By Gerrard Eckhoff, a retired Central Otago farmer and former Otago regional councillor and ACT MP.
The story of wool is almost as old as recorded history.
Wool has been used since 10,000 BC, when it was recognised as a most remarkable fibre. It still is. The demise of the crossbred wool industry, therefore, is hard to fathom given the qualities wool possesses, yet today crossbred wool is almost worthless. There was a time when wool was worth a pound sterling in currency for a pound in fibre weight.
Meantime wools’ great qualities have been captured by the synthetic (oil) industry using the word “polar” to promote warmth and “fleece” to allude to sheep who produce a fleece annually.
During World War II, wool was the only material our soldiers could wear, from socks to tunics in the Middle East where extremes of heat and cold were a constant. Wool kept you warm when needed at night and cool during a hot summer’s day when other materials next to the skin become sticky and unpleasantly odorous.
Those of us with too many years attached will recall woollen bathing suits, which probably caused a number of near-drownings in one inch of water due to the weight of that garment when wet, so some synthetics may have a place – somewhere. The difficulty is that wearing of a Speedo by those of us over 60 is considered a crime due to matters of visual good taste in a public place.
Another fashion garment of yesteryear but guaranteed unlikely to reignite the industry is the “long john”. Some readers will need to pause while googling “long johns”, which are still a particular favourite of the western movie genre. Clint Eastwood was likely to engage in a photo shoot while wearing long johns – a single-piece woollen undergarment from neck to toe – which probably made him even more menacing.
In the early 1970s another natural fibre, cotton, was having similar problems as wool in competing with synthetics. Unlike wool, cotton began its mission to improve demand for, and the profitability of cotton.
Fifty years on Cotton Incorporated continues to fulfil that promise through research and marketing activities. Wool? Well, we developed a symbol, the wool mark, that most will now not even recognise.
The difficulties facing the sheep/wool industry were never due to a desire to start work at 4am every day and milk cows. A sheep farm converted to dairying may well support three families instead of one, so it’s pure economics.
These days, carpet is the main use for crossbred wool, yet nobody knows whether a floor covering is a natural, free-range product or an amalgam of micro plastics once it’s nailed to the floor. No brand is ever shown on the visual side of the carpet laid on the floor of a house.
We all blithely admire the floor covering without knowing what it is made from, which hardly adds to any differentiation between the competing fibres. Carpet is, well, carpet, yet in the unfortunate event of a fire or even just a hot ember or two, wool is resistant, whereas the product from the petro-chemical industry positively welcomes the chance to spread its properties and quickly.
Despite this obvious advantage of safety within houses, hotels, airlines and so on, wool’s properties in this aspect are rarely promoted.
Given the warming and breathing properties of wool, it became obvious the difference wool can make to a person’s health with poor blood vessel circulation. Woollen socks are not just helpful but an essential item of clothing to warm a foot with sciatica. It is rare to see any promotion of this wonderful property of wool; those of us who fully value wool for this wellbeing attribute can only wonder why this aspect is not just promoted but shouted from the roof tops.
Instead of sheep farmers looking forward to receiving what was once called a wool cheque, where they derived at least half their income, they now receive a substantial invoice from the shearing contractor. Crossbred wool therefore is now a liability and not an asset, despite being one of the most sustainable items known to humankind.
Given the massive environmental concerns displayed by the “stars” of our TV screens such as Greta Thunderberg, who is determined to save us all from ourselves, it seems reasonable to assume she and her fellow travellers would demand an end to the use of the fossil fuels industry products next to their skin. Alas no. Trendy clothing kit is essential if one is to draw attention to oneself on the world stage. The wearing of the synthetic Lycra while riding a bike (pedal or electric ) appears to be even more essential than two wheels.
A deep dive into wool’s history by artificial intelligence would likely provide the answer to why wool, this great fibre, cannot compete.
Maybe it comes down to what cotton did and what wool didn’t do 50 years ago. One of the biggest reasons for this situation was a telling comment made quite some years ago at a wool industry meeting by the Wool Board chair in response to this question:
Me: “Chairman, why do we still dump our wool on the auction room floor and hope like hell some buyers might turn up and buy?”
Chair: “It’s still the best way to get rid of the stuff.”
I guess sometimes the problems of the industry are truly represented by its own false prophets.
