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That seems to be the question after we have combed or shorn the fleece off our cashmere producing goats. What do I do with this fluff now?
There are a number of options for you to consider. You can choice to sell your raw fiber right off the goat to a buyer. You can sell combed fleece to a fiber artist, de-hair it your self, or you can sent the fiber into a processor to add value by turning it into anything from batt to a finished baby blanket. You can keep it, give it away, sell it, let your dogs sleep on it, or let moths eat it, lots of options really.
If you want to just keep it around to look at, let your dogs sleep on it, or let the moths eat it. You really don’t need to read further, just enjoy our time with your fiber.
Sell your raw fleece to a buyer. You need to know what a buyer is looking for so you can get your best money return.
A shorn fleece averages at 25% yield, a combed fleece usually around 50%, although that could be higher depending on the length of guard hair, how clean and unmated it is. Weigh your fleece before sending it, estimate the yield, and include an invoice with your shipment, also mail this invoice either by e-mail or postal service.
How do you estimate your yield? Weigh the entire fleece batch you are sending, multiply that weight by the estimated Yield in %. This is the yield weight you will receive payment on.
Combed fiber is ideal for hand-dehairing, so it is a good harvesting practice if you are selling your fiber to fiber artist that may want to de-hair and spin cashmere.
Spinners are going to be looking for fiber length of 1 ½ to 2 ½ inches, and good handle. They are going to avoid fleece with inconsistent length of fibers, heavy vegetation, excessive guard hair, poor handle, lice, dandruff, and wadded up matted messes. I hear a lot about longer fiber is better and this is correct to a point; once cashmere fiber gets 3 inches or longer it does not behave like cashmere should when you spin it. The fibers tend to alien themselves in a parallel form or worsted form in the spinning process. This does not result in a pleasing finished product that you would expect from true cashmere.
Combing your goats can also give a better return on your yield when sending your fleece into processors; they do not have to place it in the de-hairer as many times to get out all the guard hair, thus less loss of cashmere fiber. Also you are not paying to ship guard hair to a processor and you will pay less in de-hairing fees.
Good articles for you to read about spinning cashmere to help you understand what fiber artist are looking for in cashmere fiber are in the Spin-Off magazine; Summer of 1998 by Judith MacKenzie, and Spring of 2001 by Carol H. Rhoades. There a couple of things in each one that I question but for the most part they are great articles for cashmere producers to read.
http://www.interweave.com/spin/Spinoff_magazine/backissues1.asp
These same characteristics that a hand spinner looks for in a fleece apply well to the machinery that process cashmere fiber also.
Shorn fleece must be sent to a processor for de-hairing. The benefits of shearing are the number of goats that you can shear in a day compared to combing. If your farm goal is a large herd of cashmere producing goats; than plan to shear.
Processing your fleece requires you to arrange your fleeces into groups; this is called classing your fiber. Now being you are classing your own fiber, don’t be intimidated; practice makes perfect. All you have to remember is consistency is the key. This is where you really learn what your goats produce.
You can do this step of classing the fleece as you shear or comb your goats, but for me I find it is normally too cold and it takes too much time when harvesting the fleece. In the beginning I had more help around so we did this as we sheared. Now with the children all grown and the money-maker traveling more I am on my own.
If you have some shorn fleeces and some combed fleeces you do not want to mix them together they require different piles.
This is how I class my fleece and I would love to hear from you any tips or suggestion too improve my madness. The indoor cat loves this event, she seems to like the bags of buck fleece the best. Crazy cat!
1. Place all white guard hair fleeces still in their bags in one pile, all black and brown guard hair fleece, in their own pile, and any mixed colored guard hair fleece in another pile.
Now depending on the number of fleeces you have for processing and your desired out come you can divide these piles more by looking closely at the cashmere fiber colors.
2. You now have piles divide by color of guard hair and cashmere fiber. Now sort within each pile according to staple length, then MFD. So if you now have every fleece in its own pile that doesn’t work! You want bigger batches to get more yarn for bigger projects. If you find this happening, sort by length of fiber; this will be most important for yarn with good integrity. For best results do not mix white guard hair fleece with dark guard hair fleece.
As I go through these fleeces I am also doing a quick skirting of each fleece; taking out any second cuts, short fibers, foreign material, and bits of matted or stained fiber. Make sure to record and track each of the fleeces weight and characteristics; this will help you in any selling or culling you may want to do.
When you do this you begin to see the advantage of developing uniform color, fiber length, MFD and handle in your herd because you can gain larger uniform batches to process. The processors charge a flat fee on top of the normal cost for small batches of fiber.
If you don’t have enough of any one color to make a batch big enough to send to the processor, consider combining colors.
Once I class the fleeces into batches I place each batch into its own large plastic sack and ship them off for processing. You do not want to leave the fleece in plastic bags for extended length of time; this can damage your fleece.
3. Choose your processor. Call this processor and verify they are currently taking custom orders, what the expected turn around time is and any information they need you to know about before sending in your fleece.
4. If you have not used this processor before you may want to ask for references from people they have processed cashmere for.
5. Some processors will not give you a price quote over the phone; they may want to see your fiber first.
6. Know what you want to happen to your fiber. Do you want lace weight yarn, or fingering, one ply or two ply, rovings or batts, dyed or blended? What is your end use?
7. When you package your fiber to send to the processor include a letter detailing what you want to happen to your fiber. Communication is important. Most processors require 50% payment when they receive your fiber with the balance due upon completion. Package your fiber in the smallest box possible. Fiber in large boxes will be placed on the bottom in the delivery truck, fluffy cashmere does not hold up well under weight, and the box will crush.
8. Be considerate of the processors time; they deal with many people and can not spend great periods of time talking on the phone.
Processing has been the funnel neck of the cashmere industry. Many mills across America claim to process cashmere. But I, as many of you have found no mill truly capable of processing fine shorn cashmere into a quality product that is expectable as cashmere by market standards, with the exception of Mini Mills in Canada, which has now closed it s doors to custom orders.
I began inquiring about these different mills and what was the difference between them and Mini Mills in Canada. Most, if not all of them had Mini Mill equipment, but is it the same equipment that Mini Mills was using to process cashmere with such success. The answer was no! There are currently only two mills in the United States using the same equipment as Mini Mills in Canada, with a third mill starting operations in the fall of 2006. (See their information under Cashmere Processors in the USA)
Showing your goats or fleece requires you to set those fleece aside to be processed later.
Short cashmere is great to blend with other short fibers. So you may want to save all that short fiber from the lower legs and lower belly and have it blended. Also you may want to save all the coarse necks and place them together for a processing batch. Please do not sell this as cashmere if it does not meet the standard for cashmere. Although it may not be classed as cashmere it may have some value as a cashgora product.
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/RNF/02-112sum.html
Wishing you much success in your cashmere fiber adventure.*
