Potential systems for increasing income from wool in hill and upland sheep flocks in the UK

Abstract

A study was undertaken to examine the probable outcome of attempts to improve the financial returns from UK hill and upland sheep enterprises by increasing the quantity of higher quality, i.e. finer, wool produced through the use of the Merino, either as a purebred or in crosses with native breeds. Six hill and seven upland systems of sheep production based on a wide range of costs and prices were considered. The results show that the use of Australian fine-wool Merinos or Merino-crossbreds within the traditional stratified UK lamb production systems is unlikely to have any marked financial benefits. On hill farms intensively managed purebred Australian Merinos and an extensively managed fixed cross between Australian Merinos and the hardy native Shetland breed could be expected to increase gross margins by 9% and 6%, respectively. On upland farms the use of European Merino rams could improve gross margins by 6%. The greatest probable increase in gross margin of 33% could come from an intensively managed purebred Australian fine-wool Merino flock, but fixed costs in terms of housing and labour are also likely to be high. The development of a synthetic breed based on a cross between a native breed with the finest wool and Australian Merinos could produce wool of a quality sufficient to attract a substantial premium and without any significant increase in costs. The pursuit of such a development for hill farms is advocated.