The Scottish Sheep & Soils Wool Pellet Mill Project has secured a grant from The Naturesave Trust towards the purchase of a mill that can turn locally grown sheep’s wool into a natural fertiliser and soil conditioner.
Part-funded also by Perth and Kinross Council, this farmer-led project focuses on the immediate and long-term benefits of sheep’s wool for soil health in efforts to combat UK soil degradation, organic matter loss, drought/flooding and soil compaction.
Above the soil, this project supports the community of sheep farmers in Scotland by creating—and putting a baseline in—a market for waste wools. Below the soil, wool pellets work by slowly releasing micronutrients and Nitrogen and positively impact soil structure by aerating the soil as pellets expand on contact with water. Wool being carbon rich, this project is assessing the ability of wool pellets to be a leading contributor in carbon sequestration as well as improving and safeguarding soils for future generations.
Amy Reid, project co-ordinator says: “We believe new domestic outlets for wool need to be developed to maximise this fibre’s potential as a soil conditioner and large carbon sink and to increase the sustainability of domestic sheep-meat production by utilising the secondary product of wool in value-adding contexts.
“Whilst fine wools produced in the UK can be used in textiles, parts of fine wool fleeces such as skirts (hip wool) and bellies as well as the large volume of wool not suitable for textiles requires a different outlet.
“The increasing number of wool pellet mills in the USA, Canada and Italy amongst other countries around the world as well as research on wool’s impact on soils and crops is promising and we are excited to be developing this process within Scottish agriculture. Our thanks are to The Naturesave Trust for making this project possible.”
Perthshire Pellet Mill is an agri-environmental farm diversification project that makes a natural soil conditioner from locally grown sheep’s wool. You can learn more about their farm and mill story here
