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> MSU News
Crews collect pooled wool on sweep across E. Montana
May 26, 2006 -- By Evelyn Boswell, MSU News Service
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| Jim Moore uses his body weight to hold down a sheep as he shears it at MSU's Red Bluff Research Ranch near Norris. This wool will go to a warehouse in Billings, but much of the wool in Eastern Montana is pooled and taken to a warehouse in Jordan. (MSU photo by Jay Thane). |
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BOZEMAN -- After 40 years in the sheep business, Kermit Petersen still raises more than 100 sheep. That's fewer than he used to raise, but it's enough for him, said the Eastern Montana grower who doesn't miss the level of shearing and lambing he used to do.
One hundred sheep aren't enough, though, that he wants to market the wool on his own, Petersen said. That's why he and his wife, Sandy, belong to a wool pool and joined hundreds of other growers who recently drove their wool to collection sites around Eastern Montana. A wool pool is a group of producers who combine their wool for marketing.
"It's very handy. It's more economical," Petersen said after loading his polypay wool into a truck parked at the Richland County yard in Sidney.
Petersen is a member and officer of the Yellowstone wool pool. A wool-gathering crew picked up his wool and others' on a weeklong sweep that started in Plentywood and continued to Sidney, Wibaux, Circle, Malta and Choteau. The workers collected 167,840 pounds in all and took it to a Jordan warehouse where it will be stored until it's ready for selling. The wool is being tested now and will be put up for bid when the results are ready. Pooled wool means there's enough to be separated and sold according to type and quality.
"At least part or all will go international," said Montana State University Extension Sheep Specialist Rodney Kott.
Bob Gilbert, long-time secretary/treasurer of the Montana Wool Growers Association, said one-third of Montana's wool is sold through wool pools. Another third is sold through warehouses. The rest is sold privately. Montana has about 2,000 farms with at least one sheep.
Remembering when Montana had 32 active wool pools, Gilbert said the number has shrunk to about 13. Nine of those pools, including Petersen's, are now part of the Eastern Montana Consolidated Wool Pool Marketing Project. MSU and the Montana Wool Growers Association started the project in cooperation with local sheep producers and wool pools in northeast Montana. Now in its fourth year, the project was designed to increase profitability for individual growers, increase the amount of wool sold overseas, and to educate growers. Member pools are based in Plentywood, Sidney, Glendive, Wibaux/Beach, Circle, Jordan, Pondera, Fairfield, and the Hi-line. The Hi-line pool combines wool from Rudyard to Glasgow.
"You can't drive to Billings for two bales of wool," Kott said. "Then when you get there, you are pretty small fish in a big pile. You have two, maybe three different types of wool, which causes some problems."
Some growers with large amounts of wool take it to a Billings warehouse and sell it on consignment, Kott said. The Eastern Montana project targets small producers.
"Their marketing options are so much more limited," Kott explained. "If you have 1,000 sheep, you can access that market, but if you've got 50, it's awful hard to do that. That's part of our job."
The consolidated pool collected 207,130 pounds of wool in its first year; 224,185 pounds in the second year and 168,200 pounds in the third. The weight declined last year as producers sold their sheep or retired, Kott said. He added that producers earned an estimated 15 to 20 cents per pound above the cost it took to implement the program.
Montana ships 70 percent of its wool overseas, and a large portion of that goes to China, Kott said. He would like the consolidated pool to collect enough wool that Montana could fill a container by itself for international markets.
Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or evelynb@montana.edu
Hi-Resolution Image or PDF Available:
| [View or Download] | 1. | Jim Moore uses his body weight to hold down a sheep as he shears it at MSU's Red Bluff Research Ranch near Norris. This wool will go to a warehouse in Billings, but much of the wool in Eastern Montana is pooled and taken to a warehouse in Jordan. (MSU photo by Jay Thane). |
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