Please examine your fleece, and be realistic about what you want processed.  Staples and pieces that are shorter than 2.5 inches often get kicked out by the picker.  If there are some short pretty colors or curls mixed in, you may have to add them later.  Does your wool pass the ping test?  Is it healthy and fresh, or does it sound and feel dry and brittle?  Dry tips from being outdoors all year is often not dry throughout the whole fleece, unlike an older fleece that's been stored for awhile.  What you send in is what you'll get back - maybe unprocessed if it's not in adequate condition.

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Things beyond hay and visible organic matter hide in wool.  Look for moths, wool beetles, lice, and scurf.  It's pesky, sometimes not visible until you wash it, and disappears when it's dry depending on the color of your fleece.  The bummer about scurf, unless there's just a little that I can skirt out, I won't be able to process your wool, it gums up the equipment, it doesn't fall out.  If it's not too bad, hand carders or a small drum carder might be able to tame it, but scurf is a fiber artist's bane.  Unless you're certain, it can be good to check before sending it.  Take a few clumps from different parts of the fleece, fill your sink or a bowl with some hot water, possibly wash it and then rinse it, and you'll find out.

Depending on the status of wool when it comes in, and the processing desired, I find this to be the most time-intensive part of processing.  As I have a small mill, I initially do first scours and rinses in largely in 1- 3 pound batches, even with larger orders.  This is one step that's a bit quicker if wool comes in washed or rinsed in advance.  All wool will be washed at least once regardless of status upon arrival, and possibly twice, depending on the breed.

Once the wool is completely clean and dry it will make its way down a conveyor where it's licked up by two small drums and these extremely sharp picker teeth pull thin wisps of wool off of those and blow puffs into a catch closet.  I generally put the wool through the picker at least twice, until there is no obvious separation of fibers, no intact staples, and the wool is in fine cloud-like form and ready to go through the carder.

Once the wool is in its lofty form, it can go through the carder.  Many drums of different sizes and teeth, wool will go through the carder twice.  If it doesn't appear sufficiently blended and formed, we can talk about putting it through another run.  This one in the photo has been through several runs, it's a blend of Wensleydale and a Gotland-Targhee cross.  Three very different fibers, and it turned out beautifully!

This is a silky, delicate Gotland roving.  Different types of wool produce different textures and densities of rovings and batts.