First Processed 100% Gulf Coast (Native) Wool

I guess there are a few firsts going on around here lately.  We got our order of roving and top back from Zeilinger Wool Company today.  Kudos to them for getting us our rush order a week before our first fiber show of the year.  24 pounds came in all together, but that includes the box, bags, and a bag of noil (short bits that didn’t process).  We ended up with 10 pounds of top and 9 pounds of roving.  Here’s the reveal…

So, big box & bags full of creamy colored fiber stuff!  Hmm, what’s next…

Above you see top to the left, all nicely coiled up, then roving on the right, then the whole haul.

And lastly, here’s a closer look at the actual products.  Top is the super thin stuff, roving is the thick stuff.

The top is just super whispy.  It’s extremely clean but even so, it has the odd bit of vegetable matter (VM) in it.  It must be virtually impossible to get it all out.  I have to admit to a bit of disappointment at how much VM was in the roving.  However, I don’t know what’s normal or possible when it comes to commercially made roving so my feelings may be unfounded.  I do know that when we use our hand drum carder we end up with less VM, but a whole lot of detail and picking goes into doing that.  A machine is only going to get so much out at each level of processing.  You can see the tremendous difference in the top vs. the roving.  The more steps, the less VM, and roving is pretty much the beginning product that you can get off the line.  Also, the cleaner the wool going in, the less VM coming out.  My sheep never go to the stylist.  They prefer to stick their heads into hay bales instead.  Given that, this may be the best that could be expected.  One very nice positive about the VM though is that its proof the wool was not acid washed and still in a very natural state. I simply don’t know what’s possible.  Hopefully it’ll still spin up really nicely.

Now we have to figure out how we’re going to price it.  The top will naturally command a premium, especially since this is 100% Gulf Coast Native sheep wool.  It’s very rare.  That doesn’t mean there will be a demand for it though.  Only time will tell there.  It’ll be interesting to see which sells better.

First DPR Meat Processing Trip

I’m starting this post “the night before” so time references will reflect that.

Tomorrow morning we head up to Johnson City to bring three ram lambs in for processing. This will be the first meat ever harvested from our ranch.   We’ll be using Harvest House Farms to do the job.  They’re USDA certified which makes things much simpler than a Texas Dept. of Agriculture (TDA) certified facility due to labeling requirements.  Since we’ve never done this before, we’ll have to get educated on what cuts we can get out of an animal.  While there are many possible cuts, only a certain number of them can be realized.  And if you pick one cut, you may lose the ability to get another kind.  I figure we’ll see if we can get any sales out of this meat and then decide when or if to process more.  We have four more in the immediate queue.  I do know we’re going to stock our own freezer with a bunch of this and, I hope, thoroughly enjoy it.  You’ll be some of the first to know!

So tonight, we had to play shuffle the sheep, trick the sheep, capture the sheep, and load the sheep.  It’s quite a game as you might imagine.  Then you follow that up with the “secure the trailer for transport” game.  Lives depend on that one so you gotta do it right.  I was behind a rancher hauling cattle once.  His trailer had rotten parts in the floor.  I was watching cows put their legs through the floor while this guy continued to tool on down the road.  I stopped him and pointed out his problem.  Not sure exactly what he did about it but I did what I could that day.  But you see what I mean.  Animal transport for any reason is not something to do carelessly.  But back to the “______ the sheep” game.  Our set up is very Red Neck Chic around here.  Nothing is modern or in good condition.  That makes the game more challenging.  Shockingly, and I do mean shockingly, we pulled off the whole maneuver without a hitch.  God had mercy on us!  It was almost like we knew what we were doing and had done it before.  Well, we have done some of it before.  Shuffle the sheep is an integral part of shearing day which we just had.  We also had a trick up our sleeve for the “trick the sheep” part.  You put the trailer where the animal is going to end up in the paddock with them and feed them in it for a few days.  Then they want to go in there.  One of the three didn’t even have to be caught, he just went right in.  I’m really hoping that tomorrow will be highly anti-climatic as I really don’t want ANY excitement to occur on this trip.  Excitement normally equals bad.  Now if we happen to find a winning lotto ticket lying around, that’s different…

For now, off to never never land until morning arrives far too quickly.

This was our redneck engineered livestock trailer.

The next day…

We got up at Oh dark thirty this morning to get on the road by 6:30.  We nearly made it.  Fortunately, the processor has a window of between 8:00 and 9:00 to drop off livestock.  We made it in plenty of time.  The trip was a little nerve-wracking for me as I’d never transported animals before.  I kept my speed down which at times blocked traffic behind me but not too badly.  Most of the trip was through the scenic hill country.  Unfortunately, that also means lots of curvy single lane roads with lots of ups and downs.  I worried about the trailer and cage staying together even though I secured it so heavily the guy at the processor even mentioned it to me.  The setup was a small 4 X 7 foot trailer with a sheet of plywood for the floor and a cage on top.  You can see in the pic above that we wrapped it with a tarp to keep the wind off the sheep.  It actually worked pretty well.

Once we arrived, we had to wait in line.  After a couple of cattle trailers unloaded, it was our turn.  Since the whole thing could not go off without a hitch, I busted one of the trailer side tail lights backing up.  Not badly but I’ll probably have to replace the whole light.  The unload was super easy.  They had a pretty nice multifunctional dock that fit my trailer as well as “normal” ones.  Once we unloaded and took off the now unnecessary bits of the setup, we went inside to set up the cut list.  Since this was the first time we’d ever had an animal processed, we had no idea what to expect or ask for.  I think they were so used to it that they really didn’t know what to tell a first timer but they did try.  I made it out the door to the truck twice before I turned around and asked questions again but I think we got most of it.  We’re getting a variety of cuts including one done in total ground so we’ll have a lot of ground lamb burger to sell.  The trip home was uneventful.

Now this next bit is kind of a sensitive subject but I want to be honest and open about the whole thing.  The trip was rather emotional.  Most people don’t think about where their food comes from for a second.  When you grow it, it’s a whole nuther ball game.  Even if you distance yourself from the animal, I found that for me, being directly involved was a little emotional.  It was a lot emotional for Mary.  In our work as ranchers, we’ve always felt the loss of any animal pretty keenly.  And if you did something that contributed to that loss, it really could hit you pretty hard.  In this case, we’re doing something on purpose that will cause the loss of the animal.  It makes the same feelings show up.  For me though, it means I’m going to respect the meals we get and the sales we get from those animals a whole lot more than I would if we had just bought some meat.  Now if you are not a meat eater for “moral” reasons, I’ll respect your choice if you respect mine.  I won’t argue with you about it in the comments though and if you’re an ass, I’ll delete you.  Honest questions are fine.

All in all, it was an adventure no matter how you look at it but I’m glad it’s over.