Pesky Plant Removal and The Wyoming Wool Festival

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I started the week by learning how to remove foxtail barley from the pastures. We used two different removal methods: burning by using a torch and picking them by hand. There has been a major growth of foxtail barley on the property, and they are essential to remove as they can cause harm to livestock, like lump jaws, due to sharp awns. We moved the sheep away from the water, which meant that we needed to fill a stock tank, so I learned to be innovative and used sprinkler irrigation to fill the tank instead of dragging six hoses to the pasture.

While preparing for the Wool Festival, I learned how to make a dog bed from felted wool. I sewed the edges together to ensure they stood up properly; this is another way she uses her wool to create different products.

We packed up for the festival and headed to Thermopolis. I started the Wool Festival on a ranch tour at the Arapaho Ranch Field Station. Here, I learned about the history of sheep in Wyoming and their plans to rebuild the ranch to host educational events for the youth. I helped my host with the booth, where we sold many of the products I helped make. I learned a lot about how to network with customers and market. As well as how to set up a booth to make the customers want to come. I also learned how other people around Wyoming managed their sheep operation, which allowed me to see how different breeds and sizes of the operation can change how you run an operation. I was also able to see all the various products that people sold using wool and how to make an operation more profitable.

Burning and hand-picking the foxtails was very time-consuming as there were many of them throughout the pasture. We did not even come close to getting rid of all of them. I want to challenge another way to manage their infestation in the area. Grazing the foxtail barley hard at the beginning of the season would allow the sheep to eat the plant before it seeds and becomes unsafe for the animals. Another option would be to till the heavily infested areas, as the seeds would not be able to germinate that deep in the soil. These options would be more effective and efficient than the methods we used.

After the Wool Festival, I found myself with a lot of questions. Specifically, I’m eager to learn more about effective marketing strategies for these types of events. How can one determine which festivals are more profitable than others? I would love to learn how to attract customers and increase interest in your products. I am also curious about how to set prices for specific products and what to do with leftover inventory.

This week, I dove deep into selling products and networking. I believe that this skill will be important for any business I want to be a part of. I learned how networking can get you more sales in the long run and it is very important about who you know. Learning about how different people run their operations and choose what products they want to sell gave me different perspectives and possibilities I can choose. I could see why people choose their breed of sheep and that every breed has drawbacks. Learning about managing plants, such as foxtail barley allowed me to see different ways to eliminate harmful plants, which is critical to know as my host has specifically lost a few sheep from this issue. This was a fantastic learning experience that I was able to be a part of and I loved having the opportunity to learn and meet new people throughout Wyoming.

Submitted by: Elizabeth Herman
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team