Maximising value from your fleeces is what most alpaca breeders strive to do but don’t necessarily know how to do it or what their end game is. Chas Brooke of UK Alpaca Ltd has twelve years experience of dealing with fleeces and selling yarn. Here is his guide.
To get better value from fleeces requires an understanding of the market you are supplying and how you add more value.
To get better value from fleeces requires an understanding of what you have and its value traits.
To get better value from fleeces requires an understanding of how better to harvest your fleece crop.
What You Do With Your Fleeces = Your Market
- Just interested in entering fleece competitions
- Hand spinning for niche yarns and crafters
- Felting and similar crafts
- Duvet and Pillow stuffing
- Small scale yarn production for your own use and retailing
- Supply to large scale yarn producers for trade and consumer
- Not that interested in the fleece, just love my alpacas
Don’t write a large cheque and swap a barnful of fleece for a room full of yarn unless you have worked out how you will sell it
Market Importance for Traits
| Trait | Hand spinning | Felting | Small scale | Large scale | Stuffing | Showing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staple length | Medium | Not | Medium | Very | Not | Very |
| Handle | Very | Not | Very | Very | Not | Very |
| Colour | Not | Not | Medium | Very | Not | Very |
| Weight | Not | Not | Not | Not | Not | Very |
| Damage | Very | Very | Very | Very | Very | Very |
Value = know your market needs
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