Club Obi Wan

Good news for whipmakers?

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?secti ... id=6713869

I guess it's kind of bitter-sweet. Thanks for sharing.

Kyle

Unfortunately it's not so much the lack of supply that is the problem for whipmakers, it is the quality. There has been a long running drought in Australia for many years now, as well as an overpopulation, so there's not enough to sustain the roos to start with, and then there also isn't enough to go around. So they have been commonly smaller, and are malnourished on top of it. The recent fires didn't help either, and there are plenty of other normal problems to cause poor skins. Back about 8-10 years ago, before the drought hit, it was pretty easy to get nice clean large skins that were about 8 or 9 square feet on average, and easily get a whole 10ft or 12ft whip cut out of one hide, with the occasional skin between 10 and 11 sqft. Now the average skins are between 5 and 6.5 sqft, and it is pretty rare to get them over 7sqft, so a 10 or 12ft whip will take at least 2 skins, and sometimes even an 8ft will take 2 skins. Also the price per sqft for a hide has increased steadily, about 300 percent, over the past 8 years!

None the less, still an interesting article. Thanks for sharing!

Regards,

Paul Nolan
http://www.midwestwhips.com

The pity of it all is that if they do decide to cull the roos not one of those skins will make it to a tannery.The reason for that being because they are not part of the official yearly cull so because of that they will most probably be disposed of by being buried.

We have the same problem here in Illinois with White Tail Deer.

Looks like good old Government Bureaucracy is the same the world over.

Can you guys see what you can do about shipping over some of those roo steaks to me here in Boston. I love roo steaks, but we just can't get that here. Sounds like there might be some extra kicking around, unless they bury all of the carcasses or burn them!

We have the same problem here in Helsinki with rabbits. http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2B ... 61151.html

Sais hyviä hattuja.

Roo, rabbit, and white tail deer.....you guys are making me drool over here. 3 of my favorite meats. Where I come from, we have a dish that uses two of those meats. The roo, well, that's just downright delicious if cooked right.

Haven't time to read the article, but I think it was Chris Barr who said that eventhough there were skins, very few of them were tanned for whipmaking, many of them being tanned to supply the great companies for shoes or something. Of course, that one is a larger market, and an easier way to make a quick buck.