The Soft Touch: Technology helping sheep ranchers stay in business

John Helle stops for a second to reach over and pull out a staple of wool from a fleece spread over a nearby sorting table.

By Perry Backus of the Montana Standard

Behind him, the ranch’s sheering plant is a whirl of activity. Six New Zealanders wrestle purebred ewes from nearby chutes before skillfully removing a year’s growth of wool with electric sheers. Just as quickly as the fleece falls away, others gather the wool and fling them across a sorting table.

After being tagged with a number that corresponds with a sheep’s ear tag, a small bit of each fleece finds its way into a high-tech device called the Optical Fiber Density Analyzer that measures the strands in microns and spits out information that measures the “comfort factor” of each fleece.

“We used to do all that by hand,” Helle aid, pulling the small bit of wool apart to the point that each strand is visible. “You can train your eye to look for the same thing the machine is doing, but you’re only going to be 60 to 70 percent accurate. We’re hoping to be closer to 90 percent.”

With quality wool prices soaring over the past few years, that difference can help Montana’s sheep ranchers keep their books in the black.

There are only a handful of the portable analyzers being used in the field, said Virginia Nettles, Montana State University’s wool laboratory superintendent. The machine helps producers sort out the best wool from the rest.

“We measure the comfort factor on a scale from zero to 100,” she said. “Most of what we’ve seen today is in the 97 to 100 percent level. This is the good stuff.”

Technology is helping to give ranchers like Helle an edge in a very competitive
market.

“The only way to survive in this business is to keep up with advancements in technology,” said Helle. “The ones that aren’t going to make it are the people who don’t adapt.”

Montana’s sheep industry has been going through tough times. In the late 1990s, ranchers watched wool prices plummet after Australia flooded the market with stockpiled wool, and a U.S. wool incentive program dried up. In just a handful of years, Montana’s sheep numbers have gone from 800,000 to fewer than 300,000.

“Beaverhead County alone used to have more than 300,000,” Helle said. “Running sheep is becoming a lost art. Sheep are not as easy to run as cattle, but if you know what you’re doing, there’s a lot of potential for additional income from the wool and the fact they often have multiple births.”

Like many other agricultural products, wool prices haven’t kept pace with inflation.

“My grandfather sold wool during World War II for 40 to 50 cents a pound,” Helle said. “Even with the higher prices we’re receiving now, it’s nowhere close to keeping up with inflation.”

Julie Shiflett, an American Sheep Industry Association economic consultant, said wool prices have jumped dramatically over the last three years. Back in 1999, high grade wool was selling for 95 cents a pound. That same wool now brings $2.40 to $2.60 a pound.

A shortage of fine wool is driving prices, but Shiflett cautioned that the floundering U.S. economy could slow demand.
“Wool is considered a luxury good,” she said. “In difficult economic times, people will substitute for cheaper fibers.”

That’s something that wool producers like Helle are working to stop. Recently, Helle and others traveled to Australia and New Zealand to take a look at marketing efforts happening in the heart of the world’s wool industry. He discovered that today’s fine wool products are turning up in places you’d never suspect, including baby’s clothing and women’s lingerie.

In the past, wool has gotten a bad rap for comfort against the skin.
“The scratchiness people sometimes feel with wool products isn’t allergenic,” Helle said. “That’s caused by the sharpness of the fiber against the skin.”

Fine wool products are not only comfortable, but also wear better than many other fiber products.

In New Zealand, Helle learned that a group of ranchers who specialize in producing fine wool had banded together and created a product now very much in demand in that country. “New Zealand Merino has become a brand name just like Pepsi Cola,” he said. “People look for it and are willing to pay a bit more for it. We need to try and do more promotion in this country.”
The vest Helle wears is made from New Zealand Merino.

“I know this vest is going to look nice for a long time into the future,” he said. “Other fibers don’t wear nearly as well as wool.”

Producers are also benefiting from higher prices for lambs. A “terrible drought” last year in Australia has helped drive those prices higher, Shiflett said. In the past three years, prices have gone from 75 cents a pound to more than $1.
Considering what it costs to raise lambs, those prices should be closer to $1.25 a pound, said Dick Everett, president of the Montana Wool Growers Association.

“Wool and lamb prices are just at the point where you can keep your head above water,” Everett said. “You’re not going to get rich at it.”

Two or three years ago, lamb prices dropped to the low 50 to high 40-cent range.
“Back then we were just covering costs,” he said.

“So when the prices jump to the 85 to 90 cent range, it sounds like a big boom, but there’s no big boom happening out there.”

“It’s one of those jobs that if you don’t really enjoy, you’re not going to be doing it,” said Everett.

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