WOOL prices are rising and sheep are sweltering because of a lack of sheep shearers.
Australian and New Zealand shearers who traditionally come to the UK to shear flocks are staying away because of the value of sterling and tough new rules on getting work visas.
The price of wool has already risen from 71p a kilogramme to 78p acco
rding to the Wool Marketing Board as sheep farmers have struggled to find the shearers they need. And experts have warned that the problem is about to get worse.
Traditionally, teams of shearers from Australia and New Zealand work half the year in the Southern Hemisphere and then head for Europe from April to August. Their "European tour" involves them starting in France and Spain, where sheep are shorn earliest, moving north via the UK and ending the season in Iceland, before heading back home for the Antipodean summer.
Will Dickson, the chairman of the Scottish Shearing Association, said: "It's getting more difficult, and we are only just seeing the beginning of the problem. It's going to get worse in the coming years because there aren't the young people coming into shearing. What is happening is that farmers have to do a lot more phoning around in order to get shearers, and then they have to wait longer for them.
"The Kiwis always used to come and help out, but now we are competing with other countries for the workers and the strength of the pound is not helping us, it's not as attractive for them to come and work here."
Shearers working north of the border typically earn about 65p per sheep and can shear about 200 a day.
They typically retire in their late thirties after about 15 years travelling the world plying their trade.
John Scott, the former president of the National Farmers' Union of Scotland and now an MSP, said: "It might surprise many people, but there is a high rate of burnout among sheep shearers, just like among City workers. It's a very intense year-round job. They are always on the move, there's a quite a drinking culture and they need to be very fit to shear quickly enough to make the money. After about 40, they are struggling."
Sheep shearing is more than a matter of getting the wool off to sell. The animals need to be shorn for their own welfare and will suffer in the heat.
In addition, when a sheep carries a heavy fleece it is unable to keep clean, and excrement clings to its coat, resulting in sometimes fatal maggot infestation.
