A member of Aberfeldy Young Farmers club has won a competition which will see him fully trained in sheep shearing and equipped with all the gear to do the job.
Duncan McDiarmid, whose family farms on the banks of Loch Tay, is the Scotland winner of British Wool’s competition which offers one enthusiastic young shearer from each UK nation the opportunity to be professionally trained and gain on-farm experience with a shearing contractor.
During the programme the winners will learn machine shearing, take part in a gear course, a wool handling course and a second machine shearing course. They will also follow the wool supply chain by visiting British Wool’s head office and wool grading depot and a scouring plant.
Duncan said: “It has always been important to me to go on a British Wool shearing course to be trained by a professional as we shear all of our own sheep here on the family farm.
“During the shearing season last year, I started learning with hand shears under the instruction of my dad and then moved onto machine shearing. The training programme will really help me to improve my skills and give me good foundations for the future of my shearing career.”
British Wool, which is based in Bradford, is owned by approximately 35,000 sheep farmers in the UK. It collects, grades, sells and promotes British Wool to the international wool textile industry for use in flooring, furnishings and clothes.