Farmer hails wool insulation
Consumers seeking safe, natural, sustainable, healthy products are often missing what’s right under their nose, a South Canterbury sheep farmer says.
Miles Anderson is insulating and carpeting his new 240-square-metre four-bedroom dream home at Southburn, south of Timaru, with wool products like the ones he’s been growing for 25 years because it ticks all the boxes, he said.
‘‘It’s the thing everyone is looking for. Sheep wool is made in New Zealand, it’s biodegradable, renewable, sustainable and has great flameretardant properties.’’
Anderson said because wool fibres were biodegradable they would not end up in the food chain or waterways.
Anything that required protective gear to install such as synthetic insulation made him cautious.
‘‘If you need PPE (personal protective equipment) to install it, how safe is it really?’’
He wonders if synthetic insulation will be the next asbestos problem causing health issues.
Anderson doesn’t know whether any of the wool from his farm is in the insulation bales produced by a Christchurch company, but says it is possible.
The cost of synthetic insulation is about half the price of sheep wool, which really annoys Anderson.
‘‘It frustrates me as farmers get the lowest price (for sheep’s wool) that it has ever been.’’
He said for crossbred sheep, farmers like him were lucky to get $1 a kilogram when it cost $4.50 to get the wool off the animal.
Anderson, the immediate past national chairman of Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Industry Group, was unsure why the costs were so uneven but expected it was due to the ‘‘middlemen’’ buying cheap and selling at a hiked price.
A lot of people were ignorant of wool and its many uses, he said.
Misinformation from some animal rights groups did not help either, with some claiming the sheep had to be killed to be sheared, he said.
Though wool prices were down, prices for mutton and lamb meat was ‘‘not bad’’ as African swine fever had decimated the Chinese industry resulting in consumers seeking different proteins and opening a gap in the market for New Zealand sheep meat.
He is the fourth generation of his family to farm the 220 hectares his new house is on.
Not only will it be insulated with a traditional Kiwi product but a covered patio is made from oregon wood grown on the property.
The kitchen joinery will be made from wood from a shed on the farm built in the 1900s which blew down in 1981. The bluegum wood was grown on the Lyalldale Estate in nearby St Andrews.
Building of the house started in November and was stalled through Covid-19 lockdown but Anderson hopes it will be finished by October.
In the meantime his three adult children are coming home over the weekend and will be press-ganged into helping place the wool insulation in the roof and walls, though they don’t know that yet.
‘‘Sheep wool is made in New Zealand, it’s biodegradable, renewable, sustainable and has great flameretardant properties.’’ Miles Anderson