™ ® May 2013
Volume 70, No. 5
Roswell Wool
A Local Success Story, an International Warehouse by Dalene Hodnett, Director of Communications and Media Relations
Mike Corn, Manager of Roswell Wool and past President of Chaves County Farm Bureau, displays a sample of wool offered in a recent sale.
from its two warehouses in Roswell , NM and their new location in Bakersfield, CA. As wool production began to decline in the state, Corn began to court producers from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona. The Bakersfield, CA warehouse has become an important part of Roswell’s operation and is now becoming a staging warehouse for wools from all over the western United States to be exported. Wool is shipped in large nylon bags called “Aussie packs” and once it is received samples are taken and sent to Denver to be tested. Measurements are taken for vegetative matter content, staple length, and micron count. A micron is a micrometer (a millionth of a meter) and is measured by a laser scanner. The
measurement is used to describe the diameter of a single fiber of wool. A very fine wool measures around 17-20 microns and is used for suits, whereas coarser wool is used for blankets or carpets. Uniforms are a primary destiny for much of the U.S. clip since dress uniforms for every branch of the armed services must be made out of domestically produced wool. This is due to the Berry amendment of 1941 which stipulates that the Department of Defense use items wholly of U.S. origin. Burlington Industries currently has the DoD contract for worsted wool and was at the auction along with buyers from Pendelton of Oregon, Chargeurs Wool and Lempriere of South Carolina, and Keese International of Brady, Texas. In fact many of the same buyers have been attending the Roswell Wool auctions for over 20 years. Prices this past April averaged around $2.00 a pound for the 175 greasy-wool lots. The warehouse was cont. on page 6, see Roswell Wool
“Quality wool.” “Business deals with integrity.” “A company that feels like a family.” Those were some of the phrases used by buyers to describe Roswell Wool at their April auction. Buyers who came from Texas, Oregon, South Carolina, Chicago and China to bid on wool that is then shipped to South Carolina, China, Germany, and Italy. What draws such international trade to Roswell, New Mexico? The largest wool warehouse under in the United States - and its manager Mike Corn. More than 4 million pounds of wool are marketed in a given year by Roswell Wool May 2013
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