Breeding decisions do not just affect the next years crias!

This is a great article that was in the most recent issue of The Coarse Broads Newsletter and I felt it very appropriate to share it at this time of year when many of us are shearing.   

Every time you make a breeding decision, you are affecting how alpaca fiber is perceived in the minds of not just the textile industry but also the minds of the consumer. Over the course of this year, we have seen a rather large increase in the size of primary fibers in relation to the size of the secondary fibers. Which is a step backwards in uniformity.

Why does that matter? When the primary fibers are 3 and 4 grades above that of the secondary fibers, it creates all sorts of problems in the end product.

This is what we call "hairy" and unfortunatly so does the majority of the consumers who are currently buying alpaca yarns commercially.


Bottom line, it makes an undesirable product that the consumer will never buy again.


We have the perfect storm brewing with Alpaca United generating an enormous amount of press about North American Alpaca Fiber. We need to do our part as breeders by making the best commercially viable fiber we possibly can. This is an opportunity we will not probably ever see again. If we don't step up, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.


We do this by breeding for more uniformity in the fiber. Specifically the primary and secondary fibers closer in grade and character. The wool industry is leaps and bounds ahead of alpaca in this catagory already. Check out the photos.

 Suffolk wool which is very uniform. The primary fibers are almost indistinguishable from the secondaries.

Alpaca fiber - You can see how much bigger the primary fibers are in comparison to the secondary fibers. This sample histograms at 20.4 microns. Even thought that falls within the grade one catagory, it would result in a "Hairy" product.

I challenge you to have 3 or 4 alpacas fiber (neck and blanket fiber) sorted by a sorter in the Certified Sorted® System. When the sorter is finished you will have 2 things you can get no where else.


1. An inventory sheet that outlines what these 3 or 4 alpacas produced by grade and also the amount of profit you stand to make at both Wholesale and Retail thru NAAFP. As well as a way to calculate what it cost you to grow your fiber, so you know just what you need to make off of it. (It cost me $21/ lb this last year)


2. The Alpaca Dating game. A way to use the sort records to make breeding decisions for improving your fiber.


Make 2 breeding decisions using The Alpaca Dating game. Next year you will be amazed at the results.

Joining A Fiber Cooperative . . . which one is the correct one?

This question was just posed to us and we don't really have a perfect answer.  You need to look at the characteristics of each one and work with the one that mostly closely fits your business model.  It is truly not a one size fits all question. We belong to two . . . NAAFP and AFCNA

We work with NAAFP (North American Alpaca Fiber Producers) because you have a certified sorter at the farm (or sorted at a later date from the bag) who sorts your fiber by color, length and micron so that by the end of shearing day you know what alternatives you have with each group of fiber. If you have a specific animal you want to save for your own purpose to send off to a private mill or process yourself, you can make that decision when it hits the sorter's table. The rest of the fiber you can choose to send to the cooperative to be used in its product line being returned to you as finished product or to remain in the cooperative to be sold at either the retail or wholesale level. Without a sorter, we don't feel there is sufficient information to make those decisions. Plus the sorting process gives you some really important information on the animal's fiber with which to make future breeding decisions. Here is the link for other farms who are members of NAAFP--just click on the link for your area of the country to see if any farms near you are members.

We are also members of AFCNA (Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America). When you send fiber to the coop you are given the opportunity to purchase from them and other vendors at a wholesale price. They have some nice products but we have not had the patience waiting for a return on our investment of fiber so we have not sent them any fiber since we started sorting. You can talk to AFCNA members in your area for more information.  Looks like there is a new link for members that is being slowly populated as members edit their profile information. Here is the link for their membership.

There are others coops around the country but before you join, you need to be sure what your farm's end goal is regarding the end use of your fiber.