Off to the Lawrence County Wool Pool!

News Clip From Lancaster Farming

The news clip says it all if you've never heard of a "wool pool".  In 2020, due to the pandemic most, if not all, of the regional wool pools were canceled. This year folks will be bringing 2 years worth of their sheared fleeces to the pool and we're not sure of the price that we'll be getting.  I'll report back on the results later today! Wool is an international commodity, so that enters into the picture.

Wild Rose Farm - Truck Completely Packed With Fleeces!

Of course, even though the truck is crammed full of fleeces, we still have nicely skirted fleeces available for sale & I have some Rambouillet wool set aside to be sorted for processing into yarn.

 

Skirting Fleeces for 2021 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest!

 

Wild Rose Farm #119 Dorset Fleece

Here are a couple of fleeces that we skirted today - warm weather is perfect for this job!  The lanolin is great for your hands ...

Wild Rose Farm #151 Dorset x Rambouillet Fleece

Stay tuned for more skirted fleece pics tomorrow.  We're bringing these fleeces to the 2021 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest this weekend.  The festival will be a "streamlined" one day event this year on Saturday May 22nd at the Greene County Fairground in Waynesburg, PA just off of the I-79 Waynesburg exit. This is in Southwestern PA folks! :)

Finally after a year without fiber festivals, you'll be able to actually GET YOUR HANDS on wool & wool yarn!

Wild Rose Farm - Three Lambs Resting!

The great part about skirting fleeces is that I get to enjoy watching - and listening to - the ewes and lambs in the barn!  

Before Shearing

Wild Rose Farm Snow White in a Sea of Wool!

We brought Snow White and the ewes up to the barn from the Back 40 on Easter morning. They are scheduled to be sheared and it's essential that they be dry. It's raining outside as this is being written.

You can see lots of wool fleeces out there ready to come off!

Snow White is particularly "white" today. We had a t-storm and very high winds two days after we sent them out back to graze.
Check out the big elm tree that blew out in the pasture field overnight. No one was hurt and the tree formed a triangle over the high tensile fence.  Nothing like a fence to attract a falling tree!

Wild Rose Farm - Elm Tree Blowout Over Fence!

Scene Greeting Us in the Morning ...

Time For Some Shade!

Wild Rose Farm - 25 Degrees in the Shade!

I looked out the window and noticed all of the sheep standing in the SHADE of the Loafing Shed.  I zoomed in on the ewes so that you can see them grouped in the shadow.  Folks, it's 25 degrees out there!  They can be lounging anywhere on the other side of the fence line and they choose to be in the shade where it's cooler.  With their wool fleeces, they are quite comfortable in the cold weather, just like the whitetail deer that you see bedded down in the woods. Just say'in for those that worry about the livestock … they could also be inside the Loafing Shed if they choose to be, but they aren't.

By the way, shearing is scheduled for April 13th this year!

To The Wool Pool!

2018 Wool Pool 

Washington County Sheep & Wool Growers Association

Stomping Fleeces Into A Wool Sack!

We packed up all of our uncommitted wool fleeces and took them to the wool pool at the Washington County Fairgrounds last week. Generally speaking, "wool pools" are the farmers' outlet for their wool. Wool pools solicit bids on their anticipated wool "clip". The winning bidder is chosen as the one whose overall prices and terms are most favorable to the association. Bids are based on current domestic & global demand for the various grades of wool, as well as what the bidder expects to get from each pool based on the recent history of the pool.  Fleeces sold through the wool pools are considered a commodity product.
This wool is dropped into breathable plastic wool sacks and stomped down to pack it tightly! As the shearing is being done, once the wool gets high enough, usually a kid or young adult steps in and stomps the wool. Pack, stomp, repeat until full, and sew or tie the bag shut!

Unloading Wool Sacks & Adding Producers' Lot Number For Tracking

Each wool sack is logged in and a lot number is assigned on each producers' receipt. The wool sacks (or 3 mil plastic contractor trash bags for those with fewer fleeces) are then loaded onto the waiting semi truck …

Skid Steer Loads 2 Sacks At A Time …

Mid-States Wool Growers Co-op Manager Oversees Loading Semi-Trailer

The wool will be weighed and graded at the buyers' facility. The producers will be paid by checks based on the quoted $/pound by grade agreed to on the bid.  Many pools have gone to selling their clips "ungraded" because of the difficulty in finding wool classers or wool graders to man the pools on drop off days.
Keep in mind that the prices for commodity wool are much different from those that specialty wool growers get for our "curated" fleeces! In fact, most of the long luster wools, double coated wools, and natural colored wools are severely docked in price at the wool pool. Jacketing sheep and selling pristine heavily skirted spinning fleeces is an entirely different market!
Examples from the 2018 Bid: 
Fine Staple wool, aka Merino, Rambouillet, Columbia bid price $1.70/pound
Medium or 3/8 & 1/4 Staple wool, aka Dorset, Suffolk, Cheviot, Texel bid price $.46/pound
Fine & 1/2 Clothing wool, aka fine wool sheep crossbreds bid price $.80/pound
Natural Colored wool, aka anything but white bid price $.02/pound (yes, 2 cents per pound!)
Heavy Vegetable Matter bid price $.12/pound.
That's your sheep wool economics lesson for the year … whew.
Keep in mind that not every fleece is a show fleece or a high quality hand spinner fleece … many specialty wool producers process their wool into yarn, top, roving, batts, etc. to maximize our wool marketing!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Day Two

Ewe #129 Fleece - Flick Carded, Spun In The Grease, & Washed

Fleece Purchased Saturday - Sample Returned Sunday!

Wow - talk about fast turn around!  This Wild Rose Farm fleece was purchased on Saturday and the happy spinner returned on Sunday with this sample for me. See earlier posts for fleece pics. She said that she flick carded the wool, spun it in the grease - a first for her - and soaked it for 20 minutes to wash it. Just look at how fine it is!
I promised to pull the micron test for the fleeces that she bought, so that will be another day.

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Fiber Booth 

The Crafty Alpaca of Avella, PA

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Craft Booth

Boone Hollow Baskets of Waynesburg, PA

"Best Booth" ribbons are awarded to vendors who are judged anonymously for booth display, clear pricing & signage, and their ability to relate to customers. We had two great winners this year. Boone Hollow is a long time vendor with a great reputation for quality and The Crafty Alpaca is a first time vendor with a great selection and family/friends working together. Congratulations!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Fibernymph Dye Works

Finally, a bright jolt of yarn to enjoy!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Day 1

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Reserve Champion Fleece

Reflections at Roclans - Cormo Fleece

Wow, it was a day for fleeces! Wild Rose Farm sold out our fleeces by noon - yay!  The gorgeous Cormo fleece above is an example of one of the winning show fleeces entered by John & Kate Bostek.

Need a Yarn Bowl?

Ridgetop Pottery - 2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

What a Fun Family Booth - The Crafty Alpaca

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

Lace Shawls by Holly Road Fiber Farm - Oh My!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

Boone Hollow Baskets - Handcrafted in Greene County!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

PhiFiber - See You On Sunday!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

Aside from a drenching cloudburst around 2pm, the festival was bright & sunny with a light breeze & perfect temps!  Come join us at the festival today 10am - 4pm!
PS - no pictures of yarn here, but there are plenty of vendors with yarn & fibers of course!

Fleeces For Waynesburg Part Two ...

Maybe My Fleece Will Be In A Show Sometime!

More fleece pictures, but first, here's a nice ewe lamb resting while the fleeces were being skirted in the barn ...

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #554 

Our Rambouillet ewe #554 is a 2 year old & is due to lamb "any day now". This is her second shearing. 

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #555

Ditto the above comments for our Rambouillet ewe #555 ... another fleece from a 2 year old ewe who is due to lamb "any day now", lol. The lighting was a little strange last night with overcast skies, so using the camera flash seemed to yellow out the picture. 

Fleeces For Waynesburg!

Wild Rose Farm Dorset Ewe #118 Fleece

As promised, here is a look a Dorset fleece from #118. Generally speaking, we use the Dorset wool for wool quilt batts, but they would also make a sock wool or a pillow stuffing wool - in other words, something that isn't supposed to felt.

Wild Rose Farm #129 With Twin Ram Lambs Born Today!

We also skirted a fleece from our Dorset x Rambouillet ewe #129 and it is in 4 bundles. Believe it or not, she lambed today and delivered a set of ram lambs shown above. Here is a picture of her fleece below ...

Wild Rose Farm Dorset x Rambouillet Ewe #129 Fleece

Finally today, here is a fleece pic from another of our Dorset x Rambouillet crosses, ewe #147.  Hey, maybe that's her in the background bleating. Just banging a bucket in the barn starts a cacophony of baas ... it's always feeding time if you're a sheep!

Wild Rose Farm Dorset x Rambouillet Ewe #147 Fleece

Off To New Pastures!

Wild Rose Farm Ewe Lamb #0641 Ready To Travel

Who Opened That Gate?

Three nice ewe lambs left the farm yesterday for a new home. Their new owner is a fiber artist. We picked over the ewe lambs, looking closely at their fleeces to select the type she preferred to add to her flock. Twins out of our #142 ewe were selected and a twin from our 20 micron #98 ewe rounded out the little group. All were sired by a Rambouillet ram, so they are all at least 75% fine wool Rambouillet.
The lambs were delighted to find some nice second cut hay waiting for them in the trailer.  Much tastier than the 1st cutting they've been eating!

Two Wild Rose Farm Ewe Lambs Loaded Up  

Farm Activities ...

Sheep Watching The Cherry Picking!

We've been busy with all kinds of activities here (and not here) at Wild Rose Farm. On the home front, the sour cherry trees were loaded this year and we got a lot picked and "put up" as they say.

Cherry Picking 101!

 So far the count has been 2 cherry pies, 8 quarts of frozen cherries, and a dozen half-pints of cherry jam.  We've been sharing the tops of the trees with the birds and the season's not done yet ...

1st Fresh Baked Cherry Pie of the Season!

During some pruning work along our road frontage I discovered a previously unknown (to me) mulberry tree.  The branches were hard to reach, but a quart of mulberries managed to find their way into the freezer too!  A few of the ewes and lambs found their way over near the fence line while I was picking the mulberries and kept an eye on things ...

A Few Of The Ewes & Lambs Morning Grazing

 Do you ever wish you'd done something 20 years ago?  On one of our rainy days, we drove to D-S Livestock Equipment in Maryland & picked up this piece of equipment to add to the end of our processing & sorting chute. We've been an operation that makes the sheep pay for their equipment and this will make processing and hoof trimming a lot easier for us ...

D-S Livestock Equipment "Roll O'Matic"!

Finally, this week we took what I call our "non-committed" wool to the Washington County Wool Pool. I volunteered with check-in for both days. It's a great way to get to talk & meet with regional shepherds!  This year the high bidder for the pool required that the wool was NOT GRADED and had to be shipped in plastic wool sacks. They will re-weigh & grade the wool and then send checks directly to the producers.  This was a big change and some folks were not happy since they had already bagged their fleeces according to past practice.  We made sure to separate all of our fine Rambouillet wool in one bag.  We'll see how it goes.

Washington County Wool Pool

Running The Hydraulic Wool Press - More Wool Please!

It wasn't a bad day at the wool pool ... temps in the high 80's, but with the fans going inside the buildings it was tolerable.  One of the 2 wool presses was acting up all day with electrical problems, so the young workers fell behind. Not sure what time they got to leave!

The "Light Vegetable Matter" Pile - There's More Where That Came From!

The 2 predominant classes of wool in this area are "Medium" wool & "Light VM". The LVM is generally medium wool that has excessive chaff, hay, etc in the fiber, usually from feeding indoors in with hay racks & allowing hay to fall down on the necks & backs of the sheep.

Washington County Wool Pool - Last Load Of The Day!

The last load of the day came in around 5:15PM and consisted of 6 different clips ... meaning that the shearer had fleeces from 6 different flocks in the trailer.
It's back to Washington on Tuesday to start the small flocks of less than 125 sheep. Today our largest flock had 519 fleeces of medium wool - only 1 basket was LVM which is quite an achievement to be so clean.

Headed For The Wool Pool!

Wild Rose Farm - Loaded For The Washington County Wool Pool!

We're loaded up and ready to leave for the Washington County Wool Pool. We drive to the Washington County Fairgrounds and volunteer for 2 days. Hours are Monday 1PM to 6PM for farms bringing 125 or more fleeces and Tuesday 8AM to 3PM for those bringing less than 125 fleeces. Usually we see the big guys and some sheep shearers bringing in fleeces on Monday. On Tuesday, cars with as few as 5 or 6 fleeces pull in ... some are backyard flocks and some are young shepherds just starting out!
The big bags with the blue ties are skirtings, tags, belly wool, and "heavy vegetable matter" wool - we generate a lot of this when I skirt for spinning fleeces, show fleeces, and wool going to the mill for yarn and combed top.  If you ship junk to a mill, you get junk back!
Not all of the fleeces are suitable for sale individually, so they go to the wool pool ... more pics from the adventure later ...
Hoping for overcast, but no rain, since I'm the one who is outside with the clipboard checking in the farmers!

Routine Activities ...

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White Looking On ...

It was sooooo boring today that even Snow White was looking for something to do. She left the sheep behind to graze and came up and stood around the barn. I had been in the barn skirting fleeces until I was forced to shut the barn doors in the 88 degree temps.  It keeps the sun off of me and also keeps it from heating the inside even more ... that's where the 3 ewes with their triplets are hanging out. Snow White had a few treats, then I went down the driveway to give Glenda her share.  Turning back to the barn, it looks like Snow White is waiting for more.  Empty pockets, oh well!

Catch Up

No lambs were born today, but we did get caught up on ear tagging lambs and some other chores around the barn. We've got to keep the pens cleaned out & rotate the ewes with lambs into the mixing pen as we wait for more lambs to come ...
Here's another fleece ready to take to the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest on May 21st & 22nd!

Wild Rose Farm  #133 Dorset x Rambouillet Ewe Full Fleece

Wild Rose Farm #133 Dorset x  Rambouillet Fleece Close-up

All Is Calm ...

Hey Lady - Why Do You Keep Coming Out Here To Look At Us? 

Everyone is still standing around as of this evening with nothing going on.  We'll just keep checking!  Just before I was going out to the barn to work on more fleeces, we got a visit from one of our blog followers. It's nice to know that folks are out there watching the comings and going of the flock ... I promised lamb pictures "soon", so now we're feeling the pressure to perform.
We got another lamb's wool fleece and another Rambouillet fleece skirted today ... at least something is getting done around here! :~0

Wild Rose Farm - #420 Rambouillet Fleece In Dazzling Sunshine! 

Wild Rose Farm - Ewe Lamb 0538 X-bred Fleece

Wild Rose Farm - Ewe Lamb 0538 Fleece Close-up

Other Activities Around The Barn

Glenda & Diamond Playing

It's funny what you see when you spend time around animals in their environment. This was the scene above the barn near me while I was skirting fleeces yesterday. Glenda had been hanging around outside watching me because skirting fleeces is just so interesting.  Since it was close to afternoon feeding time, Diamond appeared and went out through the wire panels to see Glenda.  I've seen them from a distance before, but this time I was close enough to get some pictures ...

"Take That!" Says Diamond

We've seen Diamond sitting on a fence rail next to Glenda & walking up to her in the pasture, but never this part of the relationship. The cat pictures make a kind of transition to another event. I came in for the evening to find an email relaying the news of the passing of my cousin, the "original" Dr. Phil. Dr Philip Edward Kaldon and his wife debbie, aka Mrs. Dr. Phil, were well known cat people.  Dr. Phil wrote Sci-fi and had more acclaimed works, but here is a link to a fun(?) little story, Brooding in the Dark
It's one of my favorites. If you've ever pondered the "internet of things" and AI (not the agricultural kind of AI!), you might enjoy the personality of 193.

Waiting & Skirting ...

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White & Ewes Under The Pine Trees

No lambs yet as of this evening, so work continued without interruption on the fleeces today. Taking a break at noon, by walking out to the ewes to check on them, we turned up some pushy ewes ...

WRF Rambouillet #403 Would Like A Treat!

And "as long as you're handing out treats", #401 says, "I might as well push up to the front of the line". It's hard for me to get back far enough to take a picture! :)

WRF Rambouillet #401 Pushes Her Way In Too! 

Since there are no pictures of lambs yet, we'll have to settle for 2 more yummy Rambouillet fleeces that we skirted today.

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #332 Fleece

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #410 Fleece Fills The Bag!

Rambouillet #332 Fleece Close-up

Rambouillet #410 Fleece Close-up