100 Bales

Shearing is going well - Over 100 bales of absolutely beautiful, white, deeply crimped soft Merino wool and there’s a great atmosphere in the shearing shed.

Our shearers are a great team and always have the welfare of our Merinos front of mind. The woolshed is a hive of activity during shearing with 5 shearers, a wool classer, rouseabout, wool roller and the shearing contractor who brings it all together. Norm and Frank generally do the mustering of the sheep, to bring them in for their annual haircut.

The “rouseabout” or shed hand’s job is to pick up the fleece after it's shorn and throw it on the “wool table” which isn’t easy and takes practice. When it lands on the wool table the wool roller “skirts” (removes) a small amount from the outside of the “fleece” removing the dirty bits and any burrs that might have got caught in the wool.

Our wool classer – Mark – looks at the fleece and assesses which category the wool will go into. We are very grateful for a good season so much of our fleece wool is ultra premium. 

The wool is then placed in the wool press. When they get about 200kg of wool of the same quality specifications it is pressed into a bale of wool, marked with our name and wool classification. 

When shearing has finished we organise a truck to come and collect all the bales which will be purchased by an agent and shipped to the ultimate buyers. 

The wool is then repressed into larger bales to be shipped overseas to Italy, Japan, China or India for processing.

Here the wool is scoured (washed), carded and combed – which means it is combed literally (like a scruffy dog or a little girl after a weekend of camping) and brought back into alignment so it can be then be spun into yarn (very fine thread). 

The yarn is then sent back to Australia (Melbourne) to be made into fabric and dyed if necessary and made into the beautiful Merino garments that you can purchase from great local companies like Woolerina and soon scarves from LoveMerino! Taking 7 months from shearing to end product it’s quite a journey from our farm in Wellington, NSW to customers all around the world. 

We are really passionate about being able to trace our premium Merino from the fabric right back to the flock. This will be possible for the first time with our new brand LoveMerino. Stay tuned ....