Richard and I are back from our jaunt down south and I am enjoying getting re-acquainted with my alpaca "family" here at Sonric Suri Alpacas. Coming from the Bay of Plenty I have not seen a lot of snow so was really pleased to have experienced a fresh snow fall while we were at Hanmer Springs. Richard took the beautiful photos.
The Alpaca Association of New Zealand 2009 Conference was held at Lincoln University - Christchurch this year and the speakers gave us a lot to think about. Everyone I spoke to at the conference said that it had been well worth the effort to attend.
A quick summary of the speakers and their topic follows (in my own words):
PART 1
Cameron Holt
Cameron spoke about the importance of eliminating Guard Hair and reducing the Micron of Primary Fibres. He proved to us that it can be done and proceeded to out line how to achieve this. Cameron explained that Guard Hair in a fleece is not just a fibre that is of a higher micron than all the rest but that it is actually a completely different fibre altogether. It looks completely different to ordinary fibres under a microscope - having a far higher incidence of "scales" than ordinary fibres, and it is stiff and hollow with pointed tips. It reflects light differently to other fibres in your fleece and is hard to control when spinning. He pointed out that even if you could get the guard hair to reduce it's micron, it would still have a higher than normal "prickle factor" so it is far more advantageous to breed the guard hairs out of the fleeces than to focus on making them finer. He stressed the importance of understanding that there is a difference between "Guard Hair" and "Primary Fibres". It is good to aim to have your primary fibres the same low micron as the secondary fibres, but the best thing to do with the Guard Hair is to eliminate it altogether.
Cameron spent the rest of the time talking about how to select alpacas to help you achieve these goals. He placed a high importance on understanding your fleece sample test results. In particular, he explained how the CV measures the variance of micron within the sample so it is fair to assume that a sample with similar micron primary and secondary fibres would have a low CV, whereas one with a great variance would have a high CV. He pointed out that the average CV for all microns is approximately 24% so if you have a CV of say 19% for a fleece the yarn produced will have a handle and process like a fibre 1 micron finer. The reverse also happens if the CV is higher e.g. 29%. The fibre will handle and process like a fibre 1 micron stronger.
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Dave Maslen - NZ Merino Co
Dave spoke to the fact that the Alpaca Fibre industry and the Merino Industry have a lot in common. He walked us through the ways the Merino industry has grown and changed and discussed how we may be able to be a part of their hugely successful Company under their new branding recently launched internationally : Zque. What is Zque? Deep Integrity www.zque.co.nz Now that they have gone away from using the word Merino in their branding they are hoping to incorporate other NZ grown/produced products under their marketing umbrella of Ethical Wool/Fibres. NZ Merino Co is currently working with the Alpaca Association NZ to help us raise funds in order to continue with research on our fibre etc. . . and are looking forward to working closely with breeders and growers of quality alpaca and Suri fibre in the years to come. Very exciting for all breeders of alpacas. Watch this space.
Ewen McMillan - Australian Veterinarian
Ewen spoke on Congenital and Acquired Disorders of the limbs of Neonatal and Growing Cria. I must admit that when I heard what he was talking about I wondered if I really wanted to sit through such a talk but was glad I did. He had photos of all sorts of problems that he had come across over the years with young alpacas and their growing limbs and had some tried and proven methods to simply and effectively correct each and every problem. Some of the problems the Cria had with their limbs were from injuries (maybe getting kicked by an adult etc. ), some were congenital, and some were from something as simple as the position they had been in the womb during gestation and then birthing. I felt relieved to have not had to deal with any of the described problems, but also knew that if I did come across anything like what he was describing I would not need to panic, but now knew what to do.
Hermione Richards - Alpaca Breeder and Secretary of the National Council for 3 yrs plus is the Chair of the Marketing and Promotions Committee
Hermione spoke on Marketing the Alpaca Industry. She wanted to encourage all of us to get stuck in and Market the industry in our own little corner of the world.
Hermione went on to tell us that there were at least 10 possible reasons why people would want to buy alpacas.
Fibre production - Stud stock - Investment - Showing - Tourism - Pets - Eat the grass - Look good in the paddock - Health - Family activity - and more.
Hermione believes that anyone with at least an acre of grass is a potential alpaca owner. Statistics tell us that the largest group of current alpaca owners are lifestyle block owners and yet less than 1 % of them own alpacas. We have a long way to go to even be close to saturation. Our challenge is to make alpaca the animal of choice for the small holding.
There are lots of things about alpacas to be positive about. For example:
National Auction at Expo - Record price set for a stud service in 2009 Conference stud auction - NZ Merino Project - Suri fleece trial at Ag Research - Alpaca Exports - NZ alpacas winning shows in Europe - New Mini/small processing mills starting up - Commercial weaving looms making themselves available for alpaca product - Fibre pooling - National Alpaca Day
Hermione had a couple of pointers to finish off her talk with us that I thought were worth passing on. When you are out there interacting with the public and promoting the alpaca industry:
1) Be nice about other alpaca breeders. They are not your competition. Your competition is other animals targeted at lifestyle blocks. eg. highland cattle
2) Make sure your message is always a positive one. Don't dwell on problems, give everything as much of a positive spin as you can. Eg. if someone asks you "Do they spit?" Say. . "Yes they do, which is really a helpful thing as it tells us whether or not the female is pregnant."
In conclusion, Hermione believes the market for alpacas is as strong as ever, and to continue to be a vibrant and diverse industry we all need to do our bit.
This concludes the first half of the 2009 AANZ Conference Summary. Part 2 will come next.
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