My 4 neighboring farms and I decided this year (2009 clip) to try pooling our fiber. The goals were fairly simple:
- By pooling our collective fiber, working together and sharing our own skills and labor to sort, skirt and grade we would expect to end up with a higher quality result in our end products without incurring the cost of having to pay someone else to do that work.
- Because of the variation in our herds by Age (Fineness) and Color and Type (Suri & Huacaya) we would expect to end up with a wider array of finished products than we would have each been able to achieve from just our own herd.
- Since our combined “incoming” collected fiber was more than 1000 pounds, we expect to achieve volume discounts from processors (mini-mills) that will provide a lower cost for all of us than we would have had individually.
- Although we would still need to use non-local mills to process, we expect that having a local “farmers cooperative” flavor would be useful for marketing purposes.
- By having a larger amount of consistently graded products – yarns, socks, rugs, knitted/crocheted items – than we could produce individually from our own herds, we expect that will help increase sales. Better to have 20 skeins in a single color/grade batch to sell than 4 skeins from 5 batches as an example.
So far we have met objective #1 – higher quality – very well. After sorting and grading, we will have a higher quality finished product whether that be handknitting yarns or more highly finished products. But, as is to be expected we also learned a few things which we would do differently next time.
Lesson 1: It was bit complicated to schedule us all for several days to sort and grade that much fiber. Turns out that sorting and grading is quite slow, dusty, dirty work which means being on your feet with your back bent over a skirting table which is never at a comfortable height… for anyone!! We learned a good bit from the experience which will probably make this process better and more efficient next time. Perhaps it would be better if each farm did some upfront work – both on shearing day to avoid contaminating blankets with seconds or shorts/2nd cuts and by pre-sorting by previously agreed upon color groups.
The second lesson we took away relates to accounting for contributions. For the 1st year we decided to use a simple Divide by 5 method to allocate any expenses or profits from the pooled fiber but it was obvious that next year we will want to use a more complex system of allocating “share” based on amount and possibly even type of fiber contributed to the pool. For example, I had already sold some of my fiber so my total amount of fiber contributed was significantly less than that of the other 4 farms. However, what I had sold was my Adult and stronger grade fibers so what I did contribute (Fine & Baby grade) to the pool was of higher perceived value (in my own mind at least!) than other farms who contributed large quantities (multi years worth) of Rug or Mulch grade. They put in a LOT more fiber into the pool by weight than I did but it will be more challenging to find profitable applications for it.
Objective #2- greater variety – is also being met very well. Although our sorted result is heavily skewed towards Adult, Rug and Mulch grades we do have a real good distribution of colors in both Suri and Huacaya fiber types in all the grades.
It is in our expectations for Objective #3 – volume discounts – where we are having the most disappointment so far. The cost to process (and shipping!) is very expensive and for the most part we have not achieved sufficient volumes to qualify for discounted processing. Even where we have – the cost, even divided by 5, is more than any of us are in a position to spend. Also, most of the time the mills expect half or even all of the processing cost to be paid in advance so you have that cash tied up for whatever amount of time it takes to get your product back plus whatever amount of time it takes you to sell those products.
Take the case of socks. We were very excited to think of having socks custom made from our very own fiber. We have all been selling socks already and felt that “local fiber” socks would sell very well. And, we had pooled quite a lot of Adult grade fiber so we could get into a volume discount. But. To process that amount of fiber would have been an upfront expense of more than $600 per farm and we would end up with 260 pairs of socks to sell. Selling a few dozen pairs over the course of the fall to spring season is one thing – committing to sell over 20 dozen pairs is a bit intimidating to say the least. Not to mention that with lead-times for processing, we’d probaby receive our socks right as the weather is warming to summer when sock sales are the slowest. So our cash would be tied up for probably a whole year – which none of us can really afford to live with. On the other hand, if we drop down into a lower volume to process – and fewer socks to have to sell – we increase the average cost per pair and end up with a much smaller profit.
So, at this point we are still very much struggling with what to do with our fiber now that it is sorted and graded. At our last meeting Susie made a great proposal to start with a budget to spend on a per farm basis and then figure out what we can do within that sum. We may not be able to do everything we want to do all at once. I think that’s going to be very helpful to us.
As I said – it’s a work in process and I just wanted to share how its working out so far.
The last weekend of September will be here soon – the turning of the leaves, the cooler nights, the lower humidity… crias are due any time and it’s once again time for the Annual Nationall Alpaca Farm Days. My friends and I will welcome the public at my farm and the farmhouse will be turned into a fiber arts showcase.
Do it yourself
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