Sheep must be sheared regularly in order to remain healthy, but there is not a ready market for the wool that is collected. This has meant that farmers often store bags and bags of the wool in their barns, accumulating a product that doesn't have a place to go.

Kimberly Hagen of the Center's Pasture Program (and herself a long-time sheep farmer) became aware that in other places, including Europe and the western US, enterprising farmers and interested partners in the building trades were turning wool into building insulation. Suzy Hodgson, the Center's Sustainable Agriculture Outreach Specialist, also saw the intrinsic properties of Vermont wool as a possible energy efficient and renewable home material.

In fall 2016, with funding from a USDA Rural Development grant in place and support from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, the team announced a one-year feasibility study with the purpose of learning whether this is a possible fit for the needs of Vermont's shepherds and its green building trade. The project started in January, 2017 and concluded in 2019 with community presentations about the development of Vermont wool pellets as a soil amendment.

In 2020 we began planning the next phases of the project, which - with funding - will include both an in-depth research on how the pellets affect productivity, water, and soil chemistry and structure, and also a pilot to determine the actual costs and requirements of at-scale production of the pellets using Vermont wool. (Here is some of the information we're sharing about the project (PDF), and we also invite you to visit here if you're interested in supporting this exciting work.)  Though the pandemic has presented logistical challenges, the team is excited to move ahead with research and with developing the pellet product with locally sourced wool.    

If you are interested in supporting the project, learning more, or finding ways to get involved, please get in touch any time or click right below to read about current findings and approaches.

Wool Pellet Fertilizer: Early Findings, Looking Ahead (2022) (PDF)

Wool Pellet Fertilizer: Early Findings, Looking Ahead - Poster (2022) (PDF)

Vermont Wool Project Report (2018) (PDF)

• Here is a short video update that we prepared as part of the Center's 2020 Annual Report.  

Findings were extremely exciting to both vegetable farmers and livestock producers, with promising implications for water quality and soil health as well.  With funding, the work will continue in 2020 with in-depth field trials with different vegetables and also an at-scale test of the production of pellets from wool from the region. 

Project updates January 2021:

• We met our crowdfunding goal to help us do a test run of bringing a truckload of Vermont wool across the Canadian border to a Quebec factory where they can be pelletized - as soon as public health conditions allow travel from Vermont into Canada! 
• The team is working on the farm-field design for the research itself so we will be able to measure and analyze what actually happens to plant and soil health when wool pellets are applied.
• We're adding a third (Connecticut River Valley) vegetable farm to the project, which will let us see how the pellets work on additional soil types.

Moving ahead in 2022:

Wool Pellet Fertilizer: Early Findings, Looking Ahead (2022) (PDF file)

Wool Pellet Fertilizer: Early Findings, Looking Ahead - Poster (2022) (PDF file)

Vermont Wool Project Report (2018) (PDF file)

Center for Sustainable Ag. personnel, along with other UVM Extension colleagues, have been exploring the potential for milkweed as a commercial crop that also provides well-documented ecosystem services.

In 2019, Suzy Hodgson, along with VT-NRCS partners, investigated and shared findings about potential income and other benefits from milkweed as a crop.