Superfine wool grower Lesley Prior from Devon, England, is presently in Australia to participate in next week's International Wool Textile Organisation congress in Adelaide, visit Merino studs and attend industry events with the aim of increasing her knowledge and management skills.
Ms Prior initially took on a research flock from a failed Scottish government project, that was trying to create a fine woolled "hill sheep".
Many years of work had produced a small, unthrifty, unproductive animal with no commercial future. Quickly realising she had made a serious mistake, she switched to Australian genetics, with the help of contacts made via Australian Wool Innovation.
Twenty years on, she has a commercially viable flock of pure Australian Merinos, well suited to the conditions in the United Kingdom and northern Europe.
Farms are small in Devon so her operation, Tellenby, runs 300 open faced and plain bodied super fine ewes, with a micron ranging from 13.5 to 17.2, and average fleece weights of 3.8 kilograms on a 10-month shearing.
The standard reference body weight of the Tellenby ewes is 52 kilograms and lambing percentages for mature ewes averages 175 per cent and maiden ewes about 130pc.
Devon remains a challenging area to run Merinos with an 850 millimetre average rainfall, predominantly falling in winter.
The sheep stay inside unless the weather is dry and mild enough for day release. They are always housed at night to make sure they get enough feed. The pasture growth shuts down in the winter while the UK has strict environmental rules.
Ms Prior says sheep farmers are not allowed to "trash" the ground with animal hooves or they face fines from government agencies.
Lambing happens inside after winter, in individual pens. Ewes go out with lambs after 48 hours but will come in at night for first six weeks to avoid predation.
Fleece weights are rising. The aim is 10pc bodyweight in fleece per ewe annually and they are constantly weighing, measuring and comparing results, Ms Prior said.
"Crimp is key, we don't want to lose that unique style," she said.
Ms Prior has to market her own wool, as they do not have a brokerage system in the UK for Merino wool.
The market is set up solely for the 80-plus UK sheep types, producing mainly coarse carpet wools.
There is also no market for surplus Merino sheep in the UK, so Lesley sells her sheep and genetics to Europe where there are the remains of some old historic Merino flocks still in existence. Cull sheep do find a market but it's poor, compared with British meat breed culls.
The enterprise rests mainly on the back of the wool income.
Tellenby wool is sold to a European wool processor and Ms Prior links the processor with various wool brands and they work together to spin the wool to their required specifications.
This enables her to see and admire the garments made from her own wool. The necks, bellies and pieces go to Nepal for processing into felt.
When speaking of Australia, Ms Prior says apart from the genetics, the main thing she gains is information and friendship.
She has visited Australia many times and always taken the opportunity to learn from whoever will spend time talking to her.
Ms Prior has been a member of the Australian Superfine Wool Growers Association for several years and, last year, became the first international member of the Australian Association of Stud Merino Breeders.
Both of these are sources of great pride to her and provide good support and help.
In return, she works whenever requested to help any group that asks, which has included AWI/Woolmark in Europe with promoting Australian Merino.
She has spoken at events in many places in UK and Europe, hosted fashion shoots on farm for European brands working with Woolmark, and even taken Merinos to London when Australian sheep have been requested at events.
Ms Prior tries not to think about the future.
She says agriculture is going through massive changes in the UK and Europe and they are "living on a knife edge".
She hopes the sheep will still be on her Westcott Farm in five to 10 years, but says nothing is certain.
