Can you make money selling wool?

Although plenty of fiber fanatics take their hobby to a new level by deciding to raise their own sheep, some people raise sheep simply because they love the sheep. They have no idea what to do with the wool. I started raising Shetland sheep in 2003 because I was a knitter, and I wanted to be able to say that I knew the sheep that provided the wool for my scarf.

But what if you simply fell in love with a breed for some reason other than fiber? And each year after shearing, you give away, compost, or otherwise discard the wool. Not only could that fiber provide you with another stream of income, but if you are raising a rare breed, you could also be providing a rare opportunity for fiber artists to work with the wool.

Wool can be sold at various stages. Each bit of work you do increases the value. The following prices were all for fiber listed for sale on Etsy during the month of August 2018. Sellers may price wool by the ounce or by the pound, and some sell the entire fleece of a single sheep. To simplify the price comparisons, I figured out the price per pound for everything.

Raw fleece

You will get the lowest price for the wool if you sell it as a raw fleece, but that also represents the least amount of work. You simply need to skirt the fleece before selling which means you pull off obvious manure tags and large vegetable matter (VM). This should not take you more than about five or ten minutes for each fleece, assuming it's relatively clean. It is not a good idea to sell fleeces that have sticks or thorns in them or those that are caked with mud -- especially online when the buyer can't see the fleece before purchase.

Raw fleeces from breeds on The Livestock Conservancy's Conservation Priority List averaged $16.63 per pound. Most ranged in price from $10 to $25 per pound with outliers as low as $5 and as high as $40 per pound. With raw fleeces, huge price variations may be due to the condition of fleece, meaning that the cheaper fleeces are not as clean and will require more work than the more expensive fleeces.

Washed fleece

By spending a couple of hours, a few gallons of water, and some detergent, you can increase the sale price of your wool. In the coming weeks, we will have more information on here about washing fleeces. Selling washed fleeces is not common, so if you decide to do this, you won't have a lot of competition. Most people sell fleece raw, as roving, or as yarn. It took me longer to find five washed fleeces from rare breeds on Etsy than to find twice as many options for roving or yarn.

Washed fleeces were priced at $35 to $64 per pound with one Cotswold priced as high as $96 because the curly locks were being advertised as ideal to make doll hair or a Santa beard.

Roving

If you send your washed fleece to a mill to be run through a carding machine, it can be sold to hand spinners as roving. Felters may also purchase roving for their projects. You could buy a drum carder for a few hundred dollars, but it would take many hours to card an entire fleece, so if you have a lot of sheep, you probably want to have this done by a professional mill that has a large carding machine that can do a couple dozen fleeces per day. Prices to card washed wool vary from about $10 to $17 per pound.

The average sale price per pound of roving from 11 different farms was $44.29, with prices ranging from $27 to $64 per pound.

Yarn

If you are a spinner yourself, or you want to have a mill spin your wool, you can sell it to knitters and crocheters for an even higher price than roving.

The average price from eight different sheep was $80.32 per pound, which is almost twice as much as the price of roving and five times as much as the price of the raw fleeces!

Can you make money selling wool?

Even though you do have to put more work into it, or you have to pay someone else to create the value-added product, such as the roving or the yarn, you can still make money selling your wool. And you can make more money selling roving and yarn. When we raised Shetland sheep I sold my roving and yarn for more than double the price of the processing, which fell right into the average prices cited above.

If you talk to shepherds who are breeding commercial sheep, you will probably hear that it is not profitable. But if you are willing to put a little effort into selling directly to consumers, you can definitely make a profit when selling wool from rare breeds of sheep.

Starting turkeys

A member writes us: 

Just wanted to let you know, in regards to Bourbon Red turkeys. My Great Uncle has successfully hatched his first batch of their eggs just this past summer. The hen had problems with needing a lot of calcium for her shells. She laid a total of 11 eggs before brooding. 7 of the eggs hatched, but only 4 of the poults have survived.

Young Bourbon Red Toms - Photo by J. Beranger

The hen stays in sight of her chicks at all times. We first moved the newly hatched chicks to a small area with a heat lamp, where we normally leave chicks until old enough for the juvenile cages. The hen was greatly upset and would not calm back down until reunited with all her poults. We lost several for unknown reasons.

We have recently moved the poults, now about 4 or so months old, to a juvenile platform cage where there is no heating lamp, but there is shelter and they are protected from our juvenile chicks and pheasants. The hen stays near them at all times, and will not move where she can't see them.

Hope this adds some information for your site.


Common sources of extra calcium include finely crushed oyster shell, egg shell, or bone.  Heritage turkeys will often go broody and can hatch and raise their own poults like this hen did.  They are conscientious moms, as you can see!  Poults are harder to start than chicks, though, which may be why this member lost several.  Watch over them closely for the first week to make sure they are drinking and eating. 

For more about raising turkeys, check out:    "How to Raise Heritage Turkeys on Pasture"

Protect your flocks

As many of you are aware, High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) is taking its toll on poultry flocks across the United States. States in the Midwest have been hit particularly hard and HPAI is still being detected on nearly a daily basis. The outbreak started in the Pacific Migratory Bird Flyway in December and expanded to the Central and Mississippi Flyways in March. Minnesota received the brunt of April cases and Iowa is currently seeing the majority of detections. HPAI is not limited to commercial flocks, and several backyard operations have been infected, even in flocks with as few as 10 birds. No human cases of these HPAI viruses have been detected in the United States, Canada, or internationally, and in any event, transmission from birds to humans is extremely rare.  The USDA and state departments of agriculture have implemented a multi-state response plan to respond to this health crisis. 

Do Heritage breeds of poultry have stronger immune systems that will protect them from Avian Influenza and other diseases?

On the pro side:

- Research on heritage turkeys has shown stronger immune systems in the heritage breeds

- The environment that most homestead flocks live in is supportive to strong immune systems (for example, air quality is far superior than for many intensively reared flocks)

- Smaller flocks, lower density, distance from large farms, and less people-traffic to and from farms all help isolate homestead flocks from potential sources of disease.  This is typically why small flocks experience less disease, is due to less exposure. 

On the con side:

- HPAI is really deadly, so as far as strong immune systems go, it's like comparing seasonal flu with the 1918 Spanish Flu

- Small flocks have been affected this year.  The numbers look lower because the flocks are smaller, and because small flocks tend to be more isolated which can help reduce their exposure.

- The two methods of transmission that have been a problem this year are wild waterfowl and windborne dust from nearby commercial poultry farms, followed by transmission by people.  (Usually it's people then waterfowl, and this is the first time wind has been an important factor.)

Actions for small flock holders:

• Flock owners should not rely on better immune systems to keep their birds safe, any more than they would with their kids.
• Reduce chances for exposure.  This means keeping your birds away from areas that attract migratory birds, such as farm ponds, and keeping migratory birds away from your flocks (for example, excluding them from feeding areas).  The primary route of bird to bird transmission is feces. 
• Frequent rotation of pastured poultry also helps reduce exposure.
• If your farm is located in a high risk state, and is within a few miles of commercial poultry operations, or near fields that spray poultry waste as fertilizer, work with a veterinarian on a good biosecurity plan.  Biosecurity resources can be found here: 

http://www.livestockconservancy.org/index.php/resources/internal/biosecurity

• Even if your farm isn't near wetlands or commercial flocks, review your biosecurity and consider changes to any practices that are most likely to put your flock at risk.  Depending upon your farm, this could include whether, when, and how new birds are added to the flock, limiting the areas where farm customers can go on your farm, or even meeting other farmers and customers at a neutral location. Places where other poultry farmers go, such as feed stores, processing plant, or even the diner may be places where manure can be picked up on shoes and taken back to your farm. If you or your kids exhibit at fairs, practice lots of extra biosecurity and quarantine returning birds for one month.
• If you have spent years selecting and developing the poultry in your flocks, are those genetics replicated somewhere else?

The multi-state response to HPAI includes more frequent flock testing, and outreach and education to backyard bird owners and hunters.  Many states are conducting additional biosecurity training for small flock owners;  contact your livestock extension agent for information.  So far, only flocks that were positively identified with HPAI have been depopulated.  HPAI has a very high mortality rate, and it is probable that most of the birds in these flocks would have died from the disease, while serving as a reservoir of infection to wild and domestic birds in the surrounding area.    

Monitor your state Department of Agriculture’s news releases for updates, and consider attending biosecurity training or consulting with your veterinarian. Please help do your part to protect your flocks and heritage breeds by reviewing these materials and implementing a plan of your own.