Kathrine Bain - Australia's amazing sheep entrepreneur.

To get to Kathrine and Ben's farm, St Enoch's Merino, I need to travel two hours by train straight into the Australian countryside. There we are picked up by Kathrine's mother Debbi and continue the journey. Once there, we are greeted by a fantastic, flamboyant flower garden. They call it the Covid garden. They are very concerned about all the flowers and grass species on their volcanic land with many unusual species that they want to preserve. We are given a cup of tea before we get to join in the work on the farm.

Hi Kathrine! How nice that we get to visit your sheep farm in Australia.

How many sheep do you have?
We have about 15,000 sheep, which is considered a small farm here. The farm has been in our family for five generations. Today it’s run by me and Ben, together with my mum Debbie and my dad David.

What is happening on the farm right now?
At the moment we are separating the mothers from their lambs. Some of the ewes actually seem relieved, while others experience a bit more separation anxiety. The lambs stay indoors overnight to calm down. They don’t get food during that time so they start thinking more about grass than their mothers. Then they’re incredibly happy when they get to go back outside and eat fresh grass.

How often do you shear the sheep?
Once a year. Shearing all the sheep takes about four weeks.

How does the shearing process work?
We’re lucky because the shearers live nearby. In the past they used to stay on the farm and we cooked for them. Today, five shearers work at a time. They stand on a ramp and shear one sheep after another. As soon as the wool is sheared, it is taken care of and placed on the classing table where the wool is sorted according to its quality. The sheep ride down a small chute back to the indoor paddock.

What happens to the wool after shearing?
The wool is sorted on a table. We remove the dirty and yellow parts first. Then the wool is classified—not by breed, but by strength and quality. We also look at the crimp. The tighter the crimp, the better; wide crimp is lower quality.

What do you do with the wool?
We sell it at a wool auction in Melbourne. Most of it goes to China and Europe, especially Italy. Recently we’ve wanted to focus more on Europe, because they are more quality-focused and we believe our fine wool deserves to be used for higher-end products.

Where is the wool washed?
In China. It’s cheaper than washing it in Australia.

How do you think about animal welfare?
We check on the sheep constantly. They have large fields and paddocks and plenty of space.

Do you practice mulesing?
No, we don’t. Instead, the sheep are treated with antibiotics when needed. Otherwise flies can lay eggs and the sheep can become infested with parasites.

Do you blend the wool with possum fur?
No, that’s only done in New Zealand. Possum fur is very soft, but possums are an invasive species there and need to be controlled.

When will you use your Beltex and Tedd jacket?
Right now it's very warm but during the winter the weather changes a lot in this part of Australia. There can be four seasons in the same day and then they are perfect!