Sheep, Wool Festival Highlights Show Events
KAREN BUTLER
Maryland Correspondent
WEST FRIENDSHIP. Md.
The Maryland Sheep and Wool
Festival was held here at the How-
ard County fairgrounds recently.
Thousands attended the two
day celebration, which included
sheep shows, fleece and shearing
competitions, a sheep to shawl
contest, and a lamb cook-off.
Highlighting the festival’s
opening was the coronation of
new Maryland Lamb and Wool
royalty. The pageant was hosted
by outgoing Lamb and Wool
queen Laura Langlotz.
Elyssa Hcvner, 14-year-old
daughter of Clifford and Karen
Hevner of Johnsville, Frederick
County, is the new lamb and wool
queen. Elyssa, a seven-year mem
ber of the Johnsville 4-H Club, has
10 Cheviot breeding ewes and one
Hampshire ewe. She showed the
champion ewe at the state level in
1994 and 1995 and won the shep
herd’s lead contest at the state fair
last year. She has shown her sheep
in Montgomery and Frederick
Elyssa Hevner, center, Is flanked by her parents Clifford
and Karen Hevner.
d.i',
- t>N«V
■Keystone ,
■K CONCRETE)
■
1
> on
* 4,
counties, at West Virginia and
Maryland state fairs, and at the
Keystone International Livestock
Expo. She also participates in the
Make It Yourself with Wool con
test Elyssa has a sister, Kirs tie,
and a brother, Tymon.
Jennifer Biser, also 14, will
serve as lamb and wool princess.
Jennifer is the daughter of Joe and
Ruth Biser, Keymar, Frederick
County. She has been a member of
the Johnsville 4-H Club for three
years. Jenny’s main projects have
been her six Cheviot breeding
ewes. She has shown at the county
and state levels and last year had
the reserve grand champion fe
male at the slate level with a
Hampshire. Jenny also partici
pates in both the shepherd’s lead
and the Make It Yourself with
Wool ccmtests. She has a brother,
Joey.
A keynote speaker at the festi
val was Dr. Ron Pope, director of
raw wool services for American
Sheep Industry (ASI), who gave a
talk on “Practical Tips For Survi
val in the 21st Century.” He fo-
jTT^Vfc+•*
■MO.
cused primarily on wool and mar
keting.
Pope said that there have been
many changes in the industry over
the past 40 ears. Forty years ago,
wool was a familiar commodity;
people wore it, and it was very
much a staple in the fiber industry.
There were 40 million head of
sheep in the U.S., producing 300
million pounds of greased wool
annually.
Today, the contrast is dramatic:
there are only eight million head,
with an annual output of 63 mil
lion pounds of greased wool.
Wool is considered a luxury fiber
and accounts for only 3.8 percent
of fiber use worldwide.
“Producer attitudes for the last
40 years have been based on tradi
tion rather than moving forward,”
he said.
Wool prices have been on a de
cline since June 1995, with little
firming in the market Wool is a
globally traded commodity, with
Australia basically setting the
price level wool will be sold at
worldwide.
The U.S. is a big consumer of
wool, but so are Europe, Japan,
and some of the developing coun
tries. Economic recession in Eur
ope and the generally pom* eco
nomies abroad have dictated a de
crease in the quality and quantity
of clothing consumers there are
purchasing.
Economic hardship, coupled
with a backlog of inventory at the
retail level and the fact that wool
is often being left off the menu as
a purchasable item, have led to un
precedented inventory buildups at
the processing and retail levels.
Pope sees several areas the in
dustry as a whole, with specific
emphasis on wool growers and
marketers, can address in an effort
to stay viable in (he face of these
circumstances.
The first is production. As a
‘ Tv* h*Sc
* *' <•
- * * >
i *
t 4 *
/"WAFFLE SLAT'M
'X *■?
'
-
V>,.‘
yjpAl75S7. .
£ - »r Q
4*
From the left: Elyssa Hevner, newly crowned lamb and
wool queen; Laura Langlotz, outgoing queen; and Jennifer
Blser, new princess.
whole, he said, we ignore wool. A
lot of management practices focus
on lamb production. Shearing is
based on lambing time. Feeding
practices are based on lambing.
Wool is often seen as a by-pro
duct. We can have a SO percent
loss of a lamb crop. But it’s very
different to have SO percent fleece
loss. The fleece may be shorter or
less in weight This leads us into a
false sense that there is nothing we
can do. Pope said.
Most people can quote lambing
percentages, but without the Wool
Act and incentives in place, some
may not even keep accurate re
cords of total wool production. He
stressed the importance of know
ing pounds of wool produced,
clean weight, fiber diameter,
strength, length, and appearance,
and using these records as man
agement and marketing tools.
Wool preparation also plays a
big part in the viability of the
operation. Since the wool grower
is producing a raw material, he has
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, May 18, 1996*09
no way of passing on the cost of
preparation to anyone. This is true
as a whole in the agricultural com
munity, said Dr. Pope, and it car
ries over into wool and lamb pro
duction. Not all wool on the fleece
is the same. In both the cottage in
dustry and on the commercial
side. Pope advocates separating
fleece according to what’s in it,
and also suggests grouping like
wools together.
Years ago, brokers had huge
sorting warehouses for wool.
Then, as the brokers went out of
business, mills started to grade,
sort, and separate wool. About
eight years ago, mills found that it
was not cost effective; that they
could buy Australian wool and not
have to worry about it As the
domestic clip keeps getting small
er, the domestic grower must
grade and sort the wool himself, or
another profit center in the chain
will. Not every producer needs to
totally skirt and class their clip.
(Turn to Page DIO)