IN THE BEGINNING...
If you would have asked me ten years ago, what I thought
I would be doing for a living at the turn of the
century, full-time alpaca farming would have probably
been on the bottom of the list, if even on the list of
all. However, through circumstances within and beyond my
control, I now live on a 150-acre farm in Maine with my
husband, our two sons, Charlie who is 6 and Petey who is
2, along with a multitude of farm essentials such as
sheep, chickens, dogs, cats and the ever essential
donkey. But where did the 90+ alpacas come from?
Good question. Husbands do have good ideas every now and
then and back in the summer of ‘93, Tim stumbled upon
an investment article relative to alpacas. He gathered
information and made a presentation to me over dinner. I
was hooked. I had some livestock experience volunteering
in zoos and aquariums while growing up in Baltimore and
my uncle owned a llama farm in Colorado where we would
visit in the summers. I knew llamas had a cousin named
alpaca, but that was about it.
Almost 10 years later we are entering the Fall of 2002
with over 90 alpacas on our farm. We have been raising
and breeding alpacas successfully enough to turn our
farm into our full-time business. Tim worked off the
farm for the first 5 years, while I managed the animals
on a daily basis. As the herd grew, so did the business
and instead of hiring outside help, I hired Tim. He
already knew how to shovel manure and work the tractor.
Like any business, what you put in, you get out, but
with livestock, you add a few more variables. What are
these animals and what do I look for when considering
purchasing breeding stock?
IDENTIFY YOUR BUSINESS PLAN
Fiber Only/Breeding
There are many variables that will help you find the
alpaca right for you. Firstly, where do you want your
alpaca business to be and where do you want it to go?
Fiber only or breeding? If interested in developing a
fiber only business, then finding the best quality
non-breeding fibered animals is the way to proceed.
Having a variety of color will help as well diversify
your product. Do you want to prepare, spin and knit or
weave yourself or do you want to sub-contract these
processes out? When sub-contracting out, you will have
to work your cost into the cost of your product. Most
craftspeople do not truly get compensated for their
efforts adequately, but the love of working with the
fiber and the end-product from your own animals is
extremely rewarding in itself.
If interested in developing a breeding business, know
what your goals are. Where do you want to see your
business in five years? Ten years? What do you want to
build your herd toward? Excellence in fiber? Excellence
in confirmation? Particular colors? Have a game plan of
which to begin. Know that plans change as events change
and allow for that flexibility in your business plan.
Everything looks good in black and white, but know when
dealing with any business, shades of gray can appear.
LOOK LONG AND HARD AT THE ALPACA & THE FARM
Stay focused on your goal when beginning. Visit as many
farms as you can, looking for a farm(s) you feel
comfortable in dealing with. Ask about their opinions
and values. You are investing a lot of money and you
want to be comfortable in dealing with a farm that if a
situation were to arise down the road, you would feel
comfortable in working with them toward a resolution.
Focus on finding the best alpaca for the money you want
to spend. In looking at breeding stock, you are looking
at two sides of an alpaca. Firstly, the conformation and
overall body of the alpaca and secondly, the fleece.
We have been breeding since beginning with the alpacas -
10 years. We continue to breed to improve our stock
generation after generation. We look closely at the
female and mate her with a male who will add to her
overall. There is no such thing as the perfect alpaca.
Each has something that can be improved upon whether it
be in their fiber or conformation. When looking for
breeding stock, look for an alpaca(s) where the
positives outweigh the negatives.
WHAT ARE GOOD CONFORMATIONAL COMPONENTS?
Lets start from top and work our way down.
Ears
Ideal ears are curved in and pointed at the top.
Head
Preference plays a part.
Nose
Some folks like a short snout, some a longer one.
Top Knot
Fiber coverage on head can correlate to a denser fleece
on the body.
Gums
A darker color on palate and gums can indicate darker
alleles and the chances that alpaca will throw color in
its breeding future.
Bite
How the teeth align with the dental pad, but also how
the jaws line up as well. Alpacas loose their baby teeth
roughly 2-3 years of age. The adult teeth come in from
behind. We have seen bites where jaw alignment is fine
with the baby teeth off palate slightly and when adult
teeth erupt and mature, match evenly with the palate. We
have also seen that if trimmed at 8-10 months of age,
the adult teeth align better and no more trimming was
needed.
Body Proportions
We like to see alpacas that are well proportioned. That
is – their neck length is equally proportioned to
their body length. Some alpaca have shorter necks, some
longer, but ideally, the ‘typey’ alpaca looks like a
well-proportioned animal.
Front legs should ideally be straight down from the
shoulder. Some alpacas front legs come closer in and
make a V shape. This would not be as ideal. When
screening for importation, alpacas were allowed a degree
of variation in the front legs angulation but nothing
too great. From the side the front legs should be
straight down from shoulder. A large percentage of
alpaca have good front leg
Conformation
Back legs. When the alpaca is standing on level
ground, there should be a natural hock or bend in the
back leg (when looking from the side). When the bend
brings the animals foot too far front, they have a
greater hock. From the back, watch the animal walk or
run forward. You can see how the legs move. Do they rub
together or do they toe out? Is this going to cause them
any damage in their future? Probably not but know your
alpaca(s) conformation so we can start building better
alpaca today.
Back Line
Don’t forget the back. I like to see a flat back line
with a nice curve to tail. Llamas tend to have longer,
straighter backs and straighter conformation than
alpacas. They have been bred for thousands of years to
carry weights. The more weight the better. Alpacas have
a more rounded end then a llama and have been bred to
give more fiber.
FIBER 101
Traditionally speaking, white and fawn colored alpaca
tend to have finer fleeces. This is because in Peru, the
goal was to breed for as much fiber off an animal to
sell to the European market and white was the color of
choice so their customers could then dye it any color
they wished.
Micron Counts, Standard Deviations and Co-Efficients
Micron and its associated numbers are just ONE of the
factors I use in evaluating a fleece. Micron itself
means the average diameter of the sample of fibers sent
in for evaluation. You take a 2”x2” sample of fleece
from the center, mid of the fleece and submit. Know that
humidity, etc. can interfere with results, so we sample
of dry fleeces only. The lower the micron the better.
Hence numbers around 17 - 25 for microns are good. We
will not use a male for breeding if his micron is over
30 microns, no matter how wonderful he is in all other
aspects.
SD stands for standard deviation of the micron. Looking
for a number again, lower the better but no higher than
say 5-6 in a stud male.
CV is co-efficient of variation. Lower number there
better as well. Shows uniformity through out the sample
and chances are it will correlate to a more uniform
fleece in micron. Over 30 is % of fibers in that sample
over 30 micron. Lower numbers again are desirable and
this is something we look at closely for breeding males.
Again, color of fleece will effect numbers.
Remember I said usually white for light fleeces have
lower microns and if you can find a lower microns in
color you are doing good. Example - white good microns
19-22 black 22-25. They do not use micron numbers in
Peru. They have women who sort the fiber by handle or
feel and judge it accordingly as baby, fine, superfine
or coarse and sort that way. Americans have to take it
one step further of course.
Handle, Luster, Strength, Crimp & Lock
Just as important as micron and its associated numbers
are the fleece's Handle ( how it feels to touch) Color,
Luster (or sheen), Strength (over all health of the
fiber), Crimp (waviness - in huacaya fleeces Suri does
not have), Lock, cleanliness and Presentation of Fleece.
In fact, these factors from a hand spinning point of
view are more important to me. My fiber customers and
end-product customers want to know how a fiber feels,
not its micron.
Density of a Fleece and Fiber Coverage
Traditionally speaking, the denser the alpaca the more
coverage it may have. Well, that ‘s not always the
case. I have had nationally award winning fleeces that
have come off of well covered and not-so well covered
alpacas. “Unless you are using the fiber between their
toes, what good is the coverage anyway?” I have been
asked. Good point. However, if you are utilizing the leg
wool, which we do for co-operative projects, this
enables us to get every bit of fiber off the alpaca and
turn it into something to sell. Off and on the farm
fiber sales totaled approximately $10,000 for us in
1999. This amount easily paid for all feed costs
associated with all fiber animals on our farm. We did incur
costs to make product, but profit was higher than our
expense.
WELL CONFORMED, WELL FIBERED, WELL PRICED ALPACAS
Know that your alpaca business, fiber or breeding will
grow naturally as your herd grows. Focus on finding the
best stock for the price you want to spend allocating a
reserve for insurance to protect your investment,
veterinary, stud and develop expenses. Folks starting
today have a wide realm of resources on which to start
that we didn’t seven years ago. Learn from our growing
pains to build a healthier and happier herd for the
future.
We work with many farms, established and new, to find
alpacas that are right for them and that will help them
reach their goals. Alpacas are not right for everyone.
We want you to enjoy your alpaca journey, start to end.
What will you be farming by the year 2005?
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