MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands produced 1.700 tons of wool, says 2015/16 Farming Statistics

There are currently 479,652 sheep on the Falklands with 143,247 being run on the FIH farms of Goose Green (pic)(77,862), North Arm (48,630) and Fitzroy (16,755)

Falkland Islands farmers produced 1.7 million kilos of wool last year and also provided 44,000 sheep to the abattoir, according to the 2015/16 Farming Statistics recently compiled by the Department of Agriculture. This work was carried out by just 281 people recorded as living on the farms; 151 on the East, 105 on the West and just 25 scattered around the 11 farms on outer islands.

 There are currently 479,652 sheep on the Islands with 143,247 being run on the Falkland Landholdings farms of Goose Green (77,862), North Arm (48,630) and Fitzroy (16,755) representing more than half the sheep on East Falkland (total 278,473).

The next biggest farm on the East, producing 43,221 kilos of wool from 9,302 sheep was Gibraltar Station owned by the Pitaluga family with a well above average fleece weight of 4.65 kilos and just less than than Brookfield whose sheep produced a massive average of 5.41kilos

Berkeley Sound (formerly Johnson Hbr) owned by Jan Cheek and managed by Lee Molkenbuhr was snapping at their heels though, with 38,000 kilos of wool from 9,040 shorn sheep, but lost some ground with a slightly lower average fleece weight of 4.2 kilos.

Two thirds of the 39 farms on the East supplied 30,876 sheep to the Sand Bay Abattoir. With FLH’s recent cut back on supply, just over half of these were from Goose Green, North Arm and Fitzroy.

On the West the Lee family owned Port Howard with some 39,000 sheep is still the largest farm producing 134,444 kilos of wool with an average fleece weight of 3.78 kilos; just below the West Falkland average of 3.86 kilos.

Kenneth and Josie Mckay have also had a good season at the Green Hill shearing 10,357 sheep with a whopping average fleece weight of 4.09 kilos.

But the rousies (wool handlers) would have worked even harder at Rueben Harwood’s Rum Station where he clipped a massive average of 5.23 kilos from his 734 sheep.

Also producing average clips of 4.40 kilos and above were The Peaks, Shallow Harbor, Dunnose Head and Coast Ridge as well as Lakelands Farm.

The smaller islands however maintain the tradition of producing the weightiest fleeces with Great and Swan clocking up a hefty average of 8.32 kilos and Weddell 5.65 kilos.

Pebble Island produced the most wool from the outer islands with 28,560 kilos from their 7,141 sheep with the George Island Group producing 23,893 kilos from 5,046 sheep.

But it is not all about sheep and wool in Falklands farming nowadays, with a firm shift on some farms towards supplying beef to the abattoir with a total of 600 beasts dispatched from farms last year and some 3,196 cattle now grazing Island wide.

FLH’s North Arm continues to be the top supplier sending 113 down the road, but Paul and Shula Phillips at Hope Cottage supplied 72 and Hew Grierson at Blue Beach 44 of the 411 animals from the East.

Port Howard was predictably the biggest supplier from the West sending 53 animals across the Sound , while the Hirtles at the Peaks sent 32 and Leicester Creek farmer Justin Knight sent 22. Rodney Lee of White Rock concentrates solely on cattle and sent 29 animals. (Penguin News).