Texas Wool Sales Disappointing;
79 Cents Is High On Short Wool

By Colleen Schreiber

DEL RIO — The domestic wool market took a dive last week as Texas warehouses were preparing to offer the season’s traditional first round of sealed-bid sales. Growers and warehousemen knew that the market was off considerably from last year, but there was still hope for 90 cent wool.

Those hopes were dashed however, in part when Australia’s Eastern Market Indicator lost 40 cents.

The round of sales began Wednesday in Brackettville, where eight month paint-free wools averaged from 70 to 79.5 cents and 12 month ranged from 70 to 77 cents.

The following morning, directors of Val Verde Wool and Mohair Co. at Del Rio voted to cancel their wool sale in light of the previous day’s sale results.

"It was our feeling that the wool buyers were only going to buy ‘X’ pounds of wool, and everything else was going to be left to be cleaned up, so to speak," said manager Neil Kerr. "By canceling the sale we didn’t price the wool, and so we maybe we can come back at a later time or through private treaty and sell the wools.

"We’re not thinking that it’s necessarily going to get better. I don’t know if we did the right thing or the wrong thing, but what we did, we did."

Some individual growers, however, opted to offer their wool. The warehouse had 211,000 pounds of eight-month wool cataloged, and in the end 50,000 pounds of it sold for an average price of 75.6 cents. The short wools ranged from 65.125 to 77 cents.

In addition, 162,000 pounds of 12-month wool was cataloged. Of that, 105,000 pounds sold for an average price of 85.9 cents with wools ranging from 70 to 91.625 cents.

Tonnage, Kerr said, was about the same as the previous year, but he added that an influx of northern wools has helped stabilize their tonnage.

"I don’t know if our sheep numbers are the same, but our pounds are the same," Kerr commented.

Ozona Wool and Mohair Co. offered 110,000 pounds of wool Friday. Of the 90,000 pounds of short wools offered, 29,000 pounds went unsold. Prices ranged from 64 to 77 cents with the bulk falling in the 71 to 72 cent range.

Manager Joe Will Ross said tonnage was off some 30,000 pounds from last year.

Also on Friday, Sanderson Wool Commission Company and Wool Growers Central Storage Co. in Ozona offered 590,000 pounds of lamb and all other finewools. Of that, 136,000 pounds of short paint-free wool sold for 45 to 76.5 cents and 430,000 pounds of paint-free 12 month wool sold for 37 to 94.5 cents.

Manager Donnie Laughlin said wool prices were off 35 to 40 percent compared to year-ago levels. Tonnage, as at other warehouses, was off some 15 to 20 percent, but he attributes that in part to lighter shearing weights.

Overall, the wools were a little shorter and more tender due to tough range conditions in the area. Quality on the eight-month was good, he said.

"Wools were real clean but were a little drier and drouthy looking.

"We’re pretty disappointed," Laughlin said of the sale results. "The problem is, we don’t see any quick fixes or things changing anytime soon.

"I haven’t seen many get out yet," Laughlin remarked of his growers, "but that’s coming. It’s been too dry too long, along with bad prices."

Scattered showers across the area early this week, he said, dropped anywhere from eight-tenths to as much as two inches but that barely helped settle the dust.