Shearing and Pre-Classing Your Fibre
...or...
DON'T LEAVE YOUR FLEECE IN THE SHED!
On Tuesday 7th October, Leonie, Annette, Rachel and Maree travelled to Geelong to attend the AA Co-op's Train the Trainer Course, to be able to pass on to you updated procedures for fibre skirting and transport to the Fibre Handling Centre. It was a long day but enjoyable and we came back well informed and enthusiastic for the work the Co-op are doing. Keep up the good work, John and David. Annette really enjoyed her first time off the ground, great excitement.
Maree took with her fleeces, from older feeding mums, fleeces that she would not normally have consigned to the Co-op and was amazed that they too could be sorted into usable or still experimental classes.
Take note: get them out of the shed, and send your fleeces, and let the Co-op decide on their use.
You should still consign the lower legs to the rubbish bin and skirtings with significant Vegetable Matter (VM) less than 70mm length also to the rubbish bin. All other parts of the fleece should be sent to the Co-op.
To maximize your $ return from your alpaca clip, examine each saddle carefully. Skirt away fibre that is not consistent with most of the saddle - use your fingers to feel the difference and your eyes to see that fleece which does not appear consistent with the rest. If you are not sure place skirted material on top of best part of saddle .If it is visibly different consign to skirtings. It makes it quicker for David and John to add back from pieces, if you have skirted too heavily, rather than waste time skirting a full saddle. This also optimizes your chances of your saddles entering a higher value fleece line.
Following is an explanation of pre-classing and packaging of your fleeces:-
| Cut | Conditions | Bag to be used |
|---|---|---|
| Lower legs | Rubbish bin | |
| Belly and Apron | >70mm long | VM / Hairy bags |
| <70mm long | Rubbish bin | |
| Necks (in plastic shopping bags) | >70mm long | Fleece bag with saddle |
| <70mm long | Neck bags | |
| Middle legs | Fibre consistent with saddle | Fleece bag with saddle |
| Fibre non-consistent with saddle | Pieces bags | |
| Skirtings | Minimal VM | Pieces bags |
| Significant VM and >70mm long | VM / Hairy bags | |
| Significant VM and <70mm long | Rubbish bin | |
| Saddle | Fleece bag (5 saddles per fleece bag) |
PRESHEARING
- Read the Co-op Fleece Handling Manual
- Do not feed alpacas chaff or loose feed within 24 hours of shearing
- Keep animals in a cleaned paddock awaiting shearing
- Use a piece of 1.5" polypipe or palm brush, brush fleece downwards to remove dirt and loose particles from fleece (about 20 seconds)
- Remove all feed bags chaff bags, garbage bags, bailing twine, wire string etc from shearing area
- Sweep floor of shearing area
- Place 3 fleece bags for pieces (white, black/grey, other colours together)
- Place 3 fleece bags for necks (white, black/grey, other colours together)
- Place 3 fleece bags for VM/Hairy (white, black/grey, other colours together) Be sure to include identification labels in pieces, neck and VM/Hairy bags
(For Clarification: The fleece bags are the large clear plastic bags distributed by the Co-op and are obtainable from the Fibre Liason Officer (FLO). Ian Proctor is the FLO for SC&H region. Phone: 02-4844-4499. Ian will also bring bags to our next meeting Tuesday Night, 28th October at Moss Vale.) - Check to include all forms (forms available from Co-op)
- The new personalised fleece identification slips and consignment forms have been sent to all Co-op members through the mail. If you have not received them or you are not a member of the Co-op and wish to send down your fleece please contact the Co-op on 03 9821 0000.
- Leave fleece bag open when placed in bale (do not knot, tie staple, tape etc.)
- Always fold fleece in half edge to edge with tips on the inside and then roll up.
- Remove VM from the neck and ridgeline when skirting. This helps to avoid contaminating the better parts of fleece. Other VM if it is about 1% will come out during processing.
- VM / Hairy: heavy contamination or lots of guard hair greater than 70mm should be sent as the Co-op needs significant quantities for research. A combing process to remove VM and a dehairing process are currently being developed which will make fleeces once consigned to the rubbish bin viable for processing During our visit to the Co-op we were shown a very acceptable sample of dehaired fleece.
| Length of Fleece | ||
|---|---|---|
| Superfine and Fine | 80mm-120mm | over this length to 150mm can still be sent but will be put into Medium |
| Medium, Strong and Xstrong | 80mm-150mm | |
| "C" length | 60mm-80mm | |
| "D" length | less than 60mm | |
David and John, the fleece sorters for the Co-op, are constantly pursuing new markets and resorting or refining fleece that has already been sorted into new classes to maximise the markets available to alpaca. There is even a Red Brown-Auburn class and a Black Brown, special classes for the customer's need. David and John still have a lot of resorting work ahead of them.
If you are feeling a little confused the important take home messages from the Co - op are
- Keep your fleece colours separate - "white", "black/grey" and "others" for each of the three cuts "saddles", "pieces" and "VM/Hairy"
- "VM/Hairy" - please send all fleece greater than 70mm to the Co-op. Large quantities are needed to enable trial work on these lines to continue.
- Try to minimize VM in your fleeces (<1-2%) - this year has been particularly bad with the drought for VM contamination and can cause severe down grading of fleece value into the "VM/Hairy" Lines. If a selected area of the fleece is only affected eg nape of the neck - remove this section during preclassing to maximize potential of saddle going into a higher value line.
MICHAEL TALBOT FROM THE A.A. CO-OP WILL BE PRESENT AT OUR NEXT SYDNEY COAST AND HIGHLANDS GENERAL MEETING - TUESDAY NIGHT 28TH OCTOBER
WE WILL BE GLAD TO ANSWER QUERIES ABOUT YOUR CONSIGNMENT OR PRE SKIRTING AND PACKAGING OF FLEECE AT THE MEETING