Last month marked the start of our series breaking down the Responsible Wool Standard with the criteria for animal welfare. At the end of that article, we mentioned that we would be taking a closer look at our partner Shaniko Wool Company and recent initial findings from a Carbon Initiative running on their ranches as a transition into Land Management. So we’ll take a quick look at who Shaniko Wool Company is, why good land management matters, the initiative itself, and how it’s going.

Who is Shaniko Wool Company?

Shaniko Wool Company (SWC) is “an American Legacy” as the first farm group in the US to be certified under both the Responsible Wool Standard and NATIVARegen- a regenerative wool program. Founded by Jeanne Carver, SWC consists of 10 ranches across the American West grazing approximately 3.8 million acres and producing roughly 600,000lbs of merino wool every year. Shaniko Wool Company has a long and documented history with their commitment to sustainability practices from their livestock to land management, biodiversity and more.

              Jeanne Carver

I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of briefly speaking with Jeanne after onboarding with Mill House back in September 2025. Her dedication and passion pour out of every word when she talks about her ranching endeavors with SWC and her hopes for the future of the wool industry. In the words of SWC themselves,

Jeanne launched Shaniko Wool Company in 2018 to scale the supply of RWS certified wool produced in the U.S. This eff­ort continues the work she began in 1999, when a collapsing wool market and diminished U.S. textile infrastructure, led Jeanne from commodity wool sales from their historic Oregon ranch (Imperial Stock Ranch est 1871), in a new direction. Similar to the farm-to-fork “slow food” movement that reconnects us to our food, Jeanne developed a fiber supply chain as close to home as possible. Building on their ranch’s heritage and mindful stewardship of land and animals, she connected a growing customer base for textile products to the origin of those products. As Jeanne’s textile business grew, she scaled her Imperial Stock Ranch eff­ort while maintaining its intimate connection to land and animals, and became what she refers to as the “Farmer’s Market of Textiles,” known across multiple segments of the U.S. textile industry and beyond.

               The Ranches

Every farm in the Shaniko Wool Company farm group is certified under RWS and NATIVARegen; and they all operate under the same set of values. These include (but are not limited to) the expectation to nurture the natural resources available, to improve grazing practices and land stewardship in a way that improves the quality of soil/water/biodiversity, public education on these practices and their economic/ecological value, and the support of “slow” fashion created from high quality American fibers.

These farms primarily produce Merino/Rambouillet sheep in locations along the Rockies and Great Basin of the American West. Those of you familiar with the offerings of Mill House in the last couple of years may be familiar with the exception in the form of Siddoway Sheep Company in Idaho, where the Merino/Colombia for our Roanoke Island fiber comes from. You can find a partial list of the ranches on the SWC website linked above.

The Importance of Land Management in Ranching

Without treading too much into the territory of next month’s topic, it should be at least touched on here. Proper land management is important in the best of times, but when dealing with farming and ranching it becomes vital. Over grazing a pasture, loss of biodiversity, destruction of natural water flows or other resources, and other careless practices can not only cause a farm to go under but leave the land damaged for decades to come. Some types of damage may never recover if poor management practices cause the loss of natural biodiversity to an area for too long.

This kind of harm is not just bad for native plants or bugs, but animals, livestock, and even humans. The land is what we rely on, as often as people forget, to keep us alive and healthy even in the age of technology. Appropriate stewardship ensures that it remains able to do so for generations. However, we’ll delve more directly into that next month with the Land Management criteria themselves.

Shaniko Wool Company Carbon Initiative

In 2020, Jeanne and SWC began the research and measurement program with Oregon State University for their Carbon Initiative. It is an ongoing project with the intention of discovering the “net carbon budget” for farms in the group, as well as determining the measured increase in carbon sequestration annually on all farming and grazing lands. In short: how are the land management, grazing and farming practices affecting the levels of carbon sequestration of lands grazed and what are the net greenhouse gas emissions from their operations?

This pioneering project has collected, and continues to collect, data from the 10 ranches of Shaniko Wool Company, spanning across 7 western states. The use of practical, producer-based data across a wide range has produced results that offer relevant and vital insight into the future of sustainable agriculture.

The Results

These first results have offered not only valuable take away for the ranchers on their sustainability practices, but also promising trends in carbon sequestration on the areas studied. Thanks to the strict standards they follow, the numbers are pointing to SWC ranches being net carbon sinks. Carbon and nitrogen stores in the ground appear to be increasing and emissions being released during operations are below what is being drawn down.

What does that mean? The operations of Shaniko Wool Company across all operations—grazing, crops, livestock operations—on the private and federal lands used are netting a positive environmental impact according to current study trends. That doesn’t mean the work is over, however. It’s only just beginning.

Looking to the Future

With the study into the Carbon Initiative ongoing, I think it’s safe to say there’s more to keep an eye on with Shaniko Wool Company as they move forward as industry leaders in agriculture and wool. It is, as mentioned before, one of many reasons we are proud at Meridian Mill House™ to partner with Jeanne and SWC ranches.

The mission given states the wish to “…[p]rovide a model for regenerative agricultural practices that leads to increased carbon capture and improved water and biodiversity impacts. Continue to operate at the forefront of new and emerging ecosystem markets, helping to fuel a rural revival in America.” I believe we can look forward to seeing more great strides in sustainability and livestock from SWC, and we’ll continue to provide you with quality wool from their sustainable and traceable practices.

Next month, we’ll see you again to talk more about the Responsible Wool Standard and the Land Management Criteria for certification!