Britstown Youth Take Wool Industry by the Fleece
De Aar & Britstown, Northern Cape – 1 August 2025
A cohort of seven young people from Britstown has just completed an intensive two-week wool-shearing boot camp, as part of our programme to carve out a brand-new livelihood pathway for small-scale farmers in the Pixley ka Seme district.
Delivered by Lilitha Solar PV’s Small-scale Farmers Support programme in partnership with Stratify Solutions, the University of the Free State, the Free State Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, and the National Wool Growers Association (NWGA), the training equipped participants with the practical skills, and the internationally recognised Green Certificate pathway, to shear sheep professionally locally or abroad.
Why Shearing Matters for Small Farmers
Since 2022 the programme has helped communal farmers diversify and professionalise their operations, which included establishing a beekeeping project, drip-irrigation systems, launching soil-health workshops, training on small-livestock farming and providing market-linkage coaching. The shearing boot camp is the latest strand in this multi-faceted strategy, adding value to livestock programme interventions, while also complementing ongoing crop and agronomy support.
“Sheep numbers in Britstown have risen, but farmers were still paying outside contractors to shear,” explains programme implementor Wynand Myburgh.
“Training local youth closes that cost gap and keeps more value in the community.” Guided by NWGA-accredited trainers, each trainee sheared about 150 sheep over the fortnight, mastering speed, careful handling and clip-quality standards demanded by export markets. A follow-up wool-classification course later this year will prepare them to grade and pack bales, another worstream farmers currently outsource.
Training fees and logistics were fully funded by Lilitha Solar PV. Commercial farmers Pieter and Andries Strauss opened their shearing sheds for hands-on practice—an example of productive collaboration between local producers and Lilitha’s development partners.
With new skills in hand, graduates are being introduced to local employers and producer groups. While cooperative options are under review, near-term efforts prioritise securing paid shearing opportunities that meet or exceed the local minimum wage.
“Shearing may look old-school, but it’s a ticket to the world,” says Stratify Solutions Director Learnmore Mudgengerere. “Kiwi and Aussie farms snap up South African shearers who can keep pace. These youngsters now have that chance, and their own neighbours will benefit first.”
From beekeeping to wool sheds, Lilitha Solar PV’s Small-scale Farmers Support programme continues to prove that targeted skills backed by focused, long-term investment can turn rural talent into rural enterprise, one clean fleece at a time.