Connemara sheep farmers are getting fleeced on wool prices – with a kilo fetching just one quarter of the going rate on the other side of the county.

Not that farmers in East Galway are getting rich from wool sale either; because while a kilo of wool from the hills of Connemara is worth a paltry five cents, even the 20 cents paid for the lowland wool in the premier farm fields is a poor return.

It doesn’t pay the cost of shearing the sheep.

Michael Haverty, the manager of Connacht Wool in Tuam, remembers stories in the east of the county about farmers who saved the wool money for two or three years and bought a tractor.

Now, the new world of synthetic clothing has changed all of that – but still, the softer and more pliable wool from lowland sheep will give a better return.

“You can only use the mountain wool for products like carpets and the demand has dropped in recent years,” he says.

John Staunton, an agricultural advisor from Connemara, puts it down to the breed.

“The wool from east Galway and the lowlands sheep was always more valuable on the markets,” he says.

“The black-faced sheep can live on the mountain and tolerate the harsh climate and limited grazing on the hills.  But their genetics mean that they do not produce the fine fleeces; it is a coarse and rugged coat that does not translate well into fine clothing”.

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