The Bill Sims Wool and Mohair Research Laboratory in San Angelo, Texas, has been approved to provide core testing for U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Marketing Assistance Loan and Loan Deficiency Program.
In recent years, only a facility in New Zealand was approved by USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation to handle such testing to qualify for a graded wool loan or payment.
The American Sheep Industry Association, its for-profit Sheep Venture Company, the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center and Texas A&M University all invested significant funds to bring the longtime wool lab at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in San Angelo from research to commercial testing after the close of Yocom-McColl Testing Laboratories in 2020.
“ASI is very appreciative of the Farm Service Agency working with us this year to update the approved laboratory list. Keeping USDA programs in line with changes in the sheep industry is important and with the American wool lab doing half or more of the nation’s core testing, this was a critical update,” said ASI Executive Director Peter Orwick.
