Get in behind, sheep —day of the llama and alpaca coming?

Press, 5 March 1987, Page 21

Get in behind, sheep —day of the llama and alpaca coming?

By

KEN COATES

It strains credibility. On a property at Yaldhurst, Steve Williams, a down-to-earth, hefty Kiwi farmer, cuddles a woolly animal around the neck.

He admits to having names for some, and swears they are intelligent. The flock is like one big family.

Steve Williams, aged 32, is a rarity even in a rapidly-changing New Zealand agriculture. He has charge of llamas and their cousins, alpacas, worth half-a-million dollars.

Alpaca wool, most of which comes from the high Andean mountains of South America, is warm, soft, and comes in a variety of natural colours. As a high-priced fashion fibre, it is a good international incomeearner. It sounds like an ideal alternative to the decline of sheep in this country.

On looks alone, the aristocratic llamas, with their soulful dark eyes, and alpacas, cuter and cuddlier, win hands down. Both are domesticated. Along with their wild cousins, the vicuna and guanaco, they are the South American members of the camel family. Mild-mannered and seemingly fastidious, llamas are happy to be led on a rope and halter. The more the animals are handled, the tamer they become.

In the United States, hundreds are kept as pets and are popular with children. For the people of the South American highlands struggling for a living, they provide wool, meat, and milk, and their dung is used for fuel on the bare altiplano.

Steve Williams has a word of warning, though: “They do spit, and are deadly accurate at 25 to 30 metres. They’ll spit when they get a bit uptight, or when faced with other animals. They don’t like dogs. And what they dredge up from deep down stinks.” Helped by his four-year-old daughter, Sarah, he prepared to feed the llamas bread, cabbages, hay, apples, and carrots. He sometimes adds barley straw and a few deer nuts, and says the long-necked beasts seem to like variety.

A couple of paddocks away, “Claudius,” a four-year-old buck, prowls up and down beside a wire fence. Steve says the llama wijl “trample all over you.” He seems to be a loner.

A favourite is “Renee,” sometimes known as “Sweep,” a 57kilo black and white alpaca in need of shearing; a smaller, woollier version of the llama.

Alpacas come in various colours and 29 official shades. It is no wonder their fibre is sought

by craft knitters and fashion houses exporting to boutiques and stores in North America, Europe, and the Far East. The ancestors of the modern alpaca were used for wool by the great South American civilisations as far back as 400 B.C. The Spanish conquistadores found well-organised herds. Peru has three million alpacas, Bolivia 300,000, and there are fewer numbers in Chile and Argentina.

These four Andean Pact countries long banned live exports, causing today’s world-wide shortage of the animals. But in New Zealand the race is on to lay the foundations for a new fibre industry; and, on the way, cash in on the demand for the exotic cameloids.

In the North Island, a $l6 million project planned by Arpac International, a listed company, includes the import of 2000 alpacas and 2000 llamas from Chile each year over the next five years.

New Zealand agricultural officials got the Chileans to agree in principle last year to export the alpacas and share genetic research improvements. Arpac announced in October that the first 500 would arrive early in January. There is still no sign of the animals.

Meanwhile, the Christchurchbased stock firm, Pyne Gould Guinness, has been quietly building up numbers by importing animals from zoos and estates in England, Poland, and Spain. Twenty-eight llamas and seven alpacas draw crowds of the curious to the company’s Yaldhurst property: “On Sundays, it’s just like Orana Park,” says Steve Williams, who manages the farm. Already, cross-breeding techniques look promising, with six llama-alpaca crosses expected. The progeny are called huarizos, hardy cameloids with soft wool.

Alpacas on the Andean altiplano at an altitude of more than 4000 metres get sparse feed. But, as Pyne’s stud stock manager, David Cassells, has found, letting them loose on lush New Zealand pasture and balanced stock food works wonders.

Ryegrass and white clover pasture, for example, with nitrogen fertiliser, can carry 30 fully-

grown alpacas a hectare, compared with only 1.5 a hectare on Peru’s grassland.

New Zealand must ensure that foot-and-mouth and other stock diseases are not introduced with the new animals. Those imported from Britain or sent from Europe via England, spend six

months in quarantine before leaving, and one month in quarantine on arrival, even though alpacas are not usually subject to foot-and-mouth disease. The demand for the South American animals is already keen, but there are only about

100 throughout the country. Three alpacas, one male and two females, recently sold to a Southland farmer by David Cassells for Pynes, fetched a cool $lOO,OOO. A six-month-old female alpaca calf, being held in quarantine in England, was sold to an American buyer for $27,900.

The market for the animals is inflated by a fad in North America where the llama is both a pet and an investment. As a pet, it may be permitted the run of the house when young. Although it can be house trained, it cannot be prevented from munching all indoor plants in sight.

The llama, it is reported, is emerging as a “yuppie. animal.” It is popular in California where week-end trampers use it as a pack animal. It has two-toed feet, with the weight of the animal on soft, leathery pads that barely leave an imprint on mountain tracks. The fragile wilderness ecology is not disturbed. With tax benefits, deductable expenses, and a demand that exceeds supply, llamas have become desirable investments for North Americans. They have scoured parks, zoos, and private woodlands in Europe for llamas and alpacas, helping to create the world-wide shortage. * This has had a direct bearing on the development of an alpaca and llama fibre industry in New Zealand. Prices for scarce stock will be high, but will eventually flatten out as numbers increase and an industry is slowly established.

One of the men behind Arpac, which announced its $l6 million float last October, is Ron Inglis, aged 45, a teacher-turned-farmer. He is one of three executive directors and was deputy principal of Scots College

until he went full-time farming on 1200 acres in the Pauatahanui Valley, near Wellington, three years ago.

He acknowledges that the company hoped to have had alpacas arrive from Chile about now, but says technical problems over developing tests to ensure the animals are disease-free have arisen. Some drugs are not readily available, and the Chileans are having to make arrangements with other countries for supply.

“This has taken more time than all parties expected,” he explains. But he is certain the deal is on with Chile and that the first 500 to 600 alpacas will be air freighted to New Zealand by the middle or end of June.

The big question for farmers will .be price. Although United States prices have soared to more than $lOO,OOO for a top stud llama, Ron Inglis expects best quality alpacas from Chile to be about $15,000 in this country.

Arpac, also into goat embryo transfer and breeding, has contracted Ministry of Agriculture scientists to do genetic research on llamas and alpacas. A team has just begun working on 18 llamas, most of which were bought from Hadlow Game Park, Timaru, last year, and are now at Levin. The scientists will first work out techniques and develop research and breeding skills. Ron Inglis is enthusiastic over what he sees as exciting possibilities for hybrid animals. The aim, he says, is to improve the quality of the imported alpacas.

The smallest of the cameloids, the vicuna, is a wild species that is prohibited from export, but Inglis is hopeful this could change, at least for breeding. Alpaca meat is said to resemble mutton in flavour and the flesh of young animals less than a year old to be “delicious.” Ron Inglis, who is also president of the Llama-Alpaca Breeders’ Association, says that while there is much interest among farmers and investors, “if they are hoping for miracles, they are courting disaster.” Farming the animals is relatively simple and should not pose too many problems, he adds, but some vital management skills, handling techniques, nutrition, and reproductive aspects need to be thoroughly understood. He estimates that alpaca fibre will fetch about the same as Cashmere and Angora — $4O to $5O a kilo for the best grade used in fashion garments. (United States estimates soar as high as $230 a kilo.) Procedures for testing the Chilean exports should be settled early next month, according to Gordon Schwartz from the Ministry’s animal health division in Wellington. He admits this had been the prediction for some months, but says the Chileans report a shortage of antigens, or indicators, used in tests for some animal diseases.

Another problem is a shortage of skilled people in Chile to carry out tests for trypanosomes — diseases caused by blood parasites. Arrangements are being made to have this done by sending samples to another country.

While everyone interested in a llama-alpaca industry wants to get started and earning as quickly as possible, there is one major catch. Unlike the deer industry, there is no wild popula-

tion of animals to use for embryo transfer and breeding, thereby establishing herds quickly. Initiatives are being taken. Ten llamas from the Pyne herd will be used on a Southland farm as recipients in an alpaca-embryo transplant programme in June. Amerian vets, who have developed techniques using caribou and elk, will come to New Zealand for the start of the programme.

Developing high quality animals producing the best fibre will require steady importing, research, and development Gestation takes 11 months, and there is no record of twins or multiple births. But while they are shy breeders, llamas and alpacas do breed for about 14 years. In Peru, there has always been, a local handicraft industry selling alpaca and Hama sweaters and rugs to tourists, but a number of small, new, and enterprising companies are producing fully-fashioned products for export — items such as cardigans, skirts, dresses, scarves, sweaters, men’s jackets, blankets, • and gloves. Top stylists, often from France or Italy, are hired, and many work on an exclusive basis. Enterprising companies, such as “The Peruvian Connection” in Kansas, buy their products direct from Peru. Their 172-item fullcolour catalogue includes sweaters, camisoles, capes, ponchos, mufflers and tapestries.

New Zealand at least has gained some expertise in shearing the animals. Ray Dunick, a Wool Board superintendent, worked on an aid project in Peru from 1979 to 1981 and devised a technique for removing the fleece of llamas, alpacas, and vicunas. Combatting the animal’s long neck and legs, he sometimes found it easier to tranquilise a 200-kilo adult llama before getting started.

At home on

N.Z. pasture

Reasearch into

breeding