24 The Business of Prairie Agriculture Better Farming | October 2024 WOOL PELLETS & SOIL Munn-Venn: “Wool pellets also act as a slow-release fertilizer, increase soil organic matter, reduce soil compaction (by increasing soil pore space through that expansion and contraction), and repel bugs and slugs.” Osborn adds that, “Wool pellets could be an excellent alternative to peat moss. “Peat moss is effective, but extractive, and peat bogs are crucial parts of an ecosystem. Wool is being grown all the time, and currently is just being thrown away.” Further, Munn-Venn says that wool could be “part of the climate solution. There are so many places we use synthetics where wool could be the alternative. Processing (wool products) produces few greenhouse gases (GHGs) and wool itself can sequester GHGs. “It’s a circular product that can stay local. Sheep eat grass to grow wool, then the wool can be used to grow vegetation. This prioritizes local biomass being kept in local areas.” On the surface, it seems like wool pellets are an easy, obvious answer to so many potential problems. So what stops everyone from using wool pellets as a soil amendment? “Lack of knowledge,” says Maksymiuk. “It’s another expense, and people can be hesitant to take a chance. It feels like a new and scary option, working against so many other options that people know about – like peat moss – that everyone has been using forever. They feel safer using the old methods. I’m finding that people are opening up to the new ideas, and willing to try more, as more people are using it.” Osborn agrees. “Lack of education. When I say ‘I process wool,’ the first thing you think of is yarn. “People don’t know anything about wool products, but once they see how much water wool holds compared to peat moss, there is no comparison. The people – the gardeners and the farmers – need to see it before they’ll trust it, though.” The education around wool is coming. Munn-Venn is a representative of the Canadian Wool Collective, “a grassroots-registered nonprofit with a mission to promote wool as a valuable renewable commodity in Canada.” It started as monthly coffeehouse chats and was registered as a national nonprofit in 2023.” Have questions about what to do with your wool? Look no further than the Canadian Wool Collective. As always, too, money talks for all involved in the pelleting process. Maksymiuk supplies mostly to gardeners because “the cost of production is just too high for the amount that is needed for a conventional-sized farm.” Unfortunately, as it stands right now, wool pellets as a soil amendment product are only cost-effective on small scales. It could be cost-prohibitive for a crop farmer to add a meaningful amount of wool pellets onto their fields, although Osborn would love to partner with a crop farmer and try it out. “We need more research and more data to prove that these wool products can truly work as a soil amendment. Just imagine what wool pellets could do to the tops of knolls where the organic matter is low and water is the limiting yield factor.” The other side to pelleting is the “uncertainty of markets for starting pelleting. Pelleting is an old process, and wool is, well, wool, yet there are conversations on patenting certain pelleting processes. Can you patent a technology that is hundreds of years old? I don’t know, but it’s certainly a concern to someone considering importing equipment from another country,” says Osborn. Maksymiuk agrees, and understands why people might be wary of getting into this particular business. “I got my equipment from Europe. There are some available in the States, but I’m not aware of a Canadian supplier. It’s an expense, for sure. You need the time to run the equipment and you need to market your products, and then actually sell them.” Osborn is hopeful and optimistic about the future of the wool market in Canada. “Wool is not worthless; it might just call for some creativity and you know who’s great at finding creative solutions? Farmers. Wool pellet mills can successfully run as a smallscale business that doesn’t need much infrastructure. “My dream would be to see a wool pellet mill every 100 kilometres. That way, smaller communities would share the costs and the success.” Osborn’s dream is broader and more complex than just community economy. “Wool products can build rural resilience. Economically and socially, most pellet mills are small womenowned-and-ran businesses and have a conscientiousness that just doesn’t seem to exist in large businesses.” For Osborn, the access that sheep can grant women in agriculture is crucial. “There is a reason they were domesticated. You’ll always win in a disagreement with a sheep.” On top of As farmers, you’re on the front lines of our industry. If you want coverage of an ag issue or trend, email: Paul.Nolan@Farms.com
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