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How NZ Farmers Shear 25,000 Sheep In 10 Days | Big Business - YouTube
Channel: Business Insider
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here in the new zealand countryside
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25 000 sheep are sheared in just
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10 days as a nightmare trying to keep
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the sheep still
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just got kicked in the face but a good
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shearer can share a sheep in a minute
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and the sheep won't even
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just sit there this wall normally would
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be cleaned dyed
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woven and sold across the globe as rugs
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and clothes
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but due to a growing dependence on
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synthetic fabrics
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and a trade war with china the value of
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wool has plummeted
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all of a sudden a key revenue to their
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business has just disappeared overnight
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and not only is the revenue gone it's
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actually turned into a cost
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and it's left farmers like andrew and
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meredith with bales and bales of wool
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they can't sell
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now farmers are basically giving it away
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or throwing it away
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so what happened
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back in the 1950s wool was basically
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like gold in new zealand
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farmers would produce one clip of wool
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and be able to pay off
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a whole piece of land like buy a farm
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outright that was the golden era for
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farmers in new zealand
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that's when andrew's grandparents bought
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ruinoy station here in taihappy new
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zealand
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i'm third generation it's great to carry
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on what dad and granddad have
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slaved away at doing andrew was working
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for his dad when the industry hit its
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peak in 1988
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with wool exports valuing 1.9 billion
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dollars
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that made wool new zealand's second
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biggest export after meat
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andrew took over the farm about 15 years
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ago and since he's grown it to about 7
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600 acres
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raising 25 000 sheep not a bad office
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when you get a view like this
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swimming awesome so quiet especially
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this time of the day it's beautiful
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andrew raises romney sheet their coarse
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wool has to be sheared twice a year
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for the sheep to stay healthy without
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taking the wool off they do get
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dags and sort of dirty bottoms and stuff
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like that and that can attract flies and
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if they attract flies flies can actually
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land on them and lay their eggs
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that will actually kill a shape also
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think about how hot a new zealand summer
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is
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in 90 degrees fahrenheit that wall it's
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like wearing a great big furry jacket in
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the middle of the summer
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if they're really really woolly when
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they lie down they get stuck on their
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back and they actually can't stand up
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again and they die
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seriously in january andrew staff heads
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out to round up sheep for the first
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shearing of the year
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basically all the mustering is done on
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horseback awesome dogs
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using 20 horses four atvs and eight dogs
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they gather up 3 600 sheep at a time
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they all have a couple of hitting dogs
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and
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some hunaways so the hitting dogs are
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used for just hitting the sheep and
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getting them going in the right
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direction and the hunaways
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are the ones that bark and move the
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stock along it's all done
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on whistle command leave a different
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whistle for
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left and right and stop and go
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got them heading the right way they'll
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start coming coming around and joining
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up with the other lock
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they're all rounded up into this shed
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last lot
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brought in from mustering they'll be
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drafted into their
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different lines the sheep are separated
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into groups
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lambs or babies and adult use or female
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sheep we've got the used wool here 36
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micron it's a lot coarser and harder
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so it's best used for flooring like
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carpets and rugs
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and then lambswool which is 29 micron
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it's a lot softer finer so it's better
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for blankets and clothes
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the sheep are each weighed and lined up
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for shearing andrew hired a gang of
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eight contract shearers for the job
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we're under the sharing shed right now
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which is pretty hot noisy and dusty
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and we're sharing about 2 000 sheep
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today
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the gang brings its own tools what
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you've got here is pretty much
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the same as what your barbers will have
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we call this a cutter at the top
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and the comb at the bottom which we put
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on every time it's just scissor action
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that goes across
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one by one travis will pull a lamb out
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so you'll start off with the belly it's
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easiest way to get that out of the way
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and then
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it's just a rhythm that you kind of want
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to do to get around the sheet and it's a
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pattern
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but you're basically just taking off as
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much wool as you can
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that cutter will last only about 15
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minutes before it gets dull
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sharpen the gear so just get a clean
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clean cut on the sheet
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[Music]
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but don't worry this doesn't hurt the
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sheep it is actually just a haircut for
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the sheep
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so you try and do every sheep the same
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it makes it easy on your body as well
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makes your sheep comfortable
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making sure that they're in the best
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state when they go out minimising this
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and controlling them properly
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it's a tough job shearing gangs work
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long hours in the heat
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wrestling with livestock oh you're right
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did you get a kick in the nose
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as a nightmare trying to keep the sheep
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still they kick and wriggle and stuff
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like that a good shearer could share a
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sheep
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in like one minute and to watch them do
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it is amazing they are so
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fast the more you do it the more
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experienced you are but at the start
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it's never easy it takes a big toll on
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your body and mind
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these guys are so good at taming sheep
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they can cheer over 300 in a day
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rouseys gather up the fleece and
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pressers squish it into huge bales
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200 kilos a bale in 2015 andrew would
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have sold a stock quickly
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for seven dollars a kilo but today i was
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just talking to the wall broker last
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night
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he sort of came back with a still at 20.
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i'm thinking oh god this is not
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this is not great when you add in the
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increasing costs of shearer contracts
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it's now more expensive to shear the
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sheep than the wool is actually worth
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i've um five years ago we might have
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been making
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net cost 50 or 60 000 revenue so it's
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gone from making 50
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to costing 30 so it's an 80 000 a year
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change
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it's so destroying to see the wool
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prices so low
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when it's the most amazing natural
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product
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so why is the wool worth so little well
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demand is way down because a few decades
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ago cheaper synthetic fabrics began
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replacing coarse wool in flooring
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products
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wool is biodegradable sustainable and
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fire resistant
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but it's expensive to be honest the
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average person can't afford 100 wool
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carpets
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synthetic rugs are made of plastic fiber
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so they're harmful for the environment
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and are highly flammable but they're a
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third of the price
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and their growing popularity took a huge
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swing at wool's demand
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then things got rocky with new zealand's
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biggest customer sixty percent of new
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zealand's wool goes to china
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andrew and meredith sold all of their
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lamb's wool to clothing factories there
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we do have a lot of our eggs in the
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chinese basket that proved to be a bad
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bet for new zealand
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they come in and they buy and they buy
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and they stop so our wool
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prices dive in 2016 china first pulled
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back its demand for coarse wool and the
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price tumbled
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in 2019 the trump administration slapped
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china with fresh tariffs on textiles
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sold in the u.s
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struggling to sell its manufactured wool
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clothes in the u.s
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china slowed its orders for new zealand
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wool that can cause all sorts of
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problems in supply chains
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and markets because all of a sudden
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you've got your major customer not
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wanting it
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then in 2020 the kovid 19 pandemic
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closed down clothing factories in china
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andrew and meredith were stuck with
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bales of wool so like many farmers in
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new zealand
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they stockpiled it waiting for prices to
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go back up
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but it can only be kept for about a year
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before it
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starts to deteriorate but a year into
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this pandemic
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and prices still haven't rebounded
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stockpiling didn't work
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some farmers were forced to throw away
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part of their wool stock
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others had to get creative meredith
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found tracy
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tracy takes the lamb's wool meredith
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couldn't sell and converts it into throw
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blankets
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these are the throws that were
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manufacturing for her to try and give
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them some added value to their fiber
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by getting it processed into yarn and
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then pressing this into throws which
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then they can sell for a high margin
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workers in wellington clean and dye the
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wool and then send it to tracy
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when the wool arrives we then warp it we
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then
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weave it you'd probably need to allocate
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a kilo per throw
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workers inspect and mend each throw by
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hand the blankets are then cleaned
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raised meaning fluffed up and then
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packaged
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even though there's growing interest for
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these throws online it's barely made a
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dent in andrew and meredith's losses
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tracy only buys their lamb's wool but
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the majority of andrew and meredith's
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output is coarse wool which is still
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caught up in trade wars
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to weather this storm some farmers are
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turning to breeds that shed their own
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wool
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to avoid those rising shearing costs
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others are pivoting to meat production
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or selling their farms to forestry and
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getting out of sheep farming altogether
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it would be a huge economic negative for
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our country if we saw the world industry
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disappear
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what's left is a once booming wool
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industry on the brink
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we've seen that sheep flock go from 17
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million to
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today we're about 20 22 million we're
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the last
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wool weaver in new zealand they used to
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be a scouring plant almost in every town
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farmers are hoping to expand exports
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outside of volatile china
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and convince consumers of the benefits
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of wool over synthetic
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a lot of consumers are now really
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starting to think about what's in the
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products they're buying and prepared to
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pay more for natural environmentally
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friendly products
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and tom says the industry needs to
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diversify you're not just dependent on a
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floor you can put wool
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through the whole house you can put
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walls through the whole office as well
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wall can be used in sofas
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beds drapes upholstery and even
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insulation
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we're pretty nervous really to be honest
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yeah and i think
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if we had a crystal ball that would be
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fantastic but
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nobody knows where things are headed for
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now andrew and meredith
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aren't abandoning the industry just yet
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at the end of the day you've still got
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to
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share the wall off them and that mars
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will be worth something so
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we'll hang in there and see whether we
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can ride the roller coaster
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so how many have you named no they're
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not they're not pets
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haven't named any of them
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