| | Factors affecting the value of the wool | Selection of sheep | Avoiding contamination of the fleece | Shearing | Soiled wool | Fleeces | Marketing Wool | Summary | Return to Livestock Marketing page
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Marketing wool starts long before the actual selling. It begins with producing as valuable a product as possible. Although current, 2007, wool prices are the lowest in recent history, a small but real income can be obtained from wool when care is taken in its preparation and marketing.
Factors Affecting the Value of the Wool
Admittedly, wool prices are low. However, wool producers can maximize their net returns by implementing the following management practices in a sheep operation.
Selection of Sheep
The breed of sheep determines fibre diameter and the type of wool produced. Finer wooled sheep, such as the range breeds, have wool that is more valuable per pound when sold in commercial markets than the wool of other breeds. Hobby hand-spinners may desire some of the long wooled, coloured or novelty fleeces.
Hairs or kemps in the fleece significantly reduce its value. Hairs are long, continuously growing, coarse fibres lacking in crimp. Kemps are shorter, kinky coarse fibres that do not grow continuously. Similarly, dark or coloured fibres will reduce the value of wool in most markets. Hand spinners, though, sometimes appreciate the special effects coloured fibres can produce. The tendency to produce kempy or coloured wool is genetic so that can be controlled by breeding.
Be careful to keep wool value in perspective when choosing sheep for their wool qualities. While the fleece of a fine wooled sheep may be worth several times as much as a coarse fleece, at today's prices the total value of even the very best fleece is small compared to the value of a market lamb. Therefore, producers should choose the sheep breeds best suited to the profitable production of lambs and the particular conditions on their farm.
Fleece quality should not take precedence over factors affecting lamb production. However, there could be a slight increase to the total income of the sheep operation if fleece quality can be improved without impairing lamb production. For example, wool quality will increase, without impairing lamb production, by selecting a ram that does not have kemp or coloured fibres in its fleece, over an otherwise equally good ram that does.
Care of the sheep
The care sheep receive also affects the value of fleeces. The portion of the wool fibre growing during periods of stress, such as fever, illness, malnutrition, or lambing, is very weak. This weak spot produces a breakable fibre, making it less valuable. If a sheep has a high fever, the weakness in the wool is often so great that much of the fleece will later drop off. Even if the fibre stays together on the sheep, a weak spot can break during processing. Keeping the sheep in the best possible health is important for many other reasons besides its effect on the wool.
Avoiding Contamination of the Fleece
Contaminants such as chaff in the wool can also devalue a fleece. Feeder designs that force the sheep to reach up to get their hay, or feeding systems where hay is thrown to waiting sheep, put a lot of chaff into the fleece of the neck and back areas. It is best if hay is put out when the sheep are away from the feeding area. Hay feeders, that force the sheep to reach forward rather than up to the hay, also keep the fleece cleaner. Inevitably, most hay feeding arrangements will put some chaff into the fleece but the amount can be minimized.
Other contaminants also cause problems in processing wool. Careful pasture management can minimize weed seeds, burrs and mud. Generous bedding in the barn helps to minimize fleece contamination with mud and manure and enhances the health and comfort of the sheep.
Plastic twine is especially undesirable in a fleece. The scouring, or cleaning processes used to cope with organic contaminants such as chaff and weed seeds cannot do anything to remove plastic. Remove the twine if hay is put through a grinder or chopper. All twine should be removed when hay is fed whole. Removing twine protects the fleece and the sheep since sheep can eat the twine. If they do they often suffer digestive blockages and may, possibly, die.
Avoid contaminating wool with paint. You may wish to put paint marks on sheep for identification. However, use only a special paint intended for marking sheep. These special wool paints are formulated to be removed by the scouring processes. Other paints and general-purpose livestock markers may ruin the fleece. Take care not to mark sheep excessively and confine the marks to less valuable portions of the fleece, such as the head and neck.
If you are producing extremely valuable fleeces, particularly for the hand spinning market where cleanliness of the fleece is especially important, keep your sheep covered in fabric coats to protect the fleece. Compare the price of the coats and the expected premium for the clean fleece before deciding whether coats are a sensible investment. .
Shearing
Ewes should be shorn three to six weeks prior to lambing, if possible. The stress of lambing can cause breaks in the wool. Shearing prior to lambing also eliminates the need for crutching the ewes. However, care must be taken not to overly stress the pregnant ewes.
The sheep should be as clean as possible and completely dry before shearing. Shearing is more difficult if the sheep are wet, or even damp at shearing time. A damp or wet stored fleece is more likely to rot, mildew, mold or become musty. Sheep should not be shorn immediately after a period of unusually muddy weather, or when they have liquid feces from a recent change in feed.
Coloured sheep should be shorn after white sheep to avoid colour contamination of the white wool. Keep the shearing floor clean after each clipping. Shearing should be done smoothly, with a minimum of second cuts - places where some of the wool is cut twice - and certainly with a minimum of cuts or injury to the sheep.
A fleece shorn off properly will stay together as a unit. Pick up the fleece as a unit, rather than lifting it in a way that pulls it apart.
Next, toss the fleece onto a wool preparation table that has a porous top. The top can be made of stucco wire, chicken wire, or wooden slats. This allows chaff and other contaminants to fall away from the fleece while it's being prepared. The fleece is tossed, cut side down, on the wool preparation table and spread out to its original shape. The tossing of the fleece releases much of the chaff and second cuts.
Soiled wool
Wool soiled with manure at the edge of the fleece should be pulled off and discarded. Crutching ewes before shearing will reduce the amount of manure-contaminated wool that needs to be removed. Wool that is merely stained by manure or urine, but no longer has manure on it, may be put in a separate bag for soiled wool only. An entire fleece may be devalued if it's left with the rest of the wool,
Any spots of coloured or kempy wool should be pulled off and bagged separately. Some black-faced breeds, especially, are apt to have a dark area near the throat or legs. Remove paint brands and bag with soiled wool.
The wool from the belly area is usually noticeably shorter and often more stained than the rest of the fleece. It should be pulled off and bagged separately in a bag labeled ‘belly wool’. Face wool and topknots should also be bagged with belly wool since they are short and often kempy.
Fleeces
Rolling fleeces
Roll the remaining fleece. First, fold the sides toward the centre of the fleece. Then fold the neck area back toward the centre of the fleece. Gently roll up the fleece, starting at the tail end.
Traditionally, the rolled fleece was tied together with paper twine. Today, most wool buyers prefer it not be tied. If the fleece is tied, it's extremely important to use only the special paper twine made for tying fleeces. Other types of twine should not be used.
Sorting the fleeces
Sort fleeces according to the different types to get the best possible price for the wool. Even if one buyer takes it all, separate bagging speeds the job of grading it.
Belly wool, manure stained wool, wool with kemp or dark fibres, and wool that is dirtier or chaffier than most of the lot should each be bagged separately. Label the contents of the bags. If there are sheep of different wool types within the flock, bag their wool in separate bags. For instance, keep Finn and high lustre wool separate from the Rambouillet-type wool. Down wools (Dorset, Suffolk) should be bagged separately.
Bagging the fleeces
Wool for sale in small quantities to hobbyists should be bagged accordingly. Paper grocery bags or clean, lint-free cloth bags are suitable containers, depending on the size lots that customers want. Beware of plastic bags because wool can deteriorate if it does not get fresh air.
Use large sacks sold especially for bagging wool when selling large quantities to commercial wool buyers. A wool-bagging stand is needed for properly filling these types of sacks. Plans for building a wool-bagging stand are available from Alberta Agriculture and Food.
Before putting any wool in the large sack, a producer should make “ears” or handles in the bottom two corners of the sack for easier handling when the sack is full. Handles are made by placing a handful of wool in each of the corners. Then a piece of twine is tied tightly around the corner just above the handful of wool. A full, heavy woolsack is difficult to carry without these handles. The sack is installed on the wool-bagging stand after making the “ears”.
The sack needs to be compressed after eight to 12 fleeces have been dropped in. The producer should climb into the sack and step on the fleeces, packing them down as tightly as possible. Rolling additional fleeces down between the compressed wool and the sides of the sack helps with compression. This should be done several times as the bag is filled. A compact, tightly filled sack, weighing 200 pounds or more, is easier to handle, since a loosely filled sack flops around. It is also cheaper to ship wool in tightly filled sacks because trucking costs for a bulky product like wool depend on volume rather than weight. It is better to compress a partial sack of wool and the sew bag closed as a partial sack than to put the same amount of wool loosely into the entire sack.
A label with your name and address should be placed inside the sack before it is sewn shut. Another label, with your name and address and the name of the buyer, should be tied onto one of the "ears" of the sack.
Marketing Wool
There are three main ways for producers to market wool:
- selling to commercial wool buyers,
- selling to handcrafters and
- selling partially prepared fleeces.
Factories and commercial wool buyers
Large wool processors want to purchase a graded product that meets their particular requirements. Therefore, they do not usually purchase wool directly from producers except in special circumstances such as local processors. Some wool processing factories may be interested in buying directly from producers if the producer can provide a clean, well-prepared, uniform type of wool. However, selling to a wool buyer is simpler for most producers.
Commercial wool buyers purchase wool, sort and grade it, and then sell it to wool processing factories. They deal in large quantities to make shipping economical and to make the paperwork associated with exporting wool to other countries worthwhile.
Wool buyers purchase the types of wool they can readily resell. They do not want to purchase poor quality wool or specialty wools that are of interest only to handcrafters.
Commercial wool buyers or factories are usually looking for:
- white wool only,
- no kemp or coloured fibres,
- a strong price preference for finer wools,
- absolutely no twine or unscourable paint contamination,
- wool that is free from organic matter contamination will bring the best price and
- wool free from other faults such as break and stains.
Handcrafters
Hand spinners and weavers form a small but sometimes important market for wool. They purchase a number of different types of wool but each person usually wants only a particular type. Producers should investigate the requirements of hand spinners in their area.
Hand spinners often value certain types of wool that the commercial wool buyers do not want. They often want coloured or long wools. However, they do not want stained, dirty, or weak fibred wool.
Different hand spinners want various types of fleece - varying in staple length, fibre diameter, crimp or colour. There is one demand all have in common. They only want very clean fleeces, free from other faults.
Partially prepared fleeces
Some hand spinners, weavers and others like to purchase partially prepared fleeces. The following wool products all have their own buyers:
- fleece as it is shorn from the sheep,
- washed, but otherwise unprocessed fleece,
- washed and carded into roving,
- washed and carded into batts, or
- washed, carded, and spun into yarn.
Some sheep producers do this processing themselves. There are also custom wool processing businesses that will prepare the wool and ship it back to the producer for marketing.
A woolgrower may process small amounts of wool for sale to see what the market wants. That helps determine what prices can be obtained. Investigate markets and prices before investing a lot of time or money in preparing large quantities for sale. Wool products that have been profitable in the past, or products that may appeal to only a few buyers, are not necessarily profitable every year. The demand for particular types of specialty wool varies tremendously from year to year, and the price for specialty wool is also very volatile.
Markets for wool to be used in handicrafts may be found by contacting:
- local hand spinners and weavers guilds, Senior Citizen clubs, etc.,
- farmers' markets,
- newspaper advertisements,
- notices posted at craft supply stores, or
- displays at fairs and craft shows.
Summary
Although wool may not always be a high-priced commodity, proper management of its production can make the difference between little or no wool income and a modest but real income.
The first thing that determines the value of the wool is the genetics of the sheep. Since wool is worth little when compared to the value of lamb, producers should not sacrifice lamb production for improvement in wool quality. However, elimination of coloured fibres and kemp can often be attained with no sacrifice to lamb production. Breeding choices can also often improve the fineness and the total weight of the fleece with no sacrifice of lamb production.
Maximize the value of the wool you produce by taking proper care of it while it's on the sheep and while handling it at shearing time. All wool can be sold through commercial wool buyers. However, coloured, long, or other specialty wools, as well as extremely clean, white wools, may bring a better price when sold to hand spinners. Wool can be sold to hand spinners in its raw state or as a partially prepared wool product. |
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