Is this a good deal?

[ninny]

My friend has five alpacas. We were talking about going in together in the fiber sales. He would do everything with the alpacas and then the fiber is mine to process and sell. We go 50/50 on sales. So that means I would have five fleeces now and come spring another five to send to a mill and have processed. Then it's my job to sell the product. He gets 50% of the profits to cover alpaca costs. Does this seem fair? I am trying to find a mill around me that is not super expensive. There's one but shes hard to get a hold of. I talked to her once and shes interested. My friend also has several other farms (totaling around 200 alpacas) looking for a mill to do there stuff with out having to use the big co-ops. She is not interested in that just in the few that I have. I can possibly get different types of wool fleeces for a good price but then have to send to mill as well. I don't have any tools to process at home with. I have drop spindles but need everything else. And I can't use them for lots because it kills my back. If we do this then I would save my profits to start buying tools to do it myself. Just the prices are ouch! and I can't really find them used. I may get some pygroa goats and some fiber bunnies. I don't have the space as of now to have the critters other then the bunnies and goats. So this seems like a good way to start my fiber farm. But I could really use the advice and thoughts of others on it. If I get the fiber I need to decide how to have it processed all yarn or half roving too blended choices choices choices.

 

[ORChick]

Make sure you talk with fiber people in your area to find out what sort of market you might have. I got started spinning last year simply because a client of a friend has 4 alpacas, and had bags of fiber in her garage. She said it wasn't worth her while to prepare it for sale, but the animals needed to be shorn in any case. So I got the shearings from these four animals, from 3 years, for free!