Local Focus: Desperately seeking sheep dags in Hawke's Bay

Philippa Wright of Wright Wool is suffering a a shortage of daggy wool.

Daggy wool is in short supply after a dry summer, says Philippa Wright of Wright Wool.

"In Hawke's Bay last year we were stuck with a pretty bad drought, meaning there wasn't a lot of food, meaning the animals didn't produce the dags in the same quantities," she said.

Wright Wool wants daggy wool because after it is dried and crushed, the poo is separated out to be made into fertiliser tablets, leaving good wool behind.

"The dag manure has become a premium product for the likes of Tui who make them into sheep pellets.

"They have discovered that sheep pellets are by far one of the best fertilisers. The wool fibre that is left in it is adding protein, adding nutrients and it is also adding moisture retention," she said.

"If you have a garden full of dag manure, when it rains it is going to retain the moisture in the garden that much better and it will work better with the plants.

"But the protein in the wool fibre - in the wool itself - is probably even better than the manure. It is in extreme demand."

Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway said shearing sheep was an expense to farmers because of the low wool price on offer.

With daggy wool worth only a fraction of clean wool, he had placed his farm's daggy wool on riparian plantings.

Some farmers have reportedly dumped daggy wool rather than prepare it for supply by spreading it out to dry.

Wright Wool is primarily a wool broker and Wright says farmers must persevere with low wool prices or risk losing the entire industry.

"The biggest fear for me is to lose the use of the wool and to lose the use of the manure, because it is so easily replicated with synthetics.

"I don't want to see that happen because that is why the wool industry is in the situation that it is, because of synthetics.

"So I want to maintain those avenues for our product. And that's going to be a bit of pain for everybody."

Wright Wool is actively advertising for more daggy wool with the tagline "Desperately Seeking Dry Dags".

Farmers can drop off their dags to Wright Wool in Waipukurau or arrange collection.

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