Imperial Stock Ranch/ Shaniko Wool Company

Designers with some of the largest and most influential American brands have moved the fashion industry forward with it. Some of the most decorated U.S. athletes have sported it. What is the common denominator between these groups of people? They have made a difference by choosing to create or wear garments made with sustainable, American-grown wool from Imperial Stock Ranch and Shaniko Wool Company. With 153-year-old origins, this Oregon ranch and its expanded Shaniko Wool supply have been key drivers in making positive changes both for local ecosystems and the domestic manufacturing industry.

This environment-conscious operation is more than just a business to Jeanne Carver, owner of Shaniko Wool Company. It is her home. Her late husband, Dan Carver, took the reins of this generationally rich land in the late 1980s, and the two began their lives together on the historic “Imperial Stock Ranch.” Dan was well acquainted with the farming industry. Jeanne, on the other hand, went into the business with no agricultural or entrepreneurial experience.

Before making her way to the ranch, Jeanne’s life was surrounded by athletics. Her education and career leading up to that point focused on participating in, teaching, and coaching elite-level collegiate sports. Through each of these experiences, she learned about the resilience it takes to be a successful college athlete. Even though this time of her life was not yet touched by farming, she was already acquiring the skills needed to excel on the ranch.

“I had a background, a very good background, in elite competition,” Jeanne shared. “I took those principles of finding a way to the finish line with me into value-added marketing.”

Promoting the values she and Dan deemed important, including the conscientious treatment of animals and land, has played a large role in the ranch’s most recent history of the past few decades. During their time owning and managing the ranch together, they were left with many company-shifting moments.

Despite these changes, there has been one consistent part of their journey that has been the backbone of company growth: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding.

Since 2001, the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program has assisted the ranch both in smaller-scale projects and projects that have grown to a national scale, setting the stage for international expansion. At the start, it was Jeanne’s competitive nature that drew her to this outside funding. She had to find a way to position her products to compete alongside large fashion brands vying for the same public attention. She also had to compete with other agricultural products for the funding.

The VAPG award helped position their products in the market and gave the Carvers an advantage over other companies. They utilized the funds to make their ranch’s visual materials stand out amongst the rest.

“That first grant really helped put us in the marketplace because as a farmer and a rancher, how do you justify spending thousands of dollars to build the photo assets and marketing materials needed?” she explained. “We don’t think that way—it’s too extravagant.”

Even though it may have been out of the ordinary for them, their original VAPG marketing plans were highly impactful for the brand. Not only did the new imagery more effectively capture their agricultural story and product, but it also invited the first of many large customers to begin connecting with the ranch. Because wool is the core fiber for textiles and clothing, it is no surprise this customer was an organization from the fashion industry. With an expanded team, supported by their VAPG, they grew beyond yarns and into finished clothing, all made from their harvested wool.

Gaining this attention also meant that more growth was around the corner. To keep up with their plunge into clothing as well as the yarn and food industry, they took on a second VAPG in 2009. This time, however, the grant was focused less on what they could actively do to expand their business and more on the logistics of future promotional objectives. After being introduced to the idea of trade shows by craft shop customers, Jeanne decided to apply the funds toward exploring this opportunity.

Participation at yarn trade shows proved very successful and made adding finished goods trade shows for the apparel market to their business model a logical next step. They received two additional $300,000 grants to fund these ventures, making the brand a seasoned recipient of the VAPG.

On top of the costs for trade show materials and mileage, this sum of money helped them create and foster relationships with other businesses that led to hundreds of yarn distribution partnerships and a dramatic increase in brand visibility. Their wool was selected for the Team USA Opening Ceremony Sweater by Ralph Lauren for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Additionally, as the featured partner of Ralph Lauren’s first Made in America Team USA uniform program, there were countless new opportunities for brand exposure stemming from the grant.

It was not long after this influential partnership became public that the ranch caught the attention of Patagonia. They had a vision that fit seamlessly with the ranch’s sustainable ideals. Patagonia wanted to source wool from ranches that participate in a third-party audited certification program called the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS). This standard encompasses a comprehensive set of benchmarks that put the care of land and animals at the forefront, giving brands a level of confidence in their wool supply. Not only was Jeanne eager to work alongside a large brand, but this standard was an opportunity to showcase and reward good practices in agriculture.

“When the standard launched in 2016, our ranch became the first one in the world certified,” Jeanne explained.

Despite all of this movement with their value-added business, there was a growing challenge close to home that put the ranch and their added businesses on a different course. Dan was managing a progressing medical condition that required Jeanne’s care. Because of this challenge, Jeanne took a step back and sold the value-added wool textile business. It was time they moved the ranch’s farming and ranching operations into the hands of the next generation.

Up until then, their wool marketing efforts were being done exclusively with wool from their family’s Imperial Stock Ranch. As Jeanne stepped away, however, more and more brands were contacting them for a traceable and certified wool supply. By 2018, she decided to start up again but keep the business model simple. She picked up this new venture right where she left off, focusing on her status as a RWS producer.

Jeanne established Shaniko Wool Company as a Farm Group, supplying American-grown, RWS-certified wool. Shaniko Wool Company has 10 member ranches in the western United States that supply sustainable wool to large clothing producers. With their collective acreage reaching more than 2.5 million acres, there has been a new priority being placed on the collective effort of sustainable farming.

Three years into this business, Jeanne followed what she knew best and applied for the VAPG again. Supplying ethically raised and produced wool was not her only plan for the company. She also wanted to ensure the business’ wool products were created domestically. This fifth grant opened the door for the concept of ethical and certified wool to flourish in the United States with a domestic manufacturing process to make it happen.

Through the many changes she faced to get to this point, Jeanne has retained the large-scale connections she built while marketing only her family’s Imperial Stock Ranch wool, including her partnership with Ralph Lauren. Because of this relationship, household Olympic names like Katie Ledecky and Noah Lyles have each donned Shaniko Wool Company’s wool during their team entrance past the Eiffel Tower at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“Our wool is on a global stage, and it wouldn’t be there, never would have gotten there, without that list of grants,” Jeanne expressed.

It was the United States Department of Agriculture’s support that provided these unfathomable opportunities for Jeanne through its grant funding. Having this ongoing assistance was huge, not just in the amount of money awarded but also in the impact it has made.

“I can’t think of a better program that exists. We are so blessed to have it in this country – a program where you can leverage your own hard-earned private and limited dollars to advance new marketing efforts for your harvests,” Jeanne described. “It’s the number one program I would suggest ranchers use, who want to change how they market.”