Fleece Breeding Aims of Yuralee Alpaca Stud

• We aim to have a herd of 20 micron fleeces with a 5/6 kilo cutting weight of useable fleece.
• We aim for our fleeces to have a deep bold crimp with bundling through out the fleece.
• We aim to extend the good quality saddle area of the animal through the belly, the brisket and down the legs.
• We aim for all our fleeces to have a soft handle with pronounced Lustre.
• We aim for our industry to have a commercially viable fleece industry. This is OUR FUTURE!

These are significant aims which we have been aspiring to for a number of years and it will probably take many more years to achieve them. But, considering that we started with 3 alpacas with a micron average of 29.8 and  as at 20/07/2006 we had a herd average, over 84 alpacas, of:

Mic 22.65   SD 5.05    CV 22.17.

We have come a long way. Our herd average is based on all the alpacas in our fleece breeding program not just a selection of the better ones, all are represented in these figures.

While working hard to achieve our aims we have been looking for a system that has a scientific background, something that matched our aims. We recognized that yearly micron testing; keeping honest and accurate records, and always trying to improve the stock with fleece superior males was not enough.  In 2006 we attended a SRS ® (Soft Rolling Skin) fleece seminar, we had heard so much about SRS® good and bad and we wanted to see for ourselves. The seminar seemed to match our aims, it definitely had the scientific approach we were looking for, so we then attended the SRS® Conference. There we had a hands on experience with goats and sheep which have had the SRS® Breeding system applied for a number of years, all doubt was gone the proof was there to see.

After having Dr Jim Watts assess our herd, we were pleasantly surprised with his comments that some of the females being labelled as “potential Embryonic Transfer Donors” (Dr Jim Watts 15-10-2006). Naturally some improvements to our techniques were also pointed out and these are already being adopted. Yuralee now applies the SRS® breeding program to the herd, and all of our hopes and aims have become achievable. Not over a small number of animals but over the whole herd and in  an achievable time frame. 

"Fleece Buyers will call the shots: Fabric manufacturers and fleece buyers pay for fineness and weight. So why not breed Alpacas that are heavier cutters of finer fleeces." (SRS Newsletter SRS ® Alpacas International June 2006.)

The above quote sums up all of our aims; at Yuralee we are breeding Alpacas with fleeces for a viable commercial fleece industry.

Yuralee Alpaca Fleeces are the start of the future, our motto has always been
Quality speaks for itself!