“From raising and shearing the sheep to sorting, scouring, dyeing, drying, spinning and selling the finished yarn, we do everything ourselves on the farm,” says Satu Kumpulainen, owner of Isokumpu Farm in western Finland. The production of her high-quality yarn, which is sold in skeins for use in knitting and other textile crafts, relies on a fully integrated, farm-level circular model that minimises waste and is almost carbon-neutral.
Satu has been a sheep farmer for the past 20 years. She founded her current wool business in 2018, “I am passionate about knitting, and even though Finnish yarn is known for its softness, warmth and quality, I struggled to find any which was both produced and processed locally.”
On 30 hectares in the Ostrobothnia region, Satu keeps 400 Finnsheep and Kainuu Grey ewes, both native Finnish breeds. Once Satu and her sons have shorn the sheep, the fleeces go to the farm’s on-site spinning mill run by Satu’s brother, where the wool is sorted, washed and dried, and then combed, spun, dyed and wound into skeins. The yarn, and even some clothes made from their yarn (knitted by Satu), are sold in their own farm shop, at a small number of local retailers, and online. Although they mainly sell locally, 20% of their overall sales are international. Customers appreciate the product for its properties as an attractive, durable Finnish wool, as well as for the ecological and ethical process applied to make it.
The whole process has been carefully designed to generate very little waste. For example, the techniques they use for shearing mean that they can use most of the wool for yarn. Second-class wool is used for felting material or as biodegradable ground cover for the organic strawberries and blackcurrants that the farm also cultivates and sells. To further enhance sustainability and autonomy, as well as to reduce energy costs, the farm powers its spinning mill with solar energy and reuses wastewater from the scouring process for irrigating and fertilising the fields.
The farm also has its own small-scale slaughterhouse and sells organic meat directly to consumers via local food groups (REKO) on Facebook. However, Satu explains that wool is still their primary product, “Our breeds are endangered mainly because they are better suited to the production of wool than meat, and for many farmers the focus is on meat production.” She says that there are only about 1000 Kainuu Grey ewes in Finland, 100 of which are on her farm. Alongside selling high-quality yarn, one of the aims of her business is to promote the revival of traditional breeds and encourage knowledge-sharing and shearing techniques related to these breeds to show their value chain potential.
There are more than 600 native sheep breeds in the EU. But despite this diversity and the historical significance of wool production in Europe, the sector faces major challenges. “Most wool in Finland goes to waste even though today, domestic wool is actually in high demand” says Satu. Through her actions as part of the European Wool Association and the Finnish Shearers Association, she is working to promote wool production across Finland and Europe, demonstrating the advantages of a circular bioeconomy and the strength of native sheep breeds whose wool can become a product of high value for farmers rather than a burden.
