On Sunday we went to an accreditation course to learn about a new way of shearing sheep: Bioclip. The product was developed by the CSIRO and has been around for some years without much interest from wool-growers. A new company has bought the product, and they have launched a new marketing campaign. The product is an injection, which causes a break in the wool, so that the fleeces shed after seven days.
Seems like a winner except, when the wool falls off, the sheep goes back to bare skin and is vulnerable to sunburn and the elements. Nets are applied to the wool sheep to gather wool, and holds it in place until a new protective layer has grown, so the process takes twenty eight days from go to woe. The company has started marketing the product to the shedding sheep market, where the medulated fibre in the wool protects the sheep from the weather.
Seems like a winner except, when the wool falls off, the sheep goes back to bare skin and is vulnerable to sunburn and the elements. Nets are applied to the wool sheep to gather wool, and holds it in place until a new protective layer has grown, so the process takes twenty eight days from go to woe. The company has started marketing the product to the shedding sheep market, where the medulated fibre in the wool protects the sheep from the weather.
After listening to what they had to say, we're not sure about the product's usefulness. Not all sheep are suitable to inject, so in some cases you can only inject half the mob. What do you do with the rest of them? Get a shearer, which seems to defeat the purpose. Probably needs more thought.
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