loom weaving at Grennan Mill Craft School a number of years ago this was so interesting - to see primitive methods of weaving that have existed for millenia.

Felting as a method of working with wool is fascinating whereby raw or lightly processed (washed & carded) wool can be moulded and manipulated without any glues or artificial agents. Harnessing the properties of the individual strands and how they react to heat, water, soap and agitation results in the creation of incredibly sturdy textiles that have a very long lifespan.

I came home glad I had held off starting work on my studio workshop schedule and plan for my own product development, as I was now armed with so much knowledge and information that I could decide more specifically what I wanted to do with the wool from my own little flock of sheep, now approaching lambing themselves.

Andy Wear explaining fleece quality testing

For anyone interesed in seeing a large scale wool production farm in operation, a visit to Fernhill is just a revelation. The passion and skill of this family was so inspiring, their understated approach but fully committed way of raising their flocks with animal welfare to the forefront, combined with a huge range of knowledge and expertise from local craftswomen who were busily assisting and running the workshops classes, made it a brilliant all round experience from start to finish.