Driftless Tannery rescues hides from the waste stream. We say that a lot in casual conversation. It’s in our elevator speech. If you ask one of us what it is we do, you will hear that line. But what exactly does it mean? It means that as of today, small and mid-sized meat processing plants do not have a use for sheepskin. They throw them in the dumpster. It’s important to note that these same processors can send byproducts of the beef and pork industry to be rendered and used for such things as collagen production or bone meal. Sheep cannot be rendered because of a few factors but mostly because of the fiber. Traditionally there were sheepskin buyers that collected raw hides from processors to be shipped overseas to be chrome tanned. That is not the case in today’s economy mainly due to tariffs making the previous process unsustainable.
According to the USDA Daily Livestock Slaughter report a total of 639,005 sheep have been processed thus far in 2025. That is a marked increase from last year when there were a total of 651,272 sheep processed in this country. That is an average of 12,500 sheep a week. These numbers are well below peak sheep production which happened in the late 1800s. In 1884 there were 51 million head of sheep found in the US. That last figure reflects our European heritage. Lamb is still a huge part of the European culture. For some perspective, the UK has an estimated 55 million head of sheep today while the US has 5 million.
Sheep production in the US is increasing. Sheep are very compatible with solar farms. They graze the fields beneath the solar panels, keeping vegetation at bay and using the panels as shelter from the elements. It is likely we will start to see lamb become more of a staple in American diets as the beef industry struggles to reduce its carbon footprint. Grazing animals have less of an impact on the environment than feed lot raised animals. Sheep can produce more meat with less land than cattle making raising sheep for meat more profitable and environmentally friendly. Sheep are small in stature, can forage in hard to access areas, and have been bred to be very hardy. Sheep were the first domesticated livestock animal. Humans have spent a millennia selectively breeding for the best qualities. They can be used for meat, milk, fiber and textiles. Before we became a throw away culture, sheep were the perfect multipurpose animal. Nothing went to waste.
Let’s talk about the waste. Waste that will be increasing as the sheep industry is projected to grow in this country. Driftless Tannery is committed to reducing waste in the industry in a non-toxic, environmentally friendly way. Our impact is two fold. Farmers from all over the country send us their raw hides, about 1800 skins per year and growing! We tan them using our natural bark tan process. Those sheepskin are returned to the farmers for their own personal use or sale. That is 95% of what we do. We also gather hides from local processors for eco conscious consumers. We want to be able to connect people who don’t have sheep to naturally tanned, environmentally friendly sheepskin products as well. We work with butchers in our local area to collect as many of the sheepskin as we can process and sell. Because sheepskin have no value to meat processors at this time, the abattoirs (slaughterhouses) are not always careful when they skin out a sheep. When we started to capture these wasted skins, we had to have conversations with the abattoirs. We let them know that the skins have value to us and to the greater community. We often gift them finished sheepskin so they could see and feel the value for themselves. Today we work with several local butchers. Most are great at carefully removing the skins for us.
Even with a careful removal, there are still occasions when a skin doesn’t come off the animal well or there is an imperfection that causes us to trim a sheepskin more than we would like. In an effort to avoid these “imperfect” skins from entering the waste stream, we had to get creative. Since we have our hands full with the tanning, we had to find creatives. Enter our friends; Gina Lanute, Larry Klope and Roberta Barham.
Gina is a seamstress and has done an amazing job creating pillows using oddly shaped sheepskin, goat and deer skin. Gina fills an inner liner in each pillow with clean fiber and wool that is a byproduct of our finishing process resulting in even less waste! That liner can be accessed through a zippered opening on the back of each pillow. Gina embroiders our logo, Ramsey the Sheep, into the fabric backing. Each pillow is unique and makes a great addition to every home. Her craftsmanship is truly amazing.
Larry is a retired engineer who works with antique sewing machines. We met Larry in Escanaba, Michigan at the Antique Village at the U.P. State Fairgrounds last year during the North American Hill Sheep Show. The day we met, he took some of our sheepskin scraps and started experimenting on his antique machines. A couple of months later, he started making hats for us using naturally tanned shearling sheepskin. People are loving their style and warmth. See photo above.
Roberta is a friend and local weaver. She weaves the trimmings from our naturally tanned sheepskin into rugs to be used as runners or yoga/meditation mats. Roberta continues generations of Swedish craftsmanship, using her grandfather’s rug loom. You can find more of Roberta’s work here: Renewed Traditions.
Lastly, in house and with little talent, we trim some imperfectly shaped sheepskin to be used as chair pads. We will do all we can to capture and make use of this byproduct of the sheep industry. Driftless champions the usefulness of naturally tanned sheepskin in its most natural state as a sheepskin rug or throw. We are proud to be able to offer the oldest known textile to folks who create useful household goods and clothing. We are currently in talks with a saddle maker that uses only American made leather goods to see if we can provide saddle covers and other useful tack accessories. If you are a creative and can see a use for our items, please contact us at 608-630-2960 or driftlesstannery@gmail.com.
Thank you, as always, for following along on our journey to turn waste into opportunity without producing more toxic waste in its wake.