ALL ABOUT FIBRE

THE INDUSTRY

Alpaca fibre is classified as a luxury fibre. It is stronger than sheep wool, contains no lanolin & comes in 22 natural colors. The feel is comparable to a high end cashmere & the use for alpaca fibre is endless. The ultimate goal for alpaca breeders around the world is to establish a successful commercial fibre industry.

South America has had a commercial fibre industry for years. It will be some time before North America or Australia are ready for a commercial industry, there simply are not enough alpacas right now to support a commercial industry, but that is not to say that someday it will not happen. The population of alpacas in North America has grown immensely over the past 10 years and will continue to grow. Breeders are educating themselves and are making better breeding decisions, resulting in better quality alpacas.

Canada is home to some of the worlds leading genetics, we have the opportunity to produce some of the world's best alpaca fibre. Canada has a successful fibre co-op, a fibre research centre and huge selection of fibre processing mills. Mills that are processing woollen & worsted yarns, socks, garments, duvets and even a luxurious fabric. The fibre industry has come along way and will continue to grow and expand. There is also a very strong community of hand spinners & crafts people who are doing wonderful things with alpacas fibre as well.

When it is all said and done, the success of the alpaca fibre industry is in the hands of the breeders. Breeders need to support the fibre industry, by joining the fibre co-ops, supporting the mills and most importantly, educate themselves and move forward with their breeding programs. We may not have a commercial industry yet, but we do have what it will take to get there.

FIBRE CHARACTER

At Windy Ridge we look at several different things when determining what type of fleece characteristics we are striving for in our breeding program. The characteristics that are important to us, as breeders, are:

(A) CRIMP - how many crimps per inch & the depth of the crimp
(B) ALIGNMENT - over all fibre alignment
(C) DENSITY - over all density in the fleece
(D) LUSTRE - the brightness & shine of the fleece
(E) HANDLE - the soft silky feel of the fibre
(F) FINENESS - the fibre diameter
(G) LENGTH - the staple length of the fibre
(H) UNIFORMITY - uniformity of the fleece character & fibre diameter

There are two things that will determine the quality of an alpaca, therefore determining the quality of your fibre. GENETICS & NUTRITION. Genetics determine 60% of the quality of your alpaca, 40% is environment. Most breeders make the mistake of relying 100% on genetics to determine the quality of their herd.

Nutrition & overall health still make up a huge percentage of the outcome, breeders need to be aware of this. Think of the potential a breeding program has with the right genetics and a sound nutrition program.

As breeders we have the opportunity to give 100% to our programs. By finding a balance between high performance genetics and a comprehensive nutrition program, breeders can guarantee themselves top quality alpacas & top quality fibre.

This is a competitive market, you want to make the most out of what you have and if needed, find and obtain what you are missing.

FIBRE CHARACTERISTICS (What they are & Why they are important)

CRIMP

"Why is it Important"

Crimp can best be described as the waves of character that can be seen in the fibre. There are a variety of different ranges of crimp found in the alpaca. To get a better understanding of which character is considered better it is important to understand why we need crimp in the fibre.

The answer is simple, elasticity. Straight fibres offer no elasticity, while fibres with obvious crimp have good elasticity.

Elasticity is important in the final product, products with good elasticity will hold their shape better, most people refer to this as memory. Crimp can also add bulk to the finished product. This is one reason that sheep wool is so popular, sheep wool has very defined crimp, products made from wool such as sweaters, socks, gloves & hats have good memory, they keep their shape.

The draw back to sheep wool is that it does contain lanolin, and it typically does not have the super soft feel of alpaca, it tends to be scratchy. This is why over the past 10 years there has been a movement within the alpaca fibre industry to produce a fibre with a better crimp. This movement is very strong in Australia, home to millions of wool producing sheep & to fibre producing alpacas. Breeders there understand the need for crimp in the fibre and have started to selectively breed for better fibre character. At home here in Canada we also understand the need for better character, and over the years the majority of breeders have been breeding for a better crimp character.

Unfortunately a lot of breeders do not understand crimp character at all, they are just going with the flow and often make breeding decisions based on the newest fad or idea. For long term consistent results you can not rely on fantasy, you need facts.

"Types of Crimp"

There are a variety of different ranges of crimp found in alpaca fibre. You have some animals with a crinkle type of crimp, this crimp is not very defined and will not have a lot of elasticity to it. This is the type of crimp that the majority of the foundation chileans had on them. Because not all breeders have done some sort of upgrading to their herds, you will still find some of this poor character crimp today.

CRINKLE TYPE CRIMP


Another type of crimp that can be found in herds today can be described as a big wave type crimp. This type of fibre has more of a big wave like crimp, it is confused a lot with the term deep bold crimp. This crimp has more of a loose wave like structure, the crimp is of a shallow to medium depth. It could also be called low frequency crimp. Frequency refers to the amount of crimps per strand or per inch. Right now you will still find this type of crimp in the majority of alpacas. It will provide some elasticity. Alpacas with this type of crimp are just an upgrade or two away from a high frequency crimp.

LOW FREQUENCY CRIMP(Big Wavy Type Crimp)


A good fibre type to strive for is a high frequency type crimp, this fibre will have many crimps per strand or inch. The crimp depth will be medium to deep, this is the type of crimp that will give you very good elasticity. Alpacas that display this type of character are one step closer to producing the ultimate crimp and are worth breeding to. You can find high frequency crimp in the breeding pastures and show rings today, this type of character is one step closer to the ideal.

HIGH FREQUENCY CRIMP


The deep bold crimp type is the ultimate in fibre type. This can best be described as a high frequency crimp with a major depth to the crimp character. This fibre not only has many crimps per strand or inch but the crimp depth is very deep resulting in a very bold character. You usually will see very good fibre alignment and bundling with this type of crimp. This is the type of character found on Marino Sheep, products from this type of fleece will have very good elasticity and great memory. To find an alpaca that exhibits this type of fleece character and that meets our conformation requirements is rare. We have only seen a small handful of alpacas in Canada that have this type of crimp and out of those only a couple would pass our conformation requirements.

DEEP BOLD CRIMP


DENSITY

Density can be defined as the number of fibres found in a given area. There are no mechanical means of testing the degree of density of the fleece. The tools that you need to use are sight & touch. Most very dense alpacas also have very good fibre coverage. A dense fleece will crack & separate as the alpaca walks and moves about. When you place your hand on a dense fleece you will feel resistance, when trying to close your hand around the fleece you should get a huge handful. With a very dense fleece it will be hard to close your hand around the fibre.

Cria fleeces can be evaluated this way, if you find a cria with a very dense blanket, chances are as a adult the fleece will be super dense. Evaluating cria fleeces can be difficult, when there is obvious density its easy but on occasion you will find a cria with a not so dense fleece that may change after the first shearing. So if its not that obvious, take a look at the sire, dam and any siblings. You can also reassess the animal after it's first shearing.

Dense fleeces will give you better shearing weights, because there are more fibres taking up space on your alpaca. Another factor that will affect density is Fibre Alignment.

FIBRE ALIGNMENT

Fibre alignment is determined by the health and alignment of the fibre folicles in the skin. Aligned fibres grow straight out from the folicle in unison. The individual crimped fibre fit together with out entanglement. These fibres grouped together will form match stick locks or bundles.

The best way to determine fibre alignment is to have a look at how the fibres are formed as a group, aligned fibres will come together in tight locks or bundles. They will be easy to see and when parted by your hand will separate nicely. It is always exciting at shearing time to see those nicely aligned fleeces come off the animal, the locks & bundles are amazing.

When you have fibre alignment, you usually have more fibres per square inch, this results in a denser fleece and better shear weights. The number of fibre follicles and where they are placed is determined by genetics, therefore it is important to choose alpacas with dense well aligned fleeces for your breeding program.

Skin health can play a small role here as well. In human beings and other species skin health can affect the growth of hair & fibres. Unhealthy skin and other skin problems can reduce and inhibit hair & fibre growth. If you are going to breed for fibre alignment & density it would be wise to consider the health of the skin, a healthy pliable skin can only aid in the development of the fibres. A good nutrition program can help maximize the fibre growth potential. Healthy fibre & skin can also result in longer staple lengths.

STAPLE LENGTH

Staple length is literally the measured length of the fibre. Since the introduction of better genetics to the alpacas of North America staple lengths are definitely longer. We saw some added inches when we started to combine the Chilean & Peruvian genetics. But we think the biggest factor has been the nutrition, more breeders are now feeding their alpacas some sort of ration.

With the combination of good genetics and healthy skin & fibre, breeders are seeing staple lengths up to 10 inches on 1 year old cria fleeces. These long staple lengths in the cria fleece are not ideal for commercial processing but they are resulting in lengths of 5 to 7 inches on adult alpacas, which are the ideal for commercial processing.

What does this mean? In processing, the shorter the fibres, the more prickle factor you have, longer fibres equal less prickle. Really long fibres 10 or more inches are not easily processed through a commercial mill. So in order to have an ideal length of adult alpaca fibre we must find ways of dealing with the ultra long & ultra fine cria fleece. Staple length is not the only thing that has improved because of healthy skin & fibre, we are seeing much more lustre in our fleeces.

LUSTRE, HANDLE & FINENESS

Lustre can best be described as the brightness and shine of the fibre. You can visually determine the lustre of a fleece by looking at it. A high lustre fleece will glisten in the sunlight, there will be a noticeable shine to the fleece. When parting the fleece you will see the brightness from every angle. Genetics play a role in how much lustre a fleece will have but the biggest factor is nutrition. A very healthy fleece will have a high lustre, not so healthy alpacas have a dull looking fleece with little or no lustre. Lustre does not disappear when the fibre is processed, a high lustre fleece will make high lustre products. Lustre is also closely associated with super soft handle. A high lustre fleece not only looks nice but feels incredible.

Handle is what we refer to as the feel of the fibre. The only way to determine the handle of the fibre is with a hands on evaluation. Your hands don't lie, if it is good fibre you will know it. When judging a fleece for handle, think one thought, would I wear this next to my skin.

Finer fleeces on the whole have a better handle, they are very soft to the touch, but you can have medium grade fleeces that also have a very nice handle, this is why feeling the fibre is an important way of determining the handle. Fibre fineness can be affected by genetics, sex & age of the animal, nutrition and overall health. Extra super fine fleeces seem to lack density and character. One way of measuring fibre diameter is by doing a micron count. This will measure the fibre diameter, the only draw back is that the results are very easily influenced by outside factors. A thin fibre diameter does not mean the fibre will be super soft. We have an old female, who has a micron count of 19, her fibre may be thin but it feels like steal wool.

HISTOGRAMS & MICRON COUNTS

First off, a histogram should never take the place of a hands on evaluation, a histogram is but a tool to be used to aid you in your decisions. One of the biggest mistakes a breeder can make is to purchase an animal based on a micron count.

A micron test can not measure the amount of lustre in your fleece, it does not tell you how the fleece feels in your hands, it can not measure density, or tell you what type of crimp you have.

No alpaca has a single micron count, fibre diameter can vary according to the age of the alpaca, hormones and nutrition. Because nutrition can play such a major role in the fibre diameter, there are some breeders out there who ignore the nutritional requirements of their alpacas in order to get super low microns. Small alpacas equal small shear weights. What do you think would be worth more to a commercial fibre industry, 10 pounds of fibre with a 25 micron or 3 pounds with a 17 micron. On a very healthy alpaca 25 microns can feel just as nice as an unhealthy 17.

When nutrition plays such a big role in all the other aspects of alpaca & fibre development it makes no sense to sacrifice all that potential for a number that is so easily affected by outside influences. Unfortunately a lot of alpacas are sold by breeders pushing super low micron counts, these alpacas are usually small and under feed. When those buyers get their new alpacas home and feed them a balanced diet they are usually very surprised and disappointed when that low micron count goes up. As a general rule of genetics, breeding solely for fineness usually adversely affects density, length of fibre is shorter and animal size is compromised.

A histogram is best used in a breeding program as a way to measure fibre changes over time. The only way to get accurate results is to have the alpacas in the same environment with the same nutrition program year after year.

AVERAGE FIBRE DIAMETER(AFD)

This is the average of the diameter measurement of each fibre sample. This average number is the "micron count". The lower the number the smaller the fibre diameter. The amount of fibre used for this test is a 2 by 2 inch sample taken from the mid side of the alpaca. Age & sex of the alpaca as well as nutrition will affect the fibre diameter. Lighter colored alpacas tend to have a lower fibre diameter than darker colored alpacas. Remember that smaller fibre diameter does not always equal fine handle in the fibre. The only way to determine handle is by touch.

Histograms should only be used as a tool to aid you in making breeding decisions, never buy or breed an alpaca based solely on micron count. Evaluate the alpaca and base your decisions on conformation, fleece character, handle, density and have a look at the relatives and offspring to make sure those traits are visible and have been passed on.

Use the histogram only as a reference, if you are going to pay attention to anything it should be to the numbers that are not affected by environment, the Standard Deviation is not affected by nutrition and can be helpful tool when looking at the fleece uniformity.

STANDARD DEVIATION(SD)

This is the measurement of the average amount of deviation between each individual fibre's diameter & the average fibre diameter. The lower the standard deviation the more uniform the fleece sample. It is important to remember here, that the fibre follicles were formed during gestation therefore they are in place at birth. A low standard deviation will indicate the alpaca has a better alignment of fibres resulting in a more uniform fleece. When we see a SD of 5 and lower, it indicates that the fleece has good alignment and uniformity.

There are two other numbers that will appear on a histogram, these are not measurements, but calculations based on the measurements taken. Because these percentages are based partly on the fibre diameter they to can be affected by outside influences.

COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION(CV)

This is a mathematical calculation. The SD is divided by the AFD and multiplied by 100. The result is reported as a percentage. You can use the CV when trying to compare two fleece samples with different AFD numbers but the same SD. The sample with the higher AFD is actually going to be the more uniform fleece. You will notice when comparing the two histograms, the one with the higher AFD actually has the lower CV. When it comes down to evaluating a single histogram, the SD should be the measurement you look at for uniformity. The SD is an actual measurement and therefore a more accurate way of measuring fibre uniformity.

There is a new trend amoung many breeders to now advertise their "low" CV number instead of the AFD number when promoting their alpacas. You have to remember that a low CV number will mean a higher AFD number. For example if you have a CV of 15% and the SD is 05 your AFD is 33.3. Most breeders do not understand what the CV is, they see a low number on their histogram so they brag about it, when in reality a higher CV number will usually have a lower AFD number.

FIBRES GREATER THAN 30 MICRONS(%>30)

This simply, is a calculated number that shows the percentage of course fibres in the sample. The amount of course fibres you have can effect the prickle factor in your fleece products. The goal for the future is to try to eliminate as much of these course fibres as we can, so we can reduce the prickle factor in our end product. Breeders can also evaluate the fleece by hand to determine the prickle factor.

UNIFORMITY & CONSISTENCY

When we are assessing the fibre on an alpaca, we look at crimp, density, lustre & handle. We also look at the uniformity of the fleece and the consistency of the character & quality. When we examine the fleece we want to see good crimp character, bundles or locks & lustre in the blanket area but we also want to see it on the shoulders, the rump, down the legs and up the neck.

When we see an alpaca with crimp and lustre in all these places we know this alpaca has good consistency of character. When we see that not only is the character consistent, but the fibre alignment is also consistent. The results are density with major bundling or lock formations all over the alpaca, this is uniformity. This is what we are breeding for.

When you have a uniformed fleece you will have more usable fibre when the fleece is shorn. When we first started it was unheard of to use the neck or top leg wool, the reason being the lack of length, handle and character. Now we are finding that our neck, leg & rump fibre is not only usable but in some cases just as nice as the blanket fibre.

FLEECE COLOR

The color of the fleece is determined 100% by genetics. When breeding for color, you would think that breeding black to black would equal black, this is not always so. Depending on the color genetics in the alpacas back ground, and how dominant those genes are, you have a chance of getting anything. Now lets say you want a breeding program on your farm that only breeds for a certain color. You would have to remove from your program any cria born that were not of your chosen color. You would continue to do this as well as breed animals only of that specific color. After a number of years, you then could say with some degree of certainty that you breed exclusivly for that certain color.

This might sound a bit far fetched, but the breeders in Peru & Bolivia did it, and that is why the large majority of those animals are white and why white is such a dominant color. The reason why they removed color from their herds was to breed for, and produce large amounts of white fibre for the commercial fibre industry. White or light colored fibres tend to have a finer fibre diameter, therefore it should feel finer than the darker colors. The white alpacas tend to have a denser fleece and higher shear weights, and white fibre can be dyed any color.

South America is still breeding for and producing white fibre, but they have also realized that colored fleeces are also very marketable, and are now trying to add color back into some of their herds. Here in Canada our foundation stock came from Chile, home to all colors of alpacas. We started out with a huge variety of colored genetics and it was not until the Peruvian & Bolivian alpacas came to Canada that we started to see a lot more white colored cria. The fibre quality has improved immensely, the trick now is to try to breed some of that color back into our herds with out compromising our fibre quality.

When the time comes for Canada to have a commercial fibre industry, we will hopefully be able to offer that industry a full range of superior quality fleeces in all the colors.

SOLID COLOR VS MULTI COLOR

Alpaca fibre has a range of over 22 recognized solid colors. Alpaca fleeces can be all of one color, or more than one color. We always get asked, what is the most popular color, what is the best color to bred for, and what is the difference between solid colors & multiple colored fibre on alpacas.

Question one, we can't really say what the most popular color would be, everyone who has visited the farm has his or her ideas of what they like. There are, on occasions, inquires about a certain color, but right now there is interest in all the colors.

Question two, this question like the first doesn't really have a definitive answer. Breed for what you like, there really isn't a right or wrong color. Most breeders will have a wide range of colors in their herd.

Question three, first we should define what multi colored means. It is any alpaca with more than one color taking up the majority of the blanket area. We are not talking about alpacas with some facial markings, vicuna coloration or an alpaca that may have a small single spot of color on the blanket. We are talking about the pintos, piebalds and appaloosa's. Greys are excluded from this category, even though they tend to be a mix of colors like grey, black, brown and white, the end result when processed is grey. When grey fleece is sorted the different colors are not separated. Pintos, Piebalds & Appaloosa's are alpacas that have two or more major colors in the blanket area, these colors usually form some sort of pattern. They are interesting to look at but are more difficult to sort, especially in a commercial industry.

When the animal is white with a huge brown pattern in the blanket sorting becomes difficult, there is a good chance that some white fibres will end up in the brown and some brown fibres will end up in white. This is known as color contamination of the fleece. In a commercial industry it will take more time and man power to sort multi colored fleeces in order to make sure the colors do not become contaminated with other colored fibres. For this reason alone there are many breeders like ourselves who from the beginning have chosen to breed for solid colors. Like fibre color, color patterns are genetic, so when choosing our stock we stayed away from alpacas with this type of coloration in their backgrounds. Multi colored fibre can & will continue to be used in the cottage fibre industry.

LAST THOUGHTS

In order to achieve the ultimate fibre, it is important to understand what the different characteristics are & why they are so important. Then breeding decisions are made based on those characteristics, certain animals maybe more sought after than others because they may exhibit all or the majority of these traits. An alpaca that has the majority of these traits and has the ability to pass on those traits is worth it's weight in gold.

When we find these animals we also need to consider that in order for them to reach their full potential they need a balanced diet. Alpacas can survive on very little but they thrive when given the opportunity. Anyone serious about breeding alpacas and producing top quality fibre, needs to seriously consider the nutritional requirements. Not only for the positive effect it has on the fibre but also for the effects it will have on the over all growth and health of your alpaca and the future offspring.

The fibre industry might be in its infancy stage here in Canada, but as breeders we have to remember that the breeding & management decisions we make today are going to greatly affect the fibre of the future.