The final yield of cashmere down from raw fleece covers many aspects of the term "yield". Removal of any dirt and dust from any initial willowing, removal of any contamination, removal of excess guard hair, scouring and final dehairing all have an effect on the final yield of down. The down is also graded while dehairing, and this provides a true yield figure in terms of the quantity of useable cashmere recovered.

Classing standards are therefore most important with the preliminary sorting of raw cashmere on the basis of colour, micron and length.

Yields of anything under 15% should be kept out of sale lines.