Even though the wool industry was very strong in our territory throughout history, this did not mean that the same was true of local sheep wool. Sheep have always enjoyed significant popularity due to their wide range of uses. Sheep farming was widespread, especially in poor and hilly areas where agriculture did not prosper. The animals were raised primarily for meat or milk, and their wool, which was coarse, was processed as a secondary raw material because it was not suitable for the production of fine cloth. Merino wool, which was not produced in our country, was in demand for its quality and softness and was imported from England for the production of the best goods. It traveled there from distant foreign destinations, such as Australia, New Zealand or South America. Therefore, in 1770, Maria Theresa decided to buy several animals of the original Merino sheep from Spain with short but fine wool, and gave them to the owners of important estates. Due to the potential for high-quality wool, the breeders themselves seized the opportunity and began to expand their pastures for larger herds. However, until the last decades of the 20th century, when the wool industry almost disappeared, processing of wool from abroad still prevailed.

 

Imports of fine wool in large volumes of uniform quality continued to undervalue local resources. The transition to a more modern form of agriculture and the shift to more profitable forestry, which began to encroach on pasture areas, ultimately had devastating consequences for the further development of Czech livestock farming.

 

Local wool, which was called domestic wool, came mainly from the territory of present-day Slovakia. These fibers were often mixed to increase the volume of the raw material and reduce the price of the final material. Mixed materials were also created, for example in combination with cheaper cotton. In the first half of the 20th century, as a result of wars and lack of resources, artificially produced fibers began to develop. From the 1960s, synthetic textiles such as polyester, polyamide and polypropylene began to spread, which were also used in combination with wool in semi-woolen fabrics.

 

The number of sheep bred in our territory fluctuated in synergy with the current conditions of the purchase price for sweat wool. Even though the two largest wool factories are located in our territory, which puts our country in the first place among the largest wool processors in Europe, Czech wool, with a few exceptions, is being thrown away. The advent of the globalized market and the severed ties of Czech society to the past as a result of historical and political contexts have placed local wool in the position of unwanted waste material. Breeders therefore had no reason to preserve fine-wool breeds and now specialize their breeding only for meat production, with grazing to a lesser extent.

 

In our area, wool predominates, which is degraded by insufficient year-round care and poor handling during sheep shearing, and is therefore not suitable for further processing and must be thrown away.