Farmer sets fire to fleeces after wool prices tumble
A SHEEP farmer is setting fire to her flock’s fleeces because the price of natural wool has made the product almost worthless.
Jade Bett, who grazes 260 animals in fields in Yarburgh, Lincolnshire, said she let the fleeces go up in smoke as there was “no economic way” of getting rid of them.
Fleece prices have tumbled from £14 per kg in the 1950s to less than 87p for the same amount today – with farmers getting a return of as little as 26p per kg over the last few years.
Ms Bett said, after costs, she would be lucky to get £30 for her wool and was frustrated she had to burn the fleeces. “It’s a shame when you’ve got a natural phenomenon like your wool, which has to come off your sheep every year that in 2024 we haven’t got a better system of doing something with it,” she added.
The 43-year-old’s prize-winning flock is made up of breeds such as British Berrichon du Cher, Blue Texels and Dutch Spotted sheep.
She said national organisations such as British Wool offer farmers a price for the fleeces when the sheep come to be shaved. But Ms Bett said the expense involved in taking the natural product to a processing centre made this unviable and she felt the wool industry in the UK was dying out.
“I don’t feel like there is a wool industry,” she said. “I know there are a few very small businesses that think they’ll have a go at felting wool and try to make wool shoes or slippers but they’re few and far between.
“If we all wore wool jumpers and were all walking on wool carpets, wool products wouldn’t be the price that they are and it would all be a bit more affordable. But somehow, we don’t have that ethos where we all want to wear natural fibres.
“And I don’t know how we can turn it round so there is something good that comes from the wool that is grown every year.”
A spokesman for British Wool said there had been a 25 per cent increase in fleece prices at auction since September last year. “We urge any farmers thinking of burning their wool to contact us,” he added.