The Alpaca Herd

“Our herd is our business card.”

Alan is sure there is no better impression to a new or experienced alpaca breeder than what they see in the fields when visiting an alpaca farm.

“I’ll never forget visiting Estancia Accoyo, as high as you’ll ever see an alpaca farm in the altiplano of Peru , with my good mate Mike Safley back in 2001. Don Julio was feeling frisky. He ushered us into the rock walled pens. And in there waiting were literally hundreds of alpacas that were hard to tell apart. The suris looked identical and so did the huacaya. The huacaya were bold and alert and displayed a uniformity of look and fiber that was hard to differentiate and was unlike anything I had seen in ten years of alpaca breeding and visiting alpaca farms all over the world. The suri just blew me away.

Peas in a pod, shimmering with a bright intense luster to die for. It took me back to my old Uncle Derrum’s jersey dairy cow herd that we helped to tender as kids, back in Korrumburra , Australia where the grass grew while you looked at it. Just like the Accoyo herd those dairy cows were identical.”

You don’t have to have the most expensive farm, the one with the biggest barn, or chandeliers in the loafing areas or the ornate weather vanes, if those pastures have animals of quality and symmetry about them, if they look like improved alpacas this will tell the visitor you indeed understand livestock breeding.

BREEDING OBJECTIVES

 Alan , when conducting the Pucara International “Thrive or Survive in the Alpaca Industry“ seminars, encourages all his potential clients to think business plan first. How much do they want to make, or more importantly how much do they need to replace their existing income? If clients can realistically estimate an income requirement to sustain their lifestyle, then Alan can help in explaining how many alpacas are needed, and what services to offer to sustain that income. Once they know that then they can adopt their breeding plans to fit the business plan.

“We certainly had to think a lot about our business plan and what we needed to breed to reach our goals because we had very little foundation capital to achieve it”, says Alan . “Once we worked out how much we needed to replace Jude’s wage as a teacher we then constructed a breeding and sales plan to pursue that.”

Although for a long time Pucara Australia bred production females for their domestic market, they used the profits to secure genetics, sought after genetics, from Peru via the U.S. for what they perceived to be the future. Pucara International’s breeding objective is to produce fine micron, heavy cutting, solid coloured, well nourished fleeces on a solid framed animal that is conformationally correct and displays strong bone. The back, jaw set and teeth especially have to be correct. Those animals must be alert, display constitutional vigor and be able to thrive in the environment we produce them for. We especially want our herdsires to show off a proud head, with deep wide muzzle with a well spaced nasal passage. The better the jaw set the longer that animal can thrive. The clearer the nasal passage the easier it breathes. And last but not least they must have generous genitalia! In all livestock it represents the ability of a breed to sustain itself.

BREED STANDARD

 “Our breeding objective is in short our breed standard,” says Jude.

It is the belief of Pucara International that Breed Standards are essential to a thriving professional industry fixed on the future, and it should reflect whatever it is that alpaca breeders want it to be….. what they think we breed alpacas for. Jude and Alan hope it mainly reflects breeding for superior fiber and that it will not get hung up in niches that come and go with the tide of marketing.

In essence Pucara International believes it doesn’t matter so much what the industry decides that is included in an Alpaca Breed Standard as long as there is one to show judges, breeders, commercial end users and people watching the industry what it is that we breed the alpaca for.

“After all”, says Jude “we judges judge to a breed standard of sorts already. We just don’t understand why people have such antipathy toward it.”

Al believes it is because a majority of people who are in the industry or are about to join have little or no livestock experience and fear that a breed standard will devalue their herd. “I believe they are so wrong. Overall the industry will become professional and be seen as a leader thereby ensuring our future.” Alan goes on “Do we want to stand alongside the llama industry as the second only livestock breed in the US not to have a breed standard to illustrate to new comers what it is we breed for? Do we want just the powerful, wealthy farms to dictate by their marketing and sales budgets what we should breed for or do we take a democratic and unified approach to identify what and why we breed? We want a breed standard using goals predicated on production, not niche marketing!”

Just recently Pucara International was given four llama females because the breeder had lost faith, had no idea how to breed his girls and saw no future because there was no direction in the industry.

“Those llamas were multi colored, one was almost a suri llama. There was no uniformity at all. God help us if our animals that grow the ‘fiber of the gods’ are bred the same way.” Jude continues, “We are full time alpaca breeders in two countries. We want direction for what is required from our end consumers and in all textiles that is for fine soft to the skin fiber, and they want lots of it. There in itself is a directive for the future we might address! “

THE PUCARA HERD GENETICS

To the end of pursuing their breeding objectives Alan and Jude selected, back in 1994, suri and huacaya genetics in the US which represented their ideal. More importantly they were from established lines that consistently reproduced the ideal as understood by Pucara.

Huacayas genetics were sourced from Northwest Alpacas, Morning Sun Alpacas, Snowmass Alpacas and Columbia Gorge Alpacas, with Accoyo, Allianza and Hemingway lines predominant. Suris were sourced from Castle Hill Farm and Alpacas of America. Lines like Accoyo Ganador, Accoyo Uribe, Starbuck, Benedicto, Joselo, Fuego and Aureo were acquired. To top that off, Jude and Al along with their partners at the time, Snowmass Alpacas, selected from two direct shipments in 1994 and 1995 out of Peru .

As a result Alan and Jude were owners of huacaya males like Mr Antonio, Peruvian Drambuie, Peruvian Don Julio, Peruvian Hemingway ,Accoyo Legacy, and Accoyo Pluro. Others they selected were Accoyo Legend, Accoyo White Lightning and Accoyo Pachacuti. Suri males like Accoyo Cadete, Top Hat and Accoyo Amador, and females out of the suri lines above went on to dominate. You only have to look at Pucara Australia ’s show winnings to understand the influence of these selections.

“All in all if you do not want to breed to a plan and don’t understand how genetics work you’re just rolling the dice”, Jude explains. “ While you are in your alpaca infancy you have to have the guts to admit that you have no idea and seek out mentors that have the calling cards in their fields to prove their worth as a breeder and as a mentor. Hopefully they will pass on their knowledge. We will. We want to last in this industry and we know if our clients are educated and informed that we will have a strong network fixated on what the future is. This is our only source of income so we feel very strongly that we protect it by helping as many people as we can to understand what it is that breeds success!”

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