Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
MARKETING YOUR FLEECES:
DETAILS MATTER
To market your fl eeces, fi nd out where the nearest craft classes are
given and let it be known that you have fl eeces to sell. Some folks
are also successfully marketing quality fl eeces over the Internet.
However you decide to do your marketing, bear in mind that the
proof of your success will be repeat customers. This depends not
as much on the breed of sheep or the type of wool as it does on
the condition of the fl eece. If the wool is poorly sheared, full of
burrs, seeds, and other vegetable matter that has to be picked out
by hand, or not cleaned of the heavy dung tags, then you may sell
someone a fl eece once, but you're not likely to sell that person
another one. The real secret of successful selling to handspinners
is to offer only your best fl eeces, generously skirted, so that you
get a good reputation.
their wool production, have a soft, fi ne wool that is valuable for blending
purposes.
Money in Colored Fleeces
Did you know that black lambs have black tongues? The poet Virgil (70-19
bc) advised sheep breeders to choose rams without pigment in their tongues
if they wanted white fl eeces. In many breeds, a dark (or partly dark), varicol-
ored tongue indicates a white sheep with recessive dark genes.
The “black sheep” of the sheep family is the odd dark lamb that crops
up occasionally in almost any white breed as the result of recessive genes.
In large herds, a black sheep is undesirable. Its fl eece must be handled and
sacked separately. Even in the fl ock, its black fi bers may rub off on fl eeces of
white sheep, causing the white wool to be discounted in price because of the
special problems caused later in the manufacturing process.
For handcraft use, the picture is different. Many weavers and knitters are
spinning yarn for their own use, but a considerable number are also spin-
ning for sale. This has created a special market for colored fl eeces in natu-
ral shades varying from buff to red and gray to black. As early as 1974,
The
Shepherd
Magazine
wrote that “the unwelcome black sheep has suddenly
become respectable, with its wool bringing up to several times the price of
