The Harvest is In!

Shearing is complete for the 2010 Season. Toga Party is sporting his new look. He sheared 9.5 lbs of fleece! Toga Party was one of 120 Alpacas that were shorn at Maplewood Farm over two days by a professional shearer and lots of semi-professional helpers.

For every alpaca farm, shearing is equivalvent to bringing in the crops. The alpacas grow their fiber for a year, and then sheared when the weather turns warmer. Depending on the size and age of the alpaca, they normally shear anywhere from 4 to 10 lbs of fleece. Samples of each animals fleece will be sent to a fiber testing lab to determine the quality of the fleece. Some of the fleeces will be prepared and shown at fleece shows. Then the fleece is usually sold to spinners and fiber artists, or I take it to the local mill to be spun into yarn and sold to knitters.