A Patrick farmer has spoken out about how wool can still be used despite declining prices.

Photos on social media of a pile of sheared sheep wool left in a field sparked discussion this week.

Currently Manx sheep farmers can get between 5p and £3 for one kilo of wool.

Jenny Shepherd, of Ballacosnahan Farm, believes wool doesn’t need to be discarded despite low returns.

She said: ’At the moment the cost is high to shear the sheep and there’s low returns from the wool.

’This isn’t the case for us however because we actually make more money from our wool than our meat.

’This is because there are so many things you can do with wool that people don’t realise.’

Ms Shepherd and her partner Rawdon Hayne run their own business selling Manx loaghtan products.

She explained she was in contact with farmers from the UK, Iceland and Norway who have experienced similar issues with costs but have managed to ’turn the fortune’ of their wool with government help.

The woman from Patrick added: ’We differ because we don’t have the government’s help but they showed us all sorts of things you could do with wool.

’For example, poor quality wool can turn into pellets for agriculture, they’re a powerful slug deterrent because of the texture and they biodegrade in the soil.

’You spin it just the same as ordinary wool but it means we’re now using our waste product.

And you can still also use it for insulation, don’t forget.

’I just think more could be done with our waste wool, no need to give up on it completely.’

More than 10 years ago the couple took their loaghtan wool to sell to the government who sort it into different quality fleeces and send it away to the UK to sell - all of which they charge for.

She said: ’It was awful [the government’s sorted wool], it wasn’t good loaghtan wool, and it was all being lumped together.

’We felt we weren’t getting what [our] good quality wool was worth, and I couldn’t bring myself to add this really nice wool to this scruffy pile. We said we weren’t doing it so sent it off to be spun.’

Since then, they have built a business with over 25 different products.

’We’re amazed people are still buying from us because we have a niche market,’ Ms Shepherd said.