Meet the farmers on a mission to save New Zealand wool

Photo / File

Amy Blaikie and Georgie McGregor have a couple of things in common - they’re both Otago sheep and beef farmers and they’re both passionate about wool.

In fact, the two women are so enthusiastic about the wonders of wool, they've each started separate campaigns to encourage the rest of New Zealand to get in behind their cause.

READ MORE • Petition calls on Government to use more wool • Rock bottom crossbred wool prices pose dilemma for farmers

Last week Catlins farmer Blaikie launched a petition asking the Government to make sure all publicly funded buildings and KiwiBuild homes were built or refurbished with New Zealand wool carpet and insulation.

The petition has collected 4954 signatures so far and closes on July 31.

The reasoning behind the petition was pretty simple, Blaikie told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

"Wool's a bloody great thing".

It was "crazy" that the Government wasn't already using an environmentally friendly, natural product such as wool and supporting New Zealand businesses in the process, said Blaikie.

“[Wool’s] amazing, it’s renewable, it keeps growing and it can get recycled back into the environment, it rots down and fertilises the ground again - apparently it even stores carbon”.

Meanwhile McGregor, who farms at Macraes Flat, has set up a Facebook group called NZ Wool Products, to get the word out about local companies that make woollen items.

NZ Wool Products was a spur-of-the-moment decision, created after McGregor searched for a wool duvet online. She asked for recommendations from other Facebook groups and was impressed with the results.

Inspired by what was on offer, McGregor then emailed 100 different companies that create products from wool and invited them to join the page.

"There's many more out there than I thought there would be and it's so exciting to see the different range of things that they're producing that I had no idea about".

The reaction so far was “amazing”, said McGregor.

"We've only really been going a couple of days and we've got 1300 followers at the moment and it's just growing every minute".

Both women hope their efforts will help out New Zealand's wool industry - especially the beleaguered crossbred market - and raise awareness of an environmentally friendly product that is locally produced and can create jobs.

“It seems obvious!” Blaikie said.