Studio Wool
Slovak Sheep Farms
The history of sheep breeding in Slovakia reaches to 15th century when the increasing amount of incoming sheep farmers (Wallachians) from abroad were colonising Slovak land. The importance of these breeders and the whole Walachian way of life was strengthened when the formal ruler Matej Korvín gave them the right to use the land for farming. In the bloom of the Habsburg monarchy, sheep-breeding started to decrease in favour of the enlarging need for wood and forestation of Slovak lowlands.
Slovakia is now dealing with a decreasing number of sheep farms. The emerging problems with keeping the sheep herd are decreasing prize of the sheepmeat and wool and increasing volume of imported sheep milk. The problem with processing the sheep wool is also emerging. The amount of wool that is sheared each year is not bio-degradable. With the lack of interest in Slovak wool from fabric makers, there is nothing else to do than burn it in rendering plant included in farmer´s costs. The needed improvement in the area of sheep farming is limited also by the lack of human resources.
Sheep farming is the oldest branch of animal production in Slovakia. At the same time, this traditional sector, which produces local and healthy food is an ideal alternative for maintaining the character of the landscape and employment in rural areas.
The Slovak Association of Sheep and Goat Breeders is collecting data, connecting the whole community of breeders and organizing a variety of projects and events. The data we found on their website claim that there are 5395 Slovak farms with sheep and goat breeding. They differ in size and amount of herds. In the majority of them (4482 farms) there are less than 50 sheep and goats in just one herd.
Only 16 sheep breeding farms breed more than 1500 sheep.
As we mentioned before, the amount of sheep on farms is declining. Since 2010, when 408 299 were registered, they have declined to the total amount of 366 098 sheep in 2018. In this year only 14% of the total number of 255 325 registered ewes /cz -- bahnice/ were involved in the performance control. The best results have the breeds lacaune, assaf and Friesian sheep /cz – východofríská ovce/ with the performance of more than 200 l per year and sheep.
Our wool was produced in a small Biofarm in Slovakia. The breed of sheep is originally from France, now kept by Slovak farmers.
It came in big piles and it is stored in exterior, covered by waterproof plastic wrap. The natural oil – lanolin prevents it from bugs and deterioration of fibres.
The wool we got was sheared to large pieces which can be easily loosened to smaller parts by hand – wool is not very entangled. We divided it into smaller piles based on the amount of dirt and usability for other processes. Some fibres are shorter and more entangled, but longer, more aligned fibres could be found too.
