as a wool grower and one who works with wool (both on and off the sheep) on a daily basis AWI (Australian Wool Innovation) is providing me with a constant source of amusement. the sort of amusement generated by situations/experiences so bizarre that it's a case of you either cry, or laugh. so i opt for the latter. in the last edition of 'Beyond the Bale' there was a story about someone developing a brilliant new technique for digitally printing (look for pp 22 in the Dec-Jan 08 issue) on to wool for the American 'camouflage' market.
who needs a digital technique? i asked. I've been contact printing camouflage patterns from leaves to fabric for years and it doesn't need a machine or adjunct chemicals. it's a technique i've called the ecoprint which can use those by-products from tree-harvesting called leaves... but when I wrote to AWI about it they were supremely uninterested.
never mind, who wants to help Americans (or anyone else for that matter) go into the forests and shoot defenceless deer and wolves anyway.
and then in the current edition of BTB they showed a picture of a sheep that was described as being 'the answer to mulesing' the bare bits inside the hips aren't anything new....but the jolly thing has been tailstripped!!!!! this is a practice that is just as nasty as mulesing and i'm willing to bet that sheep wasn't born with a brazilian. someone is telling little fibbies here, aren't they? here's the picture, if you don't believe me.
and here's a detail
and here, for good measure, is the caption
but perhaps the most entertainment this month came in the form of a DVD ostensibly to help farmers deal with flystrike. helpfully labelled 'fighting flystrike'. as a tool for someone who is new to sheepwork, sure, it would probably be quite helpful. but to send this out to all of the shareholders in AWI is a joke. for the most part these are farmers who have been working with sheep all their lives. we don't need to have a special section with photographs on a DVD telling us how to identify flystrike for goodness sake. send these things to agricultural high schools, yes, but stop wasting the wool tax on producing nonsense, and start thinking more practically in terms of wool marketing.
after all wool is the natural fibre with all the qualities that the (polyester) synthetics have been trying to copy for years. it grows naturally on sheep and must be harvested annually to keep the sheep comfortable - and PETA can stop complaining about that, too. the reason sheep grow wool is because humans have actively selected them for these characteristics for over 4000 years. we're responsible. if we stop shearing just cos PETA says it's cruel, it will be far worse for the sheep. wool is a brilliant fibre, naturally grown, easily dyed, warm in winter, cool in summer, fire resistant, carbon-storing and a fantastic nitrogen-rich slow release fertilizer when it eventually gets too tatty to wear.
grown responsibly and processed with care wool is (along with with sustainably grown silk) an eco-fibre. we know this. AWI should be telling the world.
who needs a digital technique? i asked. I've been contact printing camouflage patterns from leaves to fabric for years and it doesn't need a machine or adjunct chemicals. it's a technique i've called the ecoprint which can use those by-products from tree-harvesting called leaves... but when I wrote to AWI about it they were supremely uninterested.
never mind, who wants to help Americans (or anyone else for that matter) go into the forests and shoot defenceless deer and wolves anyway.
and then in the current edition of BTB they showed a picture of a sheep that was described as being 'the answer to mulesing' the bare bits inside the hips aren't anything new....but the jolly thing has been tailstripped!!!!! this is a practice that is just as nasty as mulesing and i'm willing to bet that sheep wasn't born with a brazilian. someone is telling little fibbies here, aren't they? here's the picture, if you don't believe me.
and here's a detail
and here, for good measure, is the caption
but perhaps the most entertainment this month came in the form of a DVD ostensibly to help farmers deal with flystrike. helpfully labelled 'fighting flystrike'. as a tool for someone who is new to sheepwork, sure, it would probably be quite helpful. but to send this out to all of the shareholders in AWI is a joke. for the most part these are farmers who have been working with sheep all their lives. we don't need to have a special section with photographs on a DVD telling us how to identify flystrike for goodness sake. send these things to agricultural high schools, yes, but stop wasting the wool tax on producing nonsense, and start thinking more practically in terms of wool marketing.
after all wool is the natural fibre with all the qualities that the (polyester) synthetics have been trying to copy for years. it grows naturally on sheep and must be harvested annually to keep the sheep comfortable - and PETA can stop complaining about that, too. the reason sheep grow wool is because humans have actively selected them for these characteristics for over 4000 years. we're responsible. if we stop shearing just cos PETA says it's cruel, it will be far worse for the sheep. wool is a brilliant fibre, naturally grown, easily dyed, warm in winter, cool in summer, fire resistant, carbon-storing and a fantastic nitrogen-rich slow release fertilizer when it eventually gets too tatty to wear.
grown responsibly and processed with care wool is (along with with sustainably grown silk) an eco-fibre. we know this. AWI should be telling the world.
Dear Miss India
ReplyDeleteI have read this article several times and am no closer to understanding what they have done to that sheep but it looks nasty. My knowledge of sheep is limited as you might have already garnered. We are back at school and ready for a fresh year of learning and creating. In this context I realise that week at Summer School helped ground me for the year ahead. Keep writing and inspiring. I can't wait for your book. I have tried to make those eucalyptus prints but failed. Cleo has done some great samples and created a wonderful book. Thank you for your kind feedback too.
the wool-bearing skin around the tail has been peeled away and sliced off, without the luxury of anaesthesia.
ReplyDeletewe control flystrike by regular crutching and dagging, there's no need for mulesing or tailstripping (and those sheep can get just as blown, anyway)
what bugged me was the claim that this was a new type of sheep, when it had clearly been surgically interfered with.
the wool-bearing skin around the tail has been peeled away and sliced off, without the luxury of anaesthesia.
ReplyDeletewe control flystrike by regular crutching and dagging, there's no need for mulesing or tailstripping (and those sheep can get just as blown, anyway)
what bugged me was the claim that this was a new type of sheep, when it had clearly been surgically interfered with.