Sheep farmers in Northern Ireland (NI) and the border counties who sell their wool through British Wool (formerly known as the British Wool Marketing Board) will be dealing with a slightly different entity going forward after a decision to re-brand the organisation locally as Ulster Wool.

The change, announced today (Thursday), is part of a number of initiatives designed to increase market share in NI, where the organisation faces competition from wool buyers based in the Republic of Ireland. While Ulster Wool receives the vast majority of wool available close to its grading depot at Muckamore in Co Antrim, in the border counties, significant numbers of sheep producers are selling their wool elsewhere.

As a result, Ulster Wool intend opening an intermediate depot west of the Bann as part of a trial in 2018. A site is yet to be confirmed, but a preferred location is probably in the north Tyrone area given the high density of sheep in the surrounding region. Producers who take their wool direct to a depot do not incur a collection charge that would apply on farm.

New entrants

The other initiative is designed to attract new entrants into sheep farming. At present, the payment made to existing suppliers includes an advance of 27p/kg based on this years’ supply, plus a balance payment based on what was supplied in the previous year.

If that system is applied to new entrants, it means that they would receive only a fraction of the value of the wool in the first year.

To help correct that situation, the change will see a 100% up-front payment made in the first two years of sheep production. Over the next three years, new entrants will then gradually move over to the existing system.

For the purposes of the scheme, new entrants are defined as those who have not had sheep in the past five years, and have not previously been registered with British Wool.

New chair

In NI, the organisation collects and grades around 1.2m kg of wool each year. The newly branded Ulster Wool will be chaired by Brendan Kelly, a beef and sheep farmer in Co Antrim who was recently elected to represent NI on the board of British Wool. He takes up the position on 1 April, replacing Dungiven farmer Ian Buchanan, who has served for four three-year terms, the last term being as chair of British Wool.

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