Handling and Marketing Wool

University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Bulletin #2070
This fact sheet is made available through cooperative efforts of the New England Extension livestock specialists. January 1990.
Updated by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension livestock team, July 2004.

In New England, wool is the most misunderstood and abused part of the sheep industry. The result of this attitude is a financial loss to the producer.

What is the potential of this overlooked and underutilized product? Wool, a natural fiber that "breathes" and insulates the body in hot or cold weather, helps conserve heating and air conditioning fuels. Wool seldom catches fire and, if it should flame, will usually extinguish itself before much damage is done. It will not drip, melt, or reburn in other areas.

Because of the desirability of wool as a fabric, wool production is at an all-time high. However, New England sheep producers are not sharing in its popularity. The New England wool crop often sells for a lower price than in many other parts of the country. The primary reason is a poor quality reputation based on improper care of the fleece both before and after shearing, and a lack of grading at wool pools.

Economically, wool can provide a significant source of income. The differences in fleece yields result from variation within and between breeds and is affected by climate, nutrition, wool grease and foreign matter. Wool is a valuable product that is easily spoiled. The primary spoilage agent is foreign matter such as dirt, chaff, burrs, hay, straw, seeds, and grain. These all cost money to remove. The best plan is to prevent contamination while the fleece is on the sheep’s back. Keep your facilities clean. Use care during shearing, while storing fleeces and before selling.

Table 1: British or Count Wool Grading System
Breed	Wool Grade	Wool Type
American/Delaine Merino	64s to 80s	Fine wool breeds
Rambouillet	62s to 70s
Targhee	58s to 60s	Crossbred wool breeds
Correidale	50s to 60s
Columbia	50s to 60s
Panama	50s to 58s
Southdown	56 to 60s	Medium wool breeds
Shropshire	48s to 56s
Hampshire	48s to 56s
Suffolk	48s to 56s
Dorset	48s to 56s
Cheviot	48s to 56s
Oxford	46s to 50s
Romney	40s to 48s	Long wool breeds
Lincoln	36s to 46s
Cotswold	36s to 40s

Wool is ordinarily sold by the pound on the basis of grade, class, and quality. “Grade” refers to the fineness of fiber. “Class” refers to length of the staple or fiber. “Quality” refers to the freedom from foreign material and to the “life” or character of the wool itself.

The term “grade” can refer to either of two systems. The oldest system is the American or Blood system, but it is gradually being replaced by the British or Count system, illustrated in Table 1.

This numerical “count system” is a more technical method of grading by fiber diameter. These numbers refer to the “hanks” of yarn, each 560 yards long, which can be spun from one pound of clean wool. Thus, a 64s wool would yield 35,840 yards of yarn (560 times 64) which equals 20.4 miles.

Within grades, wools are classified on the basis of length. The term “combing” indicates longer fiber length and, therefore, higher spinning quality. The term “clothing” indicates shorter fibers and less spinning value. For example, “58s combing” indicates 58s grade (degree of fineness) and a longer fiber. Fleece length is partially determined by the shearer: poor shearing and a lot of second cuts result in short-fiber-length fleeces.

How to Improve the Quality and Value of Your Wool Crop
Keep Fleeces Clean

Avoid vegetable matter contamination of fleeces. Use feeders designed to keep hay and chaff off the backs of sheep. Do not carry or throw hay over sheep to feeders. Avoid pouring grain in troughs over the heads of impatient sheep. Do not use sawdust or shavings as the only source of bedding. Use straw, waste hay, or other material as a covering to keep wood particles out of the wool. While hay and chaff can be removed from wool by the processor, wood particles cannot. Remove burr-producing plants from pastures and hay fields. Purchased hay should be free of foreign matter. Animals with high quality wool can be protected with wool coats. Avoid using dewormers containing phenothiazine. This compound has reduced effectiveness against most internal parasites and can cause a reddish-brown urine stain in wool.

See Table 2 for causes of wool rejection and take management actions to prevent them.

Use only soluble paint or markers specifically manufactured for sheep identification.

Table 2: Causes of Fleece Rejection Not all wool can be processed for spinning purposes. Fleeces can be "rejected" for a variety of reasons. Common examples are as follows:
Reject category	Cause of reject status
Gray or off-color	Sheep of blackface breeds carrying black fibers throughout their fleece.
Burry wool	Burrs from pasture or hay in fleece.
Seedy wool	Hay or feed particles in fleece resulting from careless handling of sheep in winter.
Cotted/short, felty fleece	Fleeces from old ewes low in vitality, from animals on poor feed or heavily infested with parasites such as ticks.
Spoiled wools	Tying fleeces too tightly, or shearing when wet. Fleeces tied with anything other than paper twine. Use of wool boxes can causes fleeces to be tied too tightly.

Equally important to producing a clean, quality wool product is the production of more wool per sheep, to increase economic returns.

Small flock owners many not produce enough wool annually to justify a wool bag. However, this does not mean they cannot produce a high quality fleece for sale using the above principles.

All wool is eventually graded and sold on a grade basis. Dissatisfaction in marketing wool to local buyers has brought about the development of wool pools sponsored by the Maine Sheep Breeders Association and the Central Maine Sheep Breeders Association. Marketing wool cooperatively has educational value. Pooled wool offered on a volume basis is more attractive to buyers and gets a higher price because it saves the buyer time and money. There are a limited number of wool merchants and mills in New England and Eastern Canada that buy wool directly from the grower, with payment made after inspection by the buyer.

There is a renewed interest in the Northeast in quality handcrafted woolen products. Spinners and weavers constitute a specialty market for certain types of wool, usually carrying a premium price. Typed of wool desired by this market include

The development of fleece shows and sales can be used to encourage spinners to be present where fleeces are auctioned off. Also, the Maine Spinners Registry and the Southern Maine Guild of Spinners and Weavers have a number of functions for their members where wool vendors are invited to sell products such as raw wool, cleaned wool, roving, bats, and yarn.

The following terms should be known by all wool producers to help them produce, package, and sell a superior wool product.
Apparel wool	wool suitable for manufacturing into apparel fabrics.
Black wool	fleeces from sheep containing gray, brown, or black wool.
Buck wool	wool shorn from rams or male sheep.
Bulk grade	the largest percentage of grade in a lot of original bagged wool.
Coring	the coring samples of bales or bags of wool. The samples obtained are processed by laboratories to determine the percent yield of clean content.
Crimp	the natural waviness in the wool fiber.
Crossbred	a sheep or wool from a sheep resulting from the cross of two different breeds.
Cotted	the matting together of wool fibers.
Fleece	the wool from a single sheep in the shorn grease state.
Fleece wool	usually all fleeces grown in the states east of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. A farm flock of medium grade.
Foreign matter	any material such as hay, burrs, that appears in the wool and is removed in processing.
Grade	refers to diameter of a wool fiber.
Grading	the classification, by fleece, of the grade of that fleece. Wools of like grade and yield are combined for use by top makers and mills.
Grease wool	wool as it is shorn from the sheep, before any processing.
Handle	a term referring to the actual feel of wool. Wool with a good "handle" is a wool with great resilience and softness, one most pleasing to the touch.
Lamb's wool	wool of short character taken from a lamb not over seven months of age.
Lanolin	wool grease. This substance sometimes called "yolk," is a secretion from the sebaceous glands of the sheep. It collects in the wool and serves as a conditioner to prevent excessive drying of the wool.
Lock	a small approximately finger size, bit of wool that tends to stay together when shorn from the sheep.
Range wool	wool grown on sheep on large ranches, distinct from wool grown on small farms.
Sacking	tied wool fleeces are usually sacked at the shearing plant in large burlap bags varying in length from five to seven feet and in diameter from 20 to 30 inches. From 200 to 400 pounds of grease wool are packed in each bag for shipment to mills.
Shrinkage	the loss in weight of a wool fleece during the removal of grease and foreign matter when grease wool is scoured. Also used to refer to the estimated percentage of foreign matter in grease wool.
Sorting	virtually all fleeces contain more than one grade of wool. As grading is the classification by fleece, sorting is the classification of wool within a fleece.
Scouring	the process of washing fleece to remove impurities and grease.
Tying	after the wool is shorn, it is rolled into a neat bundle and tied with a paper cord. The side of the fleece that was nearest the flesh, which is always cleaner, is left on the outside in order to present a more attractive sale package and permit easier grading.
Yearling wool	the first full fleece shorn from a sheep 12 to 16 months old.
Yield	the amount of clean wool that is derived from grease wool in the scouring process.

For more information, contact your University of Maine Cooperative Extension county office.

Published and distributed in furtherance of Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914, by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the Land Grant University of the state of Maine and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Cooperative Extension and other agencies of the U.S.D.A. provide equal opportunities in programs and employment.

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Last Modified: 12/10/07
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