The Wool Industry
Reviving and Sustaining our valuable Domestic Wool Industry
by Eliana Jantz

Most likely, you had no idea that the wool industry in North America is disappearing and in danger of extinction. Only people directly involved with using large amounts of wool would have real reason to know this. The rest of us wouldn’t know. After all, we can still observe sheep grazing contentedly in rolling fields of green, like there’s no tomorrow.

The truth however, is that the population of sheep in North America is at an all time low, and quickly diminishing from here. Currently, the sheep population in North America is about 10% of what it was in the 1950’s.

In 1989, as a new user of wool batting, I stumbled upon a well written article in a small California coast newspaper which educated me about the North American wool industry! The article explained how woolgrowers were not getting enough money for their wool to even pay for the hard costs of producing the wool! I found this incredulous! How could this be? It made no sense! How could the woolgrowers sustain the process of producing wool, year after year, without enough money to cover costs?

The short answer ... they get second jobs to continue this family tradition. But they’re running out of steam and inspiration, not to mention money, to continue! ... so unless things change in the industry in the next few years, we’ll eventually be importing all of our wool from overseas.

Already the majority of wool used by North Americans comes from overseas. New Zealand wool, for example, has dominated the North American wool market for decades now. We’ve been told by our industry marketers, that New Zealand wool is the best wool. This is not necessarily true, in fact a very recent test, done at the University of Massachusetts, comparing the Ecodomestic wool from Montague, California, to a commonly used New Zealand wool used by a number of California bedding companies, demonstrated - that the Ecodomestic wool is far superior in every area tested for. So much for that myth!

As bedding makers, we want to keep on using domestically produced wool from North American sheep. But that’s just the beginning. After we get the dirty wool fleece it has to be scoured (washed). After that, it is still not usable for very much, until it is at least carded into batting or rovings. Now, with washed and carded wool, we have what we need to to make mattresses, mattress pads, comforters and pillows. However, there is a growing problem sneaking up on us.

In North America we have lost almost all of our processors of wool. One example of a recent closure is Mt. Jefferson Woolen Mill in Oregon, an almost completely vertical mill (one of the last of its kind in the U.S.), who had the ability to do everything except wash the wool (including making yarn rovings, weaving the cloth and dying the cloth). They suddenly closed their doors in the Spring of 2001, for ‘lack of profitability’, according to the distant new parent company.

The Sharp family who began this wonderful woolen mill in the 50’s, started it with the support of the local woolgrowers of that optimistic time in the industries. By the time of their closing, almost all of their wool came from greater distances, and almost none of it came from surrounding woolgrowers.

However, out of the ashes of the mills closing, a new ray of optimism enters in. Patrick Holland, - our collaborator in wool, and shepherd of Montague, California - visited the closing Mt. Jefferson woolen mill in Oregon, purchased the necessary carding machinery from them, then organized the supporting expertise to help him build a new carding mill - this one in Montague, California. This involved transporting and reconfiguring 70,000 pounds of high quality carding machinary to its new home 300 miles south and learning the art of carding wool from the few remaining skilled millwrights in the country.

A little history will help you to understand why we were so excited about the new carding mill. Since the late 80’s, I had been buying ‘garnetted’ (similar to ‘carded’, but geared for synthetic and cotton fibers) wool from a Bay area garnetting mill, which was of a decent quality at the beginning. However, by the late 90’s, the poor quality of the wool batting, as well as the declining service had me worried. When the quality dropped to an unacceptable point, we were forced to seek out another similar operation in Oregon, but they could only use the lowest quality of short staple wool in their machinary.

The ‘garnetting ‘ machines they used were not the best kind of machine for optimally carded wool. Patrick Holland, was well aware of the problem and very interested in finding a solution. By February of 2002, he was supplying us with beautiful, clean carded wool, purchased at a premium from Oregon and California woolgrowers. >>See our letter of recommendation for Patrick>>.

In July of 2002, Shepherd’s Dream moved operations to Montague, California in order to consolidate our collective efforts with the Woolgatherers Mill. This is an example of a hopeful step in securing the future of wool in North America. EcoDomestic wool, a collaborative project co-founded by Patrick Holland and Shepherd’s Dream, is doing two important things for the future of wool in North America:

1. It is buying wool at a premium directly from the woolgrowers within an evolving criteria for responsible practices, and
2. it has established a carding mill for quality wool batting at a competitive price.

In the interest of positive industry changes, marketers and promoters need to shoulder the responsiblity of becoming good public educators. They already have the public’s ear. With real information to go on, the public can feel good about the aware choices they are making and be part of reviving and sustaining a valuable industry.