Wool is not dead in Ohio

By Matt Reese

In 2023, the nation’s wool industry saw the end of an era with Mid-States Wool Growers Cooperative closing its doors after more than a century of service to sheep producers. The central Ohio location in Fairfield County was the last of the cooperative and for outside observers it appeared that the wool market was dead.

“Wool is not dead in Ohio,” said Amy Schroeder, a Hancock County Merino sheep producer. “Wool has a lot of different forms than what everyone’s perceptions are. When Mid-States closed, it seemed that wool was really not worth anything. Why should we bother putting any effort into creating any kind of infrastructure, a wool pool, anything of that sort? And that really irritates me because wool is worth something. It depends on what kind of wool you have. If you’re going to raise meat breeds and market lambs, then yeah that’s probably true, your wool is not worth anything.… Continue reading