Dear Aggie

Dear Aggie, I have heard that sheep farmers have a hard time selling their wool- is this true?

Wool is one of my favorite fabrics! I have wool socks and wool sweaters that keep me nice and warm during the cold, North Country winters. Many different breeds of sheep produce wool and need sheared in order to help keep them healthy and keep their fluffy fleeces manageable. There are certain breeds of sheep that have primarily hair fibers that are called hair sheep and they do not need to be shorn because they shed naturally. Some people who raise sheep solely for meat choose a hair sheep breed so that they do not have to shear their flock.

Some wool sheep farmers choose to shear their flock in the spring so that their sheep are freshly shorn for the warmer summer months, while some may choose to shear in the fall so that the mama ewes have less wool to get in the way and get dirty during lambing season in the spring. Once the wool is shorn off, the farmer must choose what to do with it. Some farmers choose to keep their wool and make their own products from it. Wool-felted crafts, such as home décor items, can often be found at craft markets. Some farmers clean, card, dye, and spin their own wool into yarn that they then turn into products such as scarves or dish towels. Others yet do not want to make additional products from their wool and would prefer to have someone else handle that part. Sometimes, farmers can get lucky and have a direct relationship with a spinning mill that may be looking to buy certain kinds of wool at different times of the year or wool from specific breeds of sheep. These mills generally then spin & dye the wool and sell to other folks who will turn the yarn into garments or other woven products. Sometimes, however, there is not as much demand and it can be difficult for farmers to find a home for the wool from their sheep, let alone one that will pay them well for the product. A newer initiative that I have heard more about recently is businesses that process sheep wool into pellets that people, whether the farmers that had the wool originally or customers of the pellet processor of farmer, can then use to enhance the soil of their gardens. We even have one of these processors right here in New York State! For a list of small & midsize mills in the United State that process wool in some capacity, check out this link: https://www.sheepusa.org/contacts-woolpelt-smallmidsizemills.

To actually answer your question, it depends. Sometimes farmers have a hard time getting rid of wool and sometimes they are able to find somewhere to sell it to- it may even change year to year!

By: Abigail Jantzi, CCE Jefferson’s Dairy & Livestock Specialist

Last updated January 10, 2025