A Welsh farmer has put his wool in a muck heap instead of selling it to the British Wool Marketing Board.
“If British Wool think I’m paying to have it packed and transported to them for nothing they’re having a laugh,” said outraged Anglesey farmer Gerallt Hughes, after the wool co-op announced farmers won’t get paid for this year’s wool until 2021.
Shearing the flock is costing him £1.10 per fleece this year
Hughes didn’t bother packing his wool and put most of it in a manure heap, while also offering locals the chance to take a few bags if they wish, for only the cost of a donation to charity. Shearing the flock is costing him £1.10 per fleece this year.
He said it was the first time they have dumped wool on the farm since the family moved there in 1928. He blames the British Wool Marketing Board for not doing enough to build alternative markets for wool products, which left them over-exposed when the market crashed this spring.
The wool will be composted for a year before being applied on to the fields. Hughes farms around 1,000 sheep and 200 cows alongside his father in North Wales.