We are a social enterprise formed through a passion for yarn, we use our profits to improve mental health and well-being, reduce social isolation and support and develop training and employment within the yarn and textile industries.

We are currently being funded by Creative Catalyst and NI Future Screens to explore methods of processing lower value fleeces into a sustainable product such as insulation or felt fabric and then we hope to be able to establish a processing mill over the coming year. To assess the business viability of this and it's environmental impact we are asking sheep farmers across NI for some information on current sheep fleece values and what sheep breeds they work with. We hope to eventually add to the processing mill to be able to make fine yarns too so all information is relevant at this point. We want to find a solution to the problem we see where sheep farmers spend more shearing than they can recoup on fleece value, all information will be treated as commercially sensitive and dealt with in the strictest confidence. In our reporting we will not identify individuals we will use only quotes and statistics.

We do ask you to provide name, address and email as this will be important for us if we do proceed to opening a mill to be able to make contact with local farmers easily. If you do not wish to provide this information it is not essential.

Thank you for your participation, we would much appreciate if you can share the link with fellow farming contacts so that we can reach as many as we possibly can.

Question Title

* 1. Name

Question Title

* 2. Address

Question Title

* 3. How many sheep do you have?

Question Title

* 4. What breeds do you work with?

Question Title

* 5. Do you know the staple length/micron value of the fleeces you get?

Question Title

* 6. Do you know the current market value of your fleeces per KG?

Question Title

* 7. What do you currently do with your fleeces once shearing has taken place?

Question Title

* 8. How much do you spend on shearing?

Question Title

* 9. If you sell your fleeces, do you receive

Question Title

* 10. How many KG of fleece do you produce each year?

Question Title

* 11. If you do not currently sell your fleeces due to low market value, would you be prepared to sell them to a processing mill for the costs of your shearing plus a set cost/KG?

Question Title

* 12. Would you be prepared to add different breeds to your flock if it added value to the fleece and there was somewhere local to process the fleeces for yarn?

Question Title

* 13. Would you like to see a facility developed within NI which could process fleeces into a commercially viable by-product?

Question Title

* 14. Do you currently use paint to mark your sheep?

Question Title

* 15. If you currently use paint would you consider other alternatives if it meant your fleeces would increase in value if they could be used for yarn?

Question Title

* 16. Would you like to be kept informed of the outcomes of our research and development of our proposals to establish a fleece processing facility?

Question Title

* 17. Can you identify any negative impacts of introducing a fleece processing facility, bearing in mind, all environmental impacts will be researched and steps taken to ensure environmental impacts are reduced to an absolute minimum?

Question Title

* 18. Do you have any other comments you wish to make at this stage on the current arrangements for buying/selling fleeces, or our proposals to establish a fleece processing facility?

T