Field Trip For Wool Growers!

Wool Intake Warehouse At Mid-States Wool Cooperative

Last week, I went with a group of sheep & wool producers on a field trip to Mid-State Wool Growers Cooperative in Canal Winchester, Ohio. The trip was set up by the Washington County Sheep & Wool Growers to help foster our relationship with the wool pool buyer. We got a great tour of the facilities from intake, through grading, and on to the shipping floor filled with packaged wool.

Stanley Grading Fleeces - Mid-State Wool Growers

The wool sacks are emptied by producer lot number and are fed up a conveyor where each fleece is individually graded and weighed. Each fleece travels in an individual basket and is conveyed to the appropriate graded bin … all tracking is computerized and the total is summarized for each producer.

Wet Wool Backlog - That's a Problem, Folks!!!

Conditions this year have led to an unusually large amount of wool that is wet and that's a big no-no! Anyone who has sheep sheared knows that they aren't to be sheared when they're wet. All steps must be taken to preserve the sheared fleeces in a dry state. These bags will be laid out over the weekend with fans blowing on them to dry them out, but the wool will likely be down graded due to the poor handling.

Discussion At Mid-States Graded Wool Bins

We had two young students on the tour and they asked some really good questions - both are sheep owners! The final stop was the shipping floor where the wool is weighed & the core testing is done. The wool core samples are sent to Yocum-McColl Testing Lab in Denver where they are evaluated for yield and micron test results. Each bale can then be shipped to the buyer, usually in semi-loads or half semi-loads.

Fine Wool Packed & Waiting For Core Test Results

Bottom line after our tour? Any wools that are 27-28 microns and higher are discounted in the current domestic wool market. Merino & Rambouillet wool @ 19-21 microns was valued at $1.20/lb. Columbia & Targhee type wool @ 22-23 microns was valued at $1.00/lb. Polypay & Corriedale type wool @ 24-25 microns was valued at $.80/lb. Then the price really dropped at 27-28 microns for $.30/lb. The Hampshire, Suffolk, & Dorset type wool @ 29-33 microns was paying at $.15/lb.
We're not even getting into the longer luster wool breeds favored by hand-spinners. Wool is a specialty item for a select group of shepherds. Targeting hand-spinners can get earn $5-$50/lb. for good clean & skirted fleeces.  The fine wools have a market as a commodity through the wool pool returning between $1-$2/lb. to the sheep producers.  That wool goes into the domestic, "next to the skin", Made In America socks & clothing that is so popular now.  The middle grades of wool are having a hard time finding a buyer … Oh yeah, natural color or black wool was 2 cents/lb. on the commodity market.
Interesting …  

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!

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!

Busy At The Wool Pool!

Washington County Wool Pool - In Line To Unload!

We lucked out on Monday & Tuesday this week at the 2015 Washington County Wool Pool.  Monday was sunny as wool from the large flocks - 125 fleeces or more! - arrived & was unloaded.  Most of the large flocks bring their wool in large burlap wool sacks or in giant heavy duty plastic bags that are stuffed full of fleeces.

Pulling Fleeces Out Of The Wool Sack

The wool fleeces are pulled out of the sacks and are sorted into different large light weight tubular metal "baskets" by the folks doing the wool grading.  Each grade or type of wool is sold at different predetermined prices to the mill that made the successful bid for the total wool brought in to the wool pool.   The teenage 4-H & FFA workers carry the full baskets to the scales to be weighed.  Each producer gets a check based on the price paid for the amount & grades of wool that they bring to the wool pool.
The next step is loading the different grades of wool into the hydraulic wool presses and creating the individual "bales" of wool to be shipped to the mill.

Loading The Wool Press

Closing The Wool Bale

On Tuesday, the smaller flocks of less than 125 fleeces, were graded and added to the piles of wool to be baled.  The smallest flock was a group of 4 fleeces & by 4 PM, everything was baled.  The bales were weighed, marked, and logged in for shipment.

Wool Bales Ready To Ship & Wool Pool Volunteers Close Up For 2015!

 Here's a look at the marking on the graded bales of wool.  They will be cross checked against the log when they are unloaded at the mill.

Washington County Wool Pool - Graded & Weighed Wool Bale

Yes, we lucked out on Tuesday.  The pool closed at 3 PM and at 3:05 PM the skies opened up and we had a drenching downpour for over half an hour!   All of our cell phones started beeping with flash flood alerts for the area ... then the sun was shining again by 4:30 as the semi-truck was being loaded.  :)

2015 Wool Pool Prices & Rules

 

Wild Rose Farm At Wool Pool

Look Out - Here Comes A Fleece!

The Washington County PA Wool Pool was held on Monday & Tuesday this week at the Washington County Fairground.  For those who've "never been"(!), a wool pool is where regional sheep producers bring their raw wool fleeces to be sold as one large "pool".  The association sponsoring the pool advertises for bids and the entire intake of wool goes to the highest bidder.   On Monday, producers with greater than 125 sheep in the flock brought in their fleeces.  Some of the large loads were sheep shearers who are given fleeces as part of their shearing arrangement.  You never know what kind of fleeces that they will come in with! 
On Tuesday, producers with flocks of less than 125 sheep brought in their fleeces to be graded and sold.  The smallest load this year was 4 fleeces from a young lady who is starting in 4-H with 4 sheep.  :)   Nice to see young people getting started in the business! 

Filling Baskets With Different Grades of Wool From One Producer

The wool was "graded" or "classed" by 2 experienced gentlemen who have been doing this for years.  Each class of wool has a different bid price & the buyer relies on the classers to get it right so that the buyer gets what they paid for ...


Recording Weight of Wool

 The wool from each producer is sorted into different baskets by grade and each basket is weighed and recorded.  The total weight per grade is multipled by the bid price for that grade, all of the baskets are totaled, and the association writes a check to the producer immediately. 

Baling Wool With A Hydraulic Press

The baskets are dumped into their respective grade piles and then the wool is "baled".  Depending on the type of wool, similar size bales can weigh between 400 & 600 pounds.  Click on the picture above & you can see all of the activity going on at once.  A bale is being wheeled to the shipping area, one team is baling wool, and the finished bales are lining the wall in the background on the right.  Other piles of various grades are also in the background waiting to be baled.  No mixing of grades can occur.
The intake of wool ended at 3PM on Tuesday and a tractor trailer arrived to pick up the bales.  By 6:30PM the building was swept clean, balers secured and loaded on a trailer, and the doors were locked.  Not bad for a once a year event!   This was my first time volunteering and I was dog tired at the end of the day on Tuesday ... temps were in the 80's, but luckily, we didn't get any rain! 

Washington County Wool Pool



Future Wool Producer -
Yearling Rambouillet Ram

We spent last weekend at Wild Rose Farm sorting through the fleeces that we won't show, sell, or have made into yarn.  Not every fleece is a show fleece or a hand spinning fleece, so the rest of them go to the wool pool.  The majority of shepherds aren't selling to fiber artists or making yarn, so most of the wool shorn from flocks each year is taken to a "wool pool" to be sold.  The Washington County Co-Operative Wool Growers held their event on Monday (flocks with >125 fleeces) & Tuesday (small flocks with <125 fleeces).  Our fleeces went on Tuesday.
FYI, there's a world wide increase in the price of wool, so we got almost twice as much for our wool in 2011 -vs- 2010.  Example: Fine Staple was $2.20/lb - vs- $1.40/lb last summer.  Not a fortune, but a better price for the fleeces that we won't use otherwise.  Expect to see prices of wool yarns going up across the board out there, even at the (gasp) big box craft stores!  
As I sort the fleeces, I can't help but pull out choice sections of Rambouillet fleeces that are going to the wool pool.  ;)  They get added to the future yarn stash.

Wool Pool Today!

Wild Rose Farm arrived at the Washington County Wool Growers Cooperative Wool Pool today around 1PM.  We were finished and back on the way home at about 3:30.   So what goes on at a wool pool?  First you get in line like everyone above .... the line creeps forward as trucks, trailers, hatchbacks, etc are unloaded.   Notice that the loads are all tarped or covered.  Wet wool is a big NO NO!   There were threats of thunderstorms yesterday and today, so no one was taking any chances.  Fleeces must be untied and should be mostly free of "vegetable matter contamination".   That means you shouldn't throw hay over your sheep's backs when you feed them!  That's another reason that some of us who produce for handspinners will jacket our sheep to keep the fleece as clean as possible. 

Each farm unloads their wool onto a table where these folks trained in wool grading examine and classify each fleece as it's dumped out of the boxes and bags.  From left, Bob Calvert, Dustin Heeter, & Don Hunter are doing the grading.  The fleeces are then piled into racks by grade and when the farm is done, all of their racks are weighed individually and then totaled.  The association writes a check for the value of the wool to be paid to the sellers when the mill pays the association.  Since a wool mill has bid on the entire wool pool "clip", each grade of wool has a pre-determined price that is known to the sellers before they bring in

their wool.

    

The wool is loaded into 2 wool presses owned by the association to make tightly packed bales of wool.  Walt Bumgarner, show here feeding wool into the press says that most bales weigh around 450 pounds.  A bale of fine wool which is much greasier (more lanolin) will weigh close to 600 pounds!  All of these gentlemen, BTW, are current or former Penn State Extension Educators (or Extension Agents as they used to be called).  The bales are labeled and stacked for pick-up.

This gives you an idea of what it means to "tote that bale" !!!!

A few more facts about the wool pool.  This pool was open on Monday & restricted to accept wool from farmers with more than 125 fleeces!   Today was the day for those that had less than 125 fleeces .....  Each producer pays membership dues of $2 and an 8.5 cents/lb handling fee.  Seems pretty reasonable to provide this service with all of the workers,  2 wool presses, scales, and associated equipment.   I know when we hit the road, but I wonder when this group closed the doors and left for the evening ..... done for another year!  Did I mention that it's a great place to meet up with and socialize with friends and fellow sheep producers while you wait? :)