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Karen Mayhew, left, and Elaine Becker turn raw wool into pellets used by gardeners.
Raw wool from shearers arrives at Woollets in bags that weigh as much as 200 pounds.
Wool is shredded by a machine from Kovo Novák, a Czechia-based company specializing in wool-processing equipment.
After being shredded the wool is dried and large particles are sifted out.
A Buskirk Engineering machine heat-presses shredded wool into pellets.
Pellets are dried before being packaged for retail sale.
Woollets sells 16-ounce packages for $16 per bag.
Karen Mayhew, in addition to the Woollets business, raises a small flock of 40 heritage-breed sheep with her husband, along with a varying number of chickens, goats, rabbits and a cranky guardian llama.
Woollets produces wool pellets that are incorporated into root systems to retain water, aerate soil and fertilize plants.
ARGYLE, Wis. – The sudden closure of Mid-States Wool Growers Cooperative in 2022 left Karen Mayhew and other shepherds across the Midwest in the lurch. The Ohio-based cooperative shut down after more than 100 years in business, citing a collapsing market for coarse wools. Formerly used in some clothing, coarse wool is now mainly sold for industrial uses.
Carter Jones writes about agriculture as a staff reporter for Agri-View based in Wisconsin.
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