' Marketing Texas Wool ' on a Quality Bari: 6mm 1955 flulleluz ~ 8.23‘ TEXAS AGRIIIIILTIIRAI. EXPERIMENT STATIIIN - - - TEXAS AfiRlflllTlIRAl EXTENSIIIN SERVICE College Station, Texas SUMMARY Most of the wool produced in Texas is sold 0n an ungraded 0r “original” bag basis at an average price which pays relatively more for low grades and less for high grades than they would bring if sold on a graded basis. With comparable characteristics, Texas wool sells for approximately 10 percent less in the domestic market than foreign wool, mainly because of being ungraded and poorly pre- pared. An analysis of the clips of 42 growers in Sutton county in 1952 showed that wool qual- ity increases with the size of clips. However, the small producer who improves the quality of his sheep and prepares his fleeces properly can market just as high-quality wool as the grower of a large clip. This is an excellent way for the small producer to increase his in- come without increasing the size of his operation. A direct correlation was found between length of staple and clean content in scouring tests made on 49 bags of graded and ungraded wool. Fine Staple yielded 2 percent more clean wool than the average of the lot, while Fine French Combing, Fine Clothing and “orig- inal bag” yielded 2.3, 7.4 and .2 percent, respectively, less than the average of the total..- The “quality index” is an objective method used to measure the progress of sheep im- provement and wool preparation programs. Using this method, the 1954 wool clips of 61 pro- ducers showed an increase in quality of 1.66 points over the 1948 wool clips of approximately the same producers. This meant a price increase of .94 cent per pound over the price they would have received had their quality remained at the 1948 level. The records of 75 producers whose wool was graded at the shearing pen in 1950 show that the 28 producers who selected their sheep on a staple length basis received 5.8 cents more per pound than the 47 producers who did not follow this practice. The benefits derived from this practice were about 50 cents per head, which more than paid all shearing costs, including bags, twine and extra labor. Comparative prices of graded and ungraded wool for 1948, 1952 and 1953 show that the grower who sold on a graded basis received 25 to 50 cents more per fleece for his wool than the grower who sold on an ungraded basis. This is an increase of $30,000 to $60,000 per million pounds of wool. CONTENTS Page Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3 Experimental Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Quality as Indicated by Grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Relation of Quality to Size oi Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 4 Clean Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Combing Tests . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Use of a Quality Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Importance oi Selling on a Quality Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5 Improved Production Practices Pay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 . ‘HE LOCAL MARKETING OF WOOL IS ONE OF THE st important problems facing Texas WOOl pro- ers. Various phases of the marketing process eady have been improved. The principal pro- ling areas have local Warehouses, and storage tilities generally are adequate. Some ware- ‘uses have begun recently to put several bags wool into a bale of approximately 1,000 pounds .1 ship them by truck to the central markets. ‘s saves both time and money. But the prac- A- of selling wool on an ungraded “original bag” is persists. Such sales result in indiscriminate iaverage prices which yield relatively more for ' low grades and less for the high grades of n than their real market value. ‘The United States is the only wool-producing l‘ ntry which markets most of its wool on an un- ided basis. As a consequence, foreign Wools similar quality, but graded and classified be- e sale, bring a premium of about 10 percent r U. S. wools in the domestic market. These eign WOOlS are attractive and, as a result of eful preparation, have a comparatively lower _ conversion cost. They are free of tags. clip- gs and off-type wool, and are highly uniform ength, fineness and strength. The main marketing problem of the Texas 1 grower is to prepare and classify his fleeces that he can sell on a graded or quality basis. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE This bulletin reports research findings from 8through 1954 on the feasibility of better paration of wool for the local market by the wer, the advantages of selling on a graded or lity basis and the comparative prices receiv- spectively, wool and mohair technician, Substation No. , McGregor, Texas; professor, Department of Agricul- K. Economics and Sociology, College Station, Texas; . economist, Texas Agricultural Extension Service, lege Station, Texas. Marketing T exas Wool on a Quality Bari: STANLEY P. DAVIS, L.LP. GABBARD and ALVIN B. WOOTEN* ed for graded and ungraded wool of similar qual- ity. Sutton county was selected as a sample area for grading at shearing pens. It is centrally lo- cated on the Edwards Plateau, the principal wool- producing region of Texas. For many years, sheep raisers in this section have shown a keen interest in sheep improvement and the production of bet- ter wool. Through local warehouses they have worked for better preparation of their wool for the market. Warehouse officials helped to obtain the co- operation of local ranchmen in grading their W001 at the shearing pens. Grading was done by the Sonora Wool and Mohair Company with the as- sistance of two wool technicians provided by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. Bagging frames for at least three wool bags were added to the usual shearing equipment. Brooms were used constantly on both sides of the shearing machine to prevent “fribs,” “tags” and other off-type WOOl from being tied with.the fleec- es. Whenever possible, the grading procedure was explained to the shearing “operators” before shearing began. Extreme care was taken in roll- ing and picking up the fleeces from the shearing boards. QUALITY AS INDICATED BY GRADE Accurate sampling methods and adequate measurements of the physical properties of wool are necessary to determine quality. Such infor- mation is essential to efficient production, mar- keting and utilization. The feasibility of grad- ing wool at the shearing pens and selling it on the basis of grade in the local market was emphasiz- ed in this study. A more comprehensive and in- tensive analysis of the quality of wool in relation to the market is planned to supplement the cur- rent study. TABLE 1. SUMMARY OF GRADED 12-MONTHS’ FINE WOOL Quantity. (pounds) Percent of total No CH s Fine Fine Fine Tags 6. Fine Fine Fine Tags 6. ' p Staple Fr. Comb. Clothing clippings Staple Fr. Comb. Clothing clippingsl 59 345.504 270.079 75.506 64.569 45.7 35.8 10.0 8.5 79 618.805 376.021 61.649 136.071 51.9 31.5 5.2 11.4 75 513.328 307.695 131.667 114.123 48.1 28.9 12.3 10.7 42 303.263 210.000 31.824 46.514 51.3 35.5 5.4 7.8 56 296.410 209.909 32.170 53.757 50.1 35.4 5.4 9.1 62 522.1918 202.650 42.806 72.831 62.1 24.1 5.1 8.7 62 433.251 262.726 62.604 81.311 51.6 31.3 7.5 9.6 'ppings" is the product ot the sheep-tagging operation prior to lambing. “Tags" is the wool swept from shearing boards. 3 TABLE 2. GRADE VARIATIONS IN CLEAN CONTENT OF 49 BAGS OF WOOL Range in clean Variation of No. content from total from Grade bags average average percent percent Fine Staple 19 —4.7 to +9.3 2.0 Fine French Combing 13 -6.7 to +8.5 -—2.3 Fine Clothing 1 —7.4 Ungraded 16 —8.3 to + 11.8 —0.Z The wool reported in Table 1 was of 64’s-80’s quality and 12 months’ growth. The unstretched staple lengths were: Fine Staple, 21/2-81/2 inches; Fine French Combing, 2-21/2 inches; Fine Cloth- ing, 11/2-2 inches, including all “tender” fleeces. RELATION OF QUALITY TO SIZE OF CLIP Figure 1 shows the grades of wool by clips for 42 growers in 1952. The 1O largest clips showed 12 percent more Fine Staple than the average. The 10 smallest clips had slightly more Fine Staple than the average. The medium-size clips showed about 5 percent less Fine Staple than the average, but about 7 percent more Fine French Combing. With notable exceptions, as shown in Figure 1, the wool improved in quality with an increase in the size of clip. However, the small producer who improves the quality of his sheep and prepares his fleeces properly can market just as high quality wool as the grower of large clips and increase his income without changing the size of his operation. Clean Content The clean content of wool is the weight re- maining after the raw wool has been scoured or Percent IOO \/ . i ‘~44’. ' ', , ._ if/il, . (1 .. w" "‘ x ~11" "<44. . : I ' ll‘! ‘ . t" > “‘,\ . l o n .31; i)’: _‘~ ,' f!‘ f . ,-_ _ . g ,. - \‘ , - i", v9" 4O "”f"<* I I “ f " - , , , k\ I " . ‘ ,1 . i,’ H“ In: ' h)’, . ‘l i‘ .... ~ : / ' , {i ~‘ ' 4 I n" “ t. //' ‘if: ~‘ ..' 2O A ‘"31"- "II/r .-‘// I IH/HJPIH, - .- ‘f! fir‘ ,1, ' -~ ,1 I» 4 .4404. - r ' ‘ .1 v~ . . p» H ‘ U ‘z A _ U ; A , . J 11/11,’ » »\l/, H u‘ ~/’//'/» . A 4/44’. "in. 241;” m, I t’! l; ~‘ ./ l!“ ' . __.y_,',/;l\/~/~, ‘it ,. H ,-v//,y§j/ ~~’,,,.../_((l/r'/1 ‘I, ._*..._ _ f» . , .,. ‘--_////~;‘,-- ‘I _// ~~:-,_/_1.///{/_/ -~ 11.04am f‘ ~-,':'r’/I_If-1I/ 1 ~‘ ~~ ,.'/fl(1///, ~~,.~//,///// 1' x . . U , .1 ,_ | O _ ‘if? jf/g. W115i,‘ ' .4!!! zmfliq H. _, (Ix/n 4/10 v/m‘ ~’~’ ~’~’~’/.~.;»>/,~.J= 55’~”'T’-'<<4>2‘ "§'~'/.<>>/§> ”~’*””’/f> »~”' ~' ~/////'<'/r<>n “gate/n @4122,’ p; .555,’- 441/1. v.11»; 1.1.1» 111/”.- ~, / i,1;-'//". ~ J/i/i‘ H’! e55; ‘$556 i5???’ 11/» ‘ I‘ l “ ""51 153"‘? l”? 1'?’ "W1 555555 3559f ‘fez: 9/1", 7 W r‘ .1. ””"’$ 3152"»; 515$} 1Z5; '52s? 10>,- Iffjj}? 1155f; 225/1» "r1455 3§,~,’;T; $5,611" {Riki ivpifj ZfZZfl Z551, '-'/1//,1;,-,,,, w .. 511/. .\ \_"'.-_‘j~ ~, . ‘H.121 {yr ~';.~_ <"!!'.{/:1‘//*“ ._ _ .4414‘ *1" “.1122 »--..//»'I/‘/' O .».-',~.-; .~ 15.1. [>115 136441111: wail 11$ iii/i’ 51¢; raw 1.5K‘ iii/H “xi/z 11m: if? KKK-W w/zi =05? 5W4’.- ‘i/i/f» r1151 Fine Staple Fine French Combing E] Fine Clothing Figure 1. Graded wool of 42 clips in 1952, arranged in ascending order by quality. f!!! Ivyyz. P, m: H. ,1‘,- ‘ i7 / ‘, " wldf.‘ K-f-‘Z-fl-flyys I 1 y I: " '1 .1. z/ .- _ Vii/xx. ‘<4’! 161m ~~~, washed. Clean wool, at 12 percent moisture ~ tent, usually contains a maximum of 1.5 per impurities. The loss in weight in scouring f pressed in percentage is “shrinkage.” It is tomary in domestic wool marketing to arrive a shrinkage figure by estimating the loss in sci ing. The grease value of a lot of wool is then. termined by multiplying the clean content per by the clean value of such wool on the mar, More accurate determinations of these values n be made by core sampling the grease wool _ making clean content determinations of the ples in a wool laboratory. In this study, 49 i vidual bags were selected from lots of the gr and ungraded wools for determination of ' content, as shown in Table 2.‘ * This table shows that clean content incr as staple length increases. The last column sh that the clean content of Fine Staple was 2 5 cent above the average of the total, while ‘a French Combing was 2.3 percent and Fine Cl ing was 7 .4 percent below the average. Un ed or “original bag” was .2 percent below the‘ erage of the total. Combing Tests One lot each of Fine Staple and Fine Fr Combing scoured wool was shipped to a wo J manufacturer for combing tests. Table 3 =2 marizes results of these tests. These sample comparable with the best types of Australian; South African wools. Although these datas inadequate for definite conclusions, they ind the types of wool included in this study. phase of the study is being expanded. f; Peri ‘ t , » > \ t f ‘ , ff-i/I-ii. 2/417, . __ 14/, p; ~ ,. _ _. ; ’/./.4/.- r4411!» @111»! -.,,,,, -,~,-.,<5 55/14 11:1». y, , w ~ 7*" ' §~<’~’=’" "@5514 izkkki '11)». 4w 42/12 $55595 $552,’: 55555 rtif