Fleece Preparation

The average loss for Alpaca during processing is about 20-40%. To maximise your return we suggest you prepare your fleeces in the following way.

Is your fleece suitable for processing?

Although we can process most fleeces, the quality and quantity of the final product (yarn or roving) is a direct result of the fibre that we receive.

Some things you should consider before sending us your fleeces are:

• Fleece Length: The ideal length for processing is between 75 – 150mm for Huacaya’s and between 100 to 150mm for Suri’s. If a fleece is too short, it will result in greater wastage during processing and will have difficulty holding together well when spinning. Overlong fleeces will cause wrapping in our machinery and again will result in excessive wastage.

• Fleece Micron: The ideal micron for processing is between 18 and 28. Fleeces which are too fine are more likely to retain vegetable matter and this will end up spread throughout your finished product. Finer fleeces are also harder to process and can result in slubs and neps in the finished yarn. Coarser fleeces will feel harsher when spun up into yarn.

• Vegetable Matter Contamination: All fleeces will have some amount of Vegetable Matter (VM) contamination. Most of this should be removed when skirting your fleeces before sending for processing. If you have trouble removing it, so will the mill machinery.

• Fleece Weight: Ideally any individual fleeces you want processed should weigh over a kilo. This is because through the processing of your fleece there will be some wastage at each stage. If your fleece weight is low you should consider combining fleeces, but they should be of similar micron and fleece length.

When you send us your fleece we want to make the best product from your fleece, however we can only work with what we receive. The better prepared and the better the quality of the fleeces we receive the higher the quality and return that you will receive back.

Our expectation is that you have prepared your fleeces to the standard that you are happy to receive in your finished product.

How to send your fleeces

There are several ways to send your fleeces to us:

• Drop In: You can directly drop your fleeces into our mill by appointment.

• Australia Post: the following is a few suggestions based on how fleeces have been posted to us.
- Fleeces can be packed in clean chaff bags, cable tied securely at the top or;
- Fleeces packed into the cheap stripped shopping bags or;
- Vacuumed sealed and packed in boxes.

• Courier: For large quantities of fleece you may want to consider having these couriered.

• Alpaca Events: We attend quite a few alpaca events and are happy to receive fleeces at these events by prior arrangement.

Note: Please download and include the Fleece Processing Form with your fleeces.

Special Notes

The Dehairer separates the coarse and short fibres and vegetable matter (VM) from the rest of the fleece. It stands to reason the coarser a fleece is, or it has a low comfort factor, or it contains fibre that could have been removed by hand skirting, the more that will be lost in this processing cycle.

The machines only remove approx 80% of the vegetable matter and even less on really fine fleeces. First fleeces with cria tips are particularly hard to remove the VM from. Fleeces that contain VM may have some left in the finished yarn which can be removed as it is being used.

Remember the more you prepare and clean you fleece of vegetable matter, short and course fibres, the more return and higher quality product you will receive back.

Fleece Preparation

Skirting the fleece

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