Texas Class(ing)
Texas! Never ever did I anticipate a good reason for my heat-intolerant self to spend a week that far south. For a worthy cause though - Certified Wool Classing school, something I felt would add to the services I provide during shearing and while developing markets for many clients’ wool. The education I came home with goes far deeper than expected and I’m looking forward to applying it “in the field” this coming shearing season. I write this one week back home in Vermont, happily reacquainted with my preferred below freezing temperatures and snow (I really do love winter) with a new notch in my traveling belt. Experiencing a new place was grand but I also came home with eyes wide opened to a wider breadth of this industry I hadn’t experienced before.
The wool classing school was originally developed because of the poor reputation American wool had. American wool quality sat at a low point on the global market prior to major education and marketing efforts of the 1980s and 90s. At this time three campaigns were launched, my favorite called “Pack It With Pride”, to build up producers’ awareness and marketability of their clip¹. Two permanent programs by the ASI Wool Council were born out of these efforts: the Wool Quality Improvement Program and Wool Classing School. Both programs have adapted to evolving markets but the goal remains the same: to improve the quality of American wool.
Wool Classing School was developed with large, fine wool flocks in mind being the majority producers of American wool and those who participate most directly in the global market but proper preparation techniques apply to all wool. The overarching lesson I brought home was one on critical thinking. Every single fleece is different but as a classer it’s up to you to decide the most appropriate designation for every bit that comes off the sheep - in terms of whole fleeces but also the skirted bits, the edges, the inferior. Wool qualities the classer is looking include relative fineness, staple length, strength, and cleanliness. A classer is like a master sorter, sending similar fleeces to be grouped together also with bales for bellies, stains, paint, hair, vegetable matter, everything, and anything that can come along with the fleece. The hands on classing we did in school reminded me of why I got involved in farm butchering as well - to value the entirety of what they animals provide. Classers are equipped with the knowledge and eye to sort “low” from “high” quality fiber but the intention is to elevate the quality of the entire clip and help producers earn more. The mindset it encourages is to see more value in all wool. Ah, how uplifting! But - back to the tangible… In a proper setting, classers work alongside wool handlers at the time of shearing, so it is a fast-paced multi-person job. Take a look at a model shearing set-up and we can break it down.
from ASI’s Certified Wool Classer Manual
Starting on the right we have a series of holding pens designed to move sheep towards shearers in a low-stress manner. No chasing, no grabbing sheep by the wool, far less risk for injury to sheep and human. Next is the shearing board where, well, you can guess what happens. Between the shearing board and the skirting table is where wool handlers work collecting fleeces and getting them to the table. Next, classers decide which bin each fleece and skirted piece goes into for maximum value in uniform packages. Full bins get turned into pressed, labeled bales and viola; fresh wool packed and ready to go! I’m skipping over plenty of details but you get the general idea. Classers can also step into several other roles while on the job. They might help with gathering and skirting fleeces or pressing bales. It’s up to them to maximize value for the producer and create a marketable clip in a way that is understood by buyers. And this is where my interest piqued most because it seems the largest void we experience back in Vermont - an understanding or even acknowledgment of the global or national or even regional industry we are a part of. Even if you intend only to sell a handful of individual fleeces to hobbyist at the sheep and wool festival, we are a part of the larger industry of wool producers! It’s that larger industry that influences the prices of wool at wool pools and for LDP payments, the trends purebred fleece standards shift for to make a more marketable clip, what classers and judges learn to evaluate on, and this isn’t to the detriment of the small Vermont producer, I promise. What is even more important to understand is it is the large-scale wool buyers purchasing western fine wool who really have the temperature on the consumer interest in wool. Being a part of the Vermont wool industry, if you’ll allow me to use that word, has felt so incredibly insulated. It was an encouraging breath of fresh air to talk with and learn from others in the industry who, believe it or not, are our peers even if they run thousand-head flocks and bring a classer in on shearing day.
Classing school this time of year was most convient for me - it’s always easier to get away from the farm in winter. But I was also drawn to the region for it’s rich history in American wool. Land on both sides of the Rio Grande and lower Gulf Coastal Plain is steeped in ovine history with established flocks dating back to the 17th century. The first sheep were brought to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors as early as the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries². Iberian-native churra sheep were hardy, resilient little livestock and would eventually develop into the breed we know today as Navajo-Churros². Despite the churra’s small size and light weight fleeces, the breed thrived across the modern day Mexico-U.S. border for the next two centuries. The turn of the nineteenth century saw the beginning of the Vermont Merino boom, which was the start of a consistent source of fine wool in the continent. Though, Vermont Merinos were not of very high quality leading to their quick decline in the Northeast. Merinos did, however, make it south and west where they thrived. As an early American wool industry developed, ranchers found motive to raise sheep that grew heavier fleeces. Enter the churra Merino cross. Wild cross, right? I love to think about what they looked like. These crosses took hold producing fleeces weighing six to eight pounds more than the churra’s two and a half pounds³. Rambouillet’s have their own history in this country and in the later 1800’s started to take off as the dominant fine-wool breed in the states with a bit more hardiness than Merinos. All regions of the colonized U.S. experienced increased demand in wool during the Civil War and for many years afterwards. Angora goats also caught on in the region of Edwards Plateau, just south of San Angelo, and wool warehouses as a marketing focal point were developed. The start of the twentieth century saw San Angelo into the leader of wool and mohair marketing making it a hub for producer promotion as well³.
This is half of a mural I found in downtown San Angelo dedicated to West Texas Ranching. It was glorious to witness - I shed a tear! Read about it here.
Ms. TAM “Ewe”niversity, the sheep statue at Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in San Angelo
To this day, San Angelo is a proud wool town. The city was the founding location of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association and is the current headquarters along with the Mohair Council of America. Until 1972 it hosted the Miss Wool of America Pageant⁴. In the pageant’s honor there now resides a flock’s worth of painted sheep statues scattered around the city⁵. It’s also home to Bollman Industries, one of only two commercial scouring plants in the U.S. and the Bill Sims Wool and Mohair Research Laboratory at Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, where Classing School was held. The lab has been operating since the 1980’s but it recently stepped into an even more pivotal role since the closing of Yocom-McColl Testing Laboratories, Inc. in 2019. The lab in San Angelo has been working for two diligent years to get equipment and procedures up to snuff for global standard commercial wool testing. Why is this so important? The majority of American wool is exported but to be taken seriously on the global market, wool has to go through very specific testing. When Yocom-McCall closed, there were no other facilities in this country able to perform the necessary tests⁶. In the interim, huge quantities of wool samples have been going to New Zealand for testing, costing U.S. producers extra delays and expense. With a bit of luck and all the hard work happening at the lab this will soon change and American wool will be tested domestically again.
This is a lot. History lesson, market condition lesson, small Texas city lesson. A major take away from this trip was realizing wool growers of all scales face tremendous difficulties marketing their fiber. I see it every day that I’m shearing and in San Angelo I absorbed the same feelings of concern and discouragement expressed by many of my clients, except here there was also hope backed up by community action. Bright people from all aspects of the wool industry were there and they were sowing hopefulness not on an individual farm scale but looking up and down at the entire supply chain with all stakeholders at the table. What stands out to me the most, the most most most, is that despite the rightful prestige one could tout with momentous scale of production attracting international buyers and research labs in their backyard I received genuine connection and kindness from the individuals involved. No one batted an eye at talk of (commercially inferior) long-wool breeds, (commercially unsalable) colored wool, or tiny sheep farms in far away, less influential corners of the country. My questions and stories were met with a sense of comradery and message of unison behind a common goal to uplift and improve our industry. Everyone I had the pleasure to meet clearly wants to see a better future for sheep and wool, no matter how different our flocks. By the end of the week I was cleared of all doubt that this line of work is not exactly where I am supposed to be.
Once, not too many years ago, I was advised to get rid of my sheep so I could travel more. Farming does complicate travel. But, sheep can take you places. There’s a modest world of nearly forgotten agricultural importance that folks unconnected to agriculture may never encounter. I’m back from a very different part of the country, having learned an incredible history, and having met wonderful people all thanks to the sheep.
References
American Sheep Industry Association, ASI’s Certified Wool Classer Manual
Decendents of the Iberian Churra. Retrieved from http://www.navajo-churrosheep.com/sheep-origin.html
Carlson, P. (1996, February 1). Retrieved from https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/wool-and-mohair-industry
Retrieved from https://texasarchive.org/2014_00044
Kingsbury K., Welsh T., Roe E. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.sanangelosheep.info
Retrieved from https://www.sheepusa.org/contacts-woolpelt-researchtesting