The hide is removed from the carcase at the early stage of the processing system and is taken separately from the factory floor, as it is considered a dirty product at the entrance point to what is effectively a sterile food manufacturing environment. However, just because the hide is taken away from the slaughter hall to a skip in a yard doesn’t mean it is not valuable.

Different parts of the hide are used for different things. For example, the belly is typically sold for industrial glove manufacture and the neck part used for top-end designer belt manufacture.

A further option for hide use is in the luxury car market. For example, hides tanned with an aluminium-based tannage gives a white effect, as opposed to the chrome-based tannage which produces a blue hide prior to dying it with a finished colour. Ultimately, there is a multitude of uses for the leather that originates in the animals' hide, involving different processes depending on the finished use for the leather and the quality of the original hide.

Depending on the type of leather being produced, the curing can more than 10 weeks and involve a multitude of chemical processes, mechanical procedures and several spray point processes.

It is not uncommon for the processes to be carried out across several sites in different countries before the finished leather product is shipped to an end user. Producing a stronger and harder leather, typically used for shoe soles, involves a much longer process. Hides are dipped in tanks for up to 15 months, followed by a month for further processing before they are ready.

Below you can see a diagram of all the different parts of a hide and what they are used for:

Key points

  • Irish hides are towards the top end of the market, but prevented from being top because of our small field structure, which causes scratch marks and manure attachment to hides, particularly during winter months.
  • Tanning hides no longer happens in Ireland, even though it was historically a small, local industry in many towns.
  • Italy is the centre of the European industry, but China’s importance is growing, now taking a quarter of Irish and UK production.
  • Lamb skins are traded to Turkey and China.
  • This is an excerpt from an article first published in the Irish Farmers Journal in June 2015.