Tips for ensuring a clean wool clip

By Roelof Bezuidenhout

Wool that becomes contaminated due to poor shearing shed management harms the reputation of the entire South African wool clip and can lead to serious claims against buyers, processors – and farmers! Beware, contamination can be traced back to your farm, and it can result in heavy fines. That’s why you should never compromise on shearing shed hygiene.

Shearing must follow the proper classing standards to protect the good name of the South African clip, especially since most of our wool is exported in its raw, greasy form.

Merino wool has become a highly valued niche product. Contamination of the wool is a world-wide problem, but there is no longer any excuse for it. Farmers can face strict penalties for poor shearing shed practices, as contamination causes major problems and extra costs throughout the processing and value-adding chain.

The now-obsolete National Association of Wool and Mohair Growers was established in 1906 to create a proper system for classifying and packing wool. This was mainly to address the poor reputation that South African wool had developed on the London markets in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the time, some farmers even packed stones into wool bales to increase their weight.

Today, wool classification is carefully monitored by brokers, buyers and processors, with Cape Wools SA responsible for overseeing and coordinating the system.

Contaminants

The most common contaminants in wool are polypropylene bags and baling twine. These materials break into thin fibres that become stuck in the wool. Because they don’t absorb dye, they leave visible marks on the final fabric.

Another growing concern is the presence of black hair or wool from crossbred sheep mixed in with Merino wool. Dog hair is also being found more often in wool lines. Processors reject these coloured fibres, especially when making light or pastel-coloured fabrics.

Kemp – short, stiff white fibres – has also become more common in wool clips over the past three seasons. The main source is crossbred sheep used for fat lamb production.

To avoid contamination, always shear your purebred Merino sheep first, before shearing any crossbreeds or other animals.

Wool buyers also look for other problems, such as fleeces that are not classed evenly in terms of length or quality, dirty pieces mixed into the main lines, and urine- or dung-stained wool in the outsorts. They also reject wool that has paint, marking ink or foreign objects in it – including cigarette butts.

Wool brokers use metal detectors to find pieces of wire, nails or wool hooks before the wool is sold. Plastic fibres are much harder to detect. Hard objects in a bale can damage core-sampling tools and wool-processing machines. And foreign fibres – such as black hair or kemp – can ruin many metres of fabric, because they only show up during the final stage of processing. In some cases, even dead chickens have been found in wool bales.

If a whole piece of polypropylene bag is found in a bale – these bags are sometimes wrongly used to separate different wool lines in the same bale – the farmer can be fined between R1 500 and R10 000, depending on how far the wool has already moved through the value chain. If more than one line of wool is packed in a bale, use a paper divider only – no plastic or other material.

One more point: There is growing international pressure to reduce pollution. Stricter environmental rules mean the wool industry must work harder to remove chemical residues and ensure that pesticide-free wool reaches the market.

This Merino flock is clearly set to produce a clean, high-quality wool clip. Photo: Roelof Bezuidenhout

Here’s what you can do to ensure a clean clip

Plunge-dip your flock while the wool is still short, well before the shearing date.
Shear sheep before their fleece becomes overly long, as longer wool is more likely to get dirty and matted.
Teach your shearing team and workers about the dangers of wool contamination and how to prevent it.
Clean the shearing shed properly before you start. Pack away any tools, bolts or other metal items.
Check your wool press carefully. Make sure that no foreign objects – like bale hooks – can fall into the open bales.
Reduce the risk of contamination from animal hair, feathers and baling twine.
Make sure the holding pens are clean. Provide a rubbish bin with a lid for cigarette butts and other waste.
Keep dogs and other animals out of the shearing shed. Use a rubber rake – not a regular broom – to remove hair from the shed floor.
Never use baling twine in the shearing shed, not even for hanging tools or equipment on the walls.
Ensure your sheep have enough shelter to stay dry. Clean wool is easier to maintain when sheep are kept out of the rain and mud. Where possible, cut long grass around the shed to prevent wet necks and bellies caused by dew or rain. If needed, wait until the veld is dry before bringing sheep in for shearing. Moist wool should never be baled.
Prevent seed contamination. Watch for seeds such as spiny cockle burr that can stick to wool. Also monitor grazing camps for problem plants when sheep have long wool that can pick up seeds.
Remove any paint or coloured branding from sheep before shearing.
Crutch sheep with heavy dung or urine stains, in other words, remove dirty, matted or stained wool from around the tail and between the hind legs before shearing.
Make sure you have enough workers for the shearing process. This can include a cook for the shearers, sweepers, piece pickers, balers, and people to help move sheep in and out of the shed.
Provide proper wool sorting equipment, such as sorting tables, wool bins and piece tables.
Give shearers a fresh, strong disinfectant every day so they can clean their shears after each sheep. This helps prevent the spread of sheep lice, which can lower wool quality.
If possible, shear the flock in age groups – such as lambs, hoggets, two-tooth sheep and old ewes. This makes fleece sorting easier and more accurate.
Talk to the shearers in advance about avoiding double cuts and unnecessary wounds. Cutting the sheep not only causes stress and health problems but can also damage the fleece.
Avoid using wound sprays or other stock remedies that can stain the wool, unless absolutely necessary.
Remove any wool stained with branding ink, tar, urine, dung, blood, paint, fungi or chemicals before shearing, pack it separately and mark it as “Brands”.
Remove wool stained with blood during shearing, and ask the shearers to remove any pieces of skin accidentally cut off. Dried skin can become hard and damage carding machines during wool processing.
Pack top knots and cheek wool with the lox, even if they look long and good. These areas often contain hairy fibres. Also, never pack coloured fibres from around the horns with the belly wool or other pieces.
Turn all new wool packs inside out and shake out any loose fibres before use. Do this outside the shearing shed to avoid contamination.
Check that all hooks and wool press spikes are sharp, and use only the recommended number of bale hooks (nine). Blunt spikes can break or force fibres from the pack into the wool.
Apply marking ink carefully to prevent it from soaking through the pack and staining the wool bale.