Now, instead of spending precious time and money shearing their sheep, they now simply wait for the light coats to 'moult' in the fields.
The wool, which is shorter and more sparse than a traditional British sheep, begins shedding around the animal's neck and legs, often leaving a temporary patch in the middle.
Where a normal sheep would produce up to 20lbs (9kg) of wool, the Exlana – whose newly coined name means 'used to have wool' in Latin– yields just 1lb (500g).
The cross breed sheep – the first of their kind in the UK – were created using imported semen and rams from diverse and exotic breeds such as the Barbados Blackbelly and St. Croix.
The new ewes are estimated to save farmers £8 per animal per year in labour costs – which could equal thousands of pounds a year for a full flock.
4 comments:
I'm neither a farmer nor an economist but unless the sheep all moult simultaneously, wouldn't it be more labour-intensive to comb the fields continually all Spring for shed wool than to shear each one once and for all? Also, wouldn't the labour costs be offset by the fact that they provide so much less wool?
THE POINT IS THE WOOL HAS SO LITTLE VALUE THAT THE COST TO SHEAR IS HIGHER THAN THE VALUE OF THE WOOL - IE NO POINT IN SHEARING FOR THE SALE VALUE; THE VALUE LESS WOOL WILL NOT BE COLLECTED FROM THE FIELDS
Isn't it going to be expensive to separate the wool from the sheep crap in the fields?
They don't collect the wool, it decomposes
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