I recently had the utmost pleasure attending the 10th World Congress on Coloured Sheep held in Christchurch, New Zealand November 12-15, 2024. The Congress was centered around presentations by attendees, from industry and academia to personal projects that involve colored sheep and wool. We were also treated to a day at the Christchurch Agricultural and Pastoral show as well as a fashion show of wool clothing and wearable art- mainly showcasing natural colored wool, of course!
The Congress was directly followed by a weeklong bus tour of the south island that granted us lovely scenery - the entire time - and included visits to sheep farms, fiber mills, sightseeing locations, and concluded with a personal tour by the Ashford fiber equipment factory (if you are in fiber arts, yes- that Ashford!) by Richard and Elizabeth Ashford themselves.
The Christchurch show boasted about 75 natural colored sheep. It was surprising how different their class divisions are from what we are used to in the USA: there are only two age groups - either under or over 18 months old. For the over 18 months age group, sheep may either be shown “wooly” (approximately 12 months’ wool growth) or “shorn” (approximately 6 months’ wool growth). Either way, the judge gets to see and judges heavily on the wool. Also very different from US norms, ewes being shown in the 18 months or older class are expected to bring their lamb(s) alongside and they are judged as a set where the quality of the lambs makes up a large part of the ewe’s placing. There is no maximum age for an animal to qualify for the show. But possibly the most eye-opening part of the show was that all sheep in a given class are first let loose in the ring to move freely amongst themselves for several minutes as the judge evaluates their movement uninhibited by a handler. Yes, there was as much chaos as you are imagining for the ewe with lambs class! More sheep show surprises for me were that the sheep may not be coated leading up to or during the show, no fitting was allowed, and the handler in the ring may not touch the legs or feet to influence how the sheep stands. Despite my obvious naivety of their show etiquette, Will Gibson of Bluestone Stud graciously let me help show a couple of his merinos - a real highlight of the trip for me!
Along with the sheep show, the Christchurch A&P show also holds a fleece competition. About 100 white fleeces and 35 natural colored fleeces were on display. All fleeces entered get graded based on a very specific rubric, and are tested for yield and fiber diameter. Merino fleeces dominated the entries by number, but a black polwarth fleece from Chudleigh took the natural colored top honors, and a white Matakanui polwarth won the supreme fleece in the white wool show. Luckily for us we got to visit both farms that produced these fleeces on our bus tour just a few days later.
Our first stop on the tour was to Greenacres Fibre Processing, owned and run by Leo and Karen Ponsonby. They run a flock of natural colored romney, corriedale, merino, and polwarth sheep. Leo processes wool in small batches from his own flock as well as for nearby producers. His willingness and ability to handle small batches addresses a big pain-point for many of the flock owners that we spoke with on the trip: they might like to get their wool processed but either cannot meet the minimum batch requirements of larger mills that have remained open in New Zealand, or the infrequency of colored wool processing runs (offered only every 2 years or more due to the equipment cleaning time before white wool can go back through) greatly limits the flow of their products.
Next we met David and Viv Strong of Chudleigh Polwarths. They aim for 21-25 micron fleeces in their mainly natural colored flock, and had their recently crowned supreme champion colored fleece on display in their wool shed along with some other beautiful fleeces from their very successful program.
The rest of the day took us through high, rocky Mackenzie County to idyllic Lake Tekapo and a beautiful bronze statue in recognition of border collie dogs, “without the help of which the grazing of this mountain country would be impossible.” Just a bit further down the road we were treated to a sweeping vista across lake Pukaki towards the Southern Alps. Our timing was perfect- just as we had climbed out of the bus the clouds parted to reveal the towering, snow-covered peak of Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. It truly is as spectacular as the pictures and movies depict.
Day two of the tour brought us to Tarras, a high-country town that is surrounded by merino stations and, incidentally, is where the famous Shrek the Sheep lived. There we met Christina Perriam whose family owns and runs the nearby Bendigo station. Her entrepreneurial mother inspired and encouraged her to expand the family business, and so she received a degree in fashion design and created her own 100% New Zealand-made merino wool clothing lines.
Our next farm visit was to the sweeping Matakanui station that covers nearly 9000 hectares, rising from flat, tillable pastures to the high, hilly country of the Dunstan mountains. By gradually improving their pasture land, they have been able to increase their flock size and currently run around 20,000 white polwarth sheep and 1,100 cattle. Owners Andrew and Tracy Paterson have been focusing on setting up long term contracts with wool buyers so that they have a reliable income from their 19-23 micron wool clip. They currently have contracts with Icebreaker and Smartwool for wool as well as high-end meat seller Silere. The sheer amount of logistics and infrastructure needed to run a station of this size was simply astounding, from their 7-stand woolshed and covered yards that can hold 3000 sheep to the casual way Andrew described their plans to build a hydro plant, solar farm, and add kilometers of irrigation lines. Two additional highlights that made this day truly unforgettable were: our plucky bus driver Ross fearlessly following Andrew’s ute (aka, a small pickup truck) up and up a tiny, steep, winding gravel track to the airstrip from which all the land in sight was Matakanui (we promised him no photos of the bus up there that could get him in trouble!) and being invited into the Patersons’ stately 100-year old house for a homecooked lunch- truly exemplars of Kiwi hospitality!
The view from the Matakanui airstrip (from left: me, my brother, and parents), and Andrew Paterson shows us his stud ram group and how he uses ASBVs right there in the sheep yards.
We continued south through exceptionally scenic country towards Gore with a stop at Norham Park Romney Stud, where Julie Howden shared with us her flock of polled dorsets and natural colored romneys. They also overwinter deer and cattle for neighbors. Julie treated us to a shearing demo and a presentation from a nearby farm on how they had entered into growing hemp for oil and had learned how to make value-added products from that.
The next day of the tour brought us to Will Gibson’s Bluestone Coloured Merino Stud. Will’s lifelong interest and passion for breeding livestock led him to work for a genetics consulting firm and he has been heavily incorporating the use of Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) into his own flock planning and selection. In addition to the colored flock, Will also runs a group of ultrafine white merinos, whose wool clip is sold to ultra-high end fashion designers. He has been working towards growing enough extremely high quality natural colored merino wool to sell commercially, but it’s been a challenge to scale up to the volume required by bigger contracts that will make the plan more viable. There has been lots of interest though, so the future looks bright for natural colored wool making an entry into the commercial clothing manufacturing world. Will had also invited fashion designer Jane Shand to our visit. Jane has been working with Will for over 15 years, buying as much as a ton of his colored wool at a time, to create 100% New Zealand-made natural colored wool accessories. After ogling his breeding rams and some beautiful merino fleeces in the wool shed, some as fine as 12 microns, Will gave us a demonstration of how he uses RFID tags (required only for cattle and deer in NZ) and his management software to track and enter data on sheep as they come through the yards. In addition to culling heavily for footrot and worm resistance, he also scores his flock on color and spots since for his line of black wool, he does not want the wool handlers having to spend time sorting fleeces by color at shearing time. As a merino breeder myself, no amount of time spent at Bluestone could possibly have been enough and they had to practically drag me back onto the bus to continue our trip!
That night we stayed in the steampunk-themed town of Oamaru, which is also the site of a blue penguin colony. After shopping the local yarn store, the evening’s activity was to watch hundreds of these tiny penguins group up into “rafts” offshore then surf in and climb the steep rocky beach up to the safety of their nests overnight. There were so many penguins along the streets on our walk home to the hotel it was hardly believable - it really highlighted the lack of native predators that is so hard for a New Zealand “outsider” to comprehend. This absence of predators was also apparent in flock management. The only predators in New Zealand are domestic dogs and cats, so besides a stray dog there is nothing that would pose a threat to sheep. Livestock guardian dogs are not needed, nor is 24/7 shepherding. As we drove by pastures I would frequently see sheep sleeping flat-out, apparently having lost the need for constant vigilance over generations of living without the threat of predation.
The last day of our bus tour was bittersweet, with all of us trying to make the most of the last moments we had together. Our first stop was Fine Fibre farms, owned by Stuart and Sue Albrey, who were also two of the event organizers whom we had to thank for putting together this unforgettable trip. Stuart and Sue raise natural colored merinos, polwarths, and English leicesters on about 125 acres in the Canterbury district. They work with local mills to create combed top, worsted-spun yarn, and handcrafted items out of their wool.
We continued north along the east coast of the island to Timaru, home of Phoenix mill. In a talk to the congress before the tour, Beverly Forrester, one of six owners, had shared the story of the challenges of starting up a large-scale mill. Their business’ aim is to process New Zealand crossbred wool so that farmers get a better price for their non-merino wool clip, and to replace petroleum-based products with a wool alternative. They are currently making felt landscape fabric and small balls of semi-felted wool called “knops” that are great for stuffing and bedding. They have plans for many more product types as their equipment arrives and processing lines are set up.
The town of Ashburton just south of Christchurch marked the last stop on our comprehensive and whirlwind tour- Ashford fiber equipment. Richard and Elizabeth Ashford were on hand to answer any of our questions as we perused their store, and then they took us on a personalized tour of the manufacturing facility. Ashford equipment is made from native beech wood that is sustainably harvested from the south island. They also process 20-25 tons of New Zealand wool in their Milton mill annually. The scale and efficiency of the equipment factory was truly remarkable and their devotion to quality, reliability, and durability was clearly seen.
This trip was easily some of the most impactful and meaningful times of my life. New Zealanders are so clearly passionate about sheep and wool. Even with the challenges of low wool prices, they are looking at ways to add value to their wool including forward contracting, creating clothing lines and new products, working directly with local mills and diversifying into other natural fibers. A little ingenuity and passion are going a long way! So many people came together to make this not only possible, but to make it look easy and they have my most sincere gratitude. To Stuart Albrey, Steve Clarkson, Lynley Coffey, Anita Erskine, Leo Ponsonby, Bev Forrester, each and every stop along the tour, and all of their support behind the scenes, thank you so much- the experience you gave us was such a wonderful gift. Special thanks also to our intrepid bus driver Ross who took the bus places no bus had ever gone, or is likely to ever go again.
The World Congress on Colored Sheep will be held next in 2029, with final dates and location pending but I have tentatively taken on the role of organizing for it to be held in the USA. Keep an eye out for an official announcement!
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