Frank Film: Our Golden Fleece - can strong wool make a comeback?

Once upon a time, strong wool was a moneymaker for New Zealand. It was the golden fleece, with farmers rumoured to have paid off their mortgages in one wool clip during the boom of the 1950s.

Retired fourth-generation sheep farmer Murray Urquhart remembers family tales from the notorious boom. "My uncle was the biggest single taxpayer in Canterbury for three years in a row," Murray tells Frank Film, explaining that this was mostly because the US Army needs to keep their soldiers warm during the Korean War.

These days, though, it's costing many farmers more to shear their strong wool sheep than they can get back for the wool itself. As Highfield Station farmer Michael Northcote points out, wool has almost become a by-product of meat - a nuisance, even.

"Because there's just no money in it," Michael says. "It costs us $9.30 per sheep to shear them, and we'd probably end up getting about $8 to $9 worth of wool."

Today, it's only the wool from our Merino sheep and other finer wool breeds which are fetching farmers a decent price. These breeds, with their thinner, softer fibres, make up only a small percentage of the national flock, but contribute to a large part of the market.
More on that later, though.

The wool Michael is talking about is strong wool - also known as coarse wool, for its thick fibres. Of the 26 million odd sheep in New Zealand, 80 per cent are strong wool sheep. They're well-suited to most of the country's climate and are bred more for their meat than their fleece.

So what happened to the market for strong wool? In short, synthetics. As Hadleigh Smith from The NZ Merino Company explains, plastics took over everything. Strong wool, which is warm, fire resistant, water-repellent and naturally sourced, was squeezed out by a cheaper counterpart. "After the glory days of the 50s and 60s, there was a boom in synthetic production, and that material has been used everywhere, from flooring through to fabrics and in clothing," says Hadleigh, whose role as market development manager for strong wool necessitates an intimate knowledge of its history.

So all this has put strong wool in dire straits. But with demand for natural fibres on the rise, there's a movement to save it. NZ Merino, among other organisations, is turning its attention to strong wool. This renaissance, as Hadleigh says, may well be similar to the merino success story. "Our Merino growers were really struggling [20 years ago]," he tells Frank Film, explaining that the industry came together to create a higher market value for their product and give farmers more certainty. This was mainly through the production, branding and marketing of high-end outdoor clothing, with brands like Icebreaker.

According to Hadleigh, the future of strong wool depends on the same kind of innovation - and it's a future he firmly believes in. He's not the only one. Bremworth carpets have switched from synthetics back to 100 per cent wool, which CEO Greg Smith says is in response to increasing consumer demand. "The synthetic carpet that we made doesn't go away, it just ends up in landfill. That is a problem," Greg says. "Wool's the best fibre for carpet, it's as simple as that."

Others are pushing it further. Inventor and entrepreneur Logan Williams is on a mission to replace plastic with wool. Through his development of strong wool polymers, Logan has been working with NZ Merino to create woollen kayaks, chilly bins and knives. Starting with the humble beginnings of a toastie machine, Logan melted down wool with PLA, a bio-plastic made from cornstarch.

"It looked like a piece of naan bread," he confesses, but this rough start quickly evolved into the pellets of industrially compostable plastic-like material which he now sells to manufacturers under his company Shear Edge. Meanwhile, Wool Source, a subsidiary of Wool Research NZ, is busy breaking wool down into fine pigments which can be used in lipsticks, shampoos and other cosmetics.

So while the price is still low, there's no shortage of believers. Michael at Highfield Station is one of many loyal farmers with wool in their blood, and he says he has every confidence that strong wool will come back. "We will stick with it," Michael says. "It's a hell of a good product and it's totally undervalued."