Sheep shearing and wool production

Sheep shearing and wool production has been an important part of the UK's sheep industry over the last six thousand years. The earliest sheep had pigmented coats and moulted allowing farmers to collect the fallen wool but as time went on breeds developed with improved wool characteristics. By the middle ages wool was the UK's most important output, being exported throughout Europe. Later, as exports declined, production was used domestically in the fast growing cloth industries where technological advance fuelled the industrial revolution and the move from an agrarian to urban society. Today the UK remains an important producer (7th largest in the world) exporting around one third of the annual 60,000 tonne clip. However, with wool prices at about 50 pence per kilogram the value of the raw wool that is exported is little more than £10 million and for most farmers the value of the wool does not cover the cost of shearing.