Wednesday 14 December 2011

sheep's wool

I had read somewhere recently that sheep's wool is sometimes categorised as agricultural waste, which I found appalling. I think it purely refers to low grade wool that can't be used for clothing, but even so, to think of this wonderfully versatile natural material being treated as waste is really quite sad. So I browsed the internet and came up with the following information:

An illustrated History of British Wool from the Seven Sisters Sheep Centre
A brief outline of British wool production
a good article from the BBC about using lowgrade wool in compost and insulation

Of course sheep themselves appreciate their wool coats that keep them warm and cosy through the winter. The sheep in the photo are some of the Ryeland Sheep at Gorgie City Farm.

7 comments:

theconstantwalker said...

A lovely post to read....

Ash said...

Interesting and informative post. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Well that is very depressing, but the innovation of using wool as insulation and compost are good to see - if only they could do it on a much larger scale.

RG said...

Wool socks
in wet boots.

Warm.

Martin said...

I'd never heard of low grade wool being used in insulation before. Interesting.

shoreacres said...

You might enjoy seeing a beautiful photo taken by a photographer I follow - one of our Bighorn sheep in the mountains of Montana.

Sometimes I wish I lived in cold country so I could wear a beautiful wool sweater!

Cuby said...

Sheep's wool should never be considered as waste as it is a wonderful insulation for rooves and walls but so much more expensive than the fibre glass rolls favoured by builders everywhere. I also love woolly jumpers as they are so warm.Cold wind here today.