“Your wool is worth nothing.”

At Leaf Livestock Wool Company in Geneseo, Illinois, we’ve raised Polypay sheep for 25+ years and naturally colored Rambouillet/Columbia crosses for about 10 years. Recently, we added Merinos and a couple of Targhees. We had as few as 15 sheep on the farm in 1998 and as many as 250 ewes at our height in the early 2010s. Our former shearer, with many years of shearing experience, used to buy our flock’s wool and haul it away in large burlap bags. He returned in a couple days with a check from a wool warehouse in northern Illinois.

One spring about 10 years ago, our shearing day was in full swing, and I was the wool bag stuffer. That year, we’d added a few beautiful brown and gray ewes to our flock when we fell in love with them at a sheep show. Before too long, I was ogling our beautiful brown wool, dreaming about learning how to spin yarn. After finishing shearing our flock, we were talking with the shearer about our wool. I was bragging about how stunning it was, particularly the brown wool, and he stated, “Your wool is worth nothing.”

My beautifully soft wool! Immediately I was offended. What did he mean? His livelihood depended on wool; certainly he’d have a better outlook.

A Frank Look at Wool Value

I didn’t fully understand then that the shearer was expressing his knowledge of the American wool industry and market. Wool prices were terrible, and they had been for years.