Part 2: Wool Pellets Are Part of Sustainable Ag Industry

Today is part two of this two-part series featuring sheep and wool producer Albert Wilde of Wild Alley Farms based in Ohio. Yesterday, he talked about his wool pelleting business, and how the idea developed for supplying water to nursery plants. Today, he talks about his niche market of pelletizing wool for organic fertilizer in row cropping systems.

“With the University of Vermont, that's where we did it was a row crop trial. And that's how they were, you know, applying it is right into the furrow with the seed. So they were putting the walk-in with the seed and putting it through the machine. And that's what we had done originally on our farm just as a as a trial. And that's a great way. This study that I mentioned with the range land, their drill that they're trying to put the seed is a lot smaller. So it's still in the back of a tractor, that they contacted us and said, Well, we like the quarter-inch pellet, you've got the diameter, but can you make it a smaller one so we've actually gotten with a four-millimeter pellet and we're hoping that that will feed through their machine even better so there's still development in that but I mean, there's there's a real benefit there too.”

These wool pellets, composed solely of natural ingredients with no additives can reduce water usage by up to 25% according to Wilde and he says the pellets align seamlessly with sustainability initiatives embraced by various sectors of the agriculture industry.