Alpaca Fiber 101

Alpaca Fiber: Color Contamination
Author: mike safley

When Is It A Fault?

Alpacas come in many colors; on occasion, too many colors. Dark-colored fleeces with the occasional light-colored fiber spread throughout the blanket have one color too many. White fleeces, with the odd fawn or black fiber hidden among the white ones, are equally at fault. The subject of color definitions, roan, grey, and multies is a hot potato tossed between the show rules committee, judges, the AOBA Board, show management, and exhibitors. If alpaca breeders do not discriminate against solid colored alpacas with the occasional off-color fiber in their fleece, the problem could haunt them for sometime. In my opinion males that lack uniformly colored fleeces should not be herdsires.

I judged the 2005 MAPACA Show with Jude Anderson and Julio Sumar. My apprentice was on the microphone doing oral reasons, and when he finished, the show superintendent Peg Stephens gave a stern wave, signaling me to her desk. As I approached, she handed me a cell phone, which was a surprise - I had never been summoned to the telephone in the middle of a show. Your apprentice just used the "C" word, a voice at the other end of the line intoned. It seems an exhibitor phoned an AOBA official, not in attendance, to report my apprentice for using the words color contamination in his oral reasons for class placement. The AOBA official instructed me to gather my fellow judges and their apprentices to inform them that the use of the word contamination, referring to color in oral reasons, is against show division policy. The acceptable term is lacking color uniformity. Does this policy take political correctness, or should I say color-correctness, too far?
 

THE AOBA SHOW RULES 

COLOR CONTAMINATION FROM A TEXTILE POINT OF VIEW

On a recent trip to Peru, I asked Carlos Montavalo, the central manager of fiber processing at Inca Tops, in Arequipa, Peru, what breeders could do to improve the value of their fiber production. He said, They could reduce color contamination. By that I mean eliminate dark fiber in light fleeces and light fiber in dark fleeces. He went on to tell me that if a customer such as Ralph Lauren (Polo) found more than four or five dark fibers in a 45-pound bolt of fabric, they would return the cloth. But worse yet, if they found these fibers in a finished garment, they would claim the total costs incurred for all of the garments made from that cloth. These charges often exceed the price of the fabric that we sold them, he said, and that is a disaster. Montavalo finished by saying, We spend millions of dollars each year for labor to extract dark fibers from light colored cloth. I also spoke with Alonso Burgos about the color contamination problem, and he pointed out another pitfall. When a customer for white tops, perhaps a Chinese client, takes possession of an order, the lot is immediately inspected to see if even 1 or 2 dark fibers are present. If any are found, a call is made and a price discount is requested. If the seller refuses the discount, the client says, come get the order. Alonso points out that this negotiation usually ends with the seller bowing to the east.

There is another cost associated with color contaminated fiber: keeping the scouring train and combs free of off-colored fiber. Once a white fleece containing dark hairs is scoured, the entire production line must be shut down to remove any offending color impurities. A blow torch is fired up, burning away any remaining fiber from the equipment: a costly process. Dr Julio Sumar recently told me that he has studied the average micron counts for each of the colors found on multicolored alpacas. He discovered that there is often a significant difference between the two. This is an additional consequence of contaminated fleece - variability in micron counts which coarsens the handle of finished garments. Dark fibers in white fleeces are often guard hairs, and guard hairs, as we all know, are one of the most negative of all fleece traits.

If you need more proof about the evils of color contamination here is what Jude Anderson has to say about the current status in the Merino Sheep industry in Australia. There's a fiber market assurance program called Clip Care, which among other things requires farmers to totally clean their shearing shed before and after shearing, to cull anything with any color other than white, and not to allow any colored animals on the property. The Australians take the idea of color purity as seriously as any fiber breeders in the world as Jude points out when she says, We've had sheep farmers buying fox guard alpacas from us that absolutely will not take any other color than white. They said they don't want the sheep getting contamination from colored alpacas by rubbing up against them in the paddocks and getting a colored fiber mix up, or if colored alpacas rub themselves on fences, the sheep can come along behind them and become contaminated. Call it anal, call it paranoia, but that's the real world!, says Jude. 

ALPACA SELECTION & COLOR CONTAMINATION

I was recently invited by Alonso to accompany him and Dr. Rito Huayta on a trip to Julio Barreda's Accoyo. They intended to purchase several males for the Pacomarka breeding program. I leaned against the rock wall of the corral as Barreda herded 20 beautiful Accoyo males into the catch pen for Alonso's review. My eye immediately found an exquisite male, big and bold, with ideal phenotype. I fell in love. As Alonso worked his way down the line of males, coming closer to the object of my affection, he would eliminate any animal that did not meet his exacting standards. I smiled as he laid his hands on my first place male and was shocked to see him signal this beauty out of the corral. As the cowboy dragged the rejected macho past me, I asked if I could inspect him. The fleece was dense, fine, and wonderfully crimpy. I was puzzled. Alonso finished his selection, and we walked down the hill to Don Julio's home, I asked why he had culled such a beautiful male. It had a few dark fibers in the fleece, he said. I excused myself; huffing and puffing I made my way to the top corral to re-inspect the reject. Looking very closely, I soon detected the offending foreign fibers, the fawn ones, that I had previously missed; one about every 6 inches.

As Alonso and I made our way back to Macusani, he explained that he has made every effort to eliminate color contamination from the breeding herd at Pacomarka: both white and colored alpacas. I learned a valuable lesson that day. I won't soon forget to test my aging eyes in identifying this defect.

AOBA'S NEW SHOW RULE ON COLOR CONTAMINATION

The AOBA Board of Directors, acting on input from their members, the Show Rule Committee, and the Judge's Advisory Committee, has made an important revision in the color classification rules for 2006 fleece and halter shows. The rule change reads:

Part VI. Section 1.B. 5.e and f. (Page 50) Creation of two new colors and deletion of roan (Global including Appendix XIX). Purpose: A handbook global change that clarifies the confusion that exists with regard to dark and light alpacas that do not fit into the solid color classes or grey classes. Creates more inclusive show environment for exhibitors and their light and dark alpacas that clearly do not fit the solid color or grey color definitions. e. Indefinite Light: White or Beige alpacas/fleece with significant dark fibers uniformly interspersed throughout the blanket. f. Indefinite Dark: Colored alpacas/fleece with significant white/light fibers uniformly interspersed throughout the blanket. Alpacas with two colors in their fleece will hereafter be classified as indefinite light or dark. Eliminating the roan classification is a very significant improvement in the show rules that will make life easier for color checkers, exhibitors and judges. The new rules tell us that animals with significant off-color fibers will be placed in indefinite classes. I suspect that, over time, animals in these new indefinite color classes will be used in grey breeding programs. Solid color classes will be made up of alpacas that have either no off-color fibers or only the occasional off-color fiber in their blankets. The new rule for solid color classes states: PART VI. COLOR RULES

      Section 1. Color Definitions

B.1. Solid Color alpacas shall be defined as animals with solid color blankets and may have minimal, not easily recognizable, secondary color contamination regardless of the color on the head and extremities. [Emphasis in original] Personally, I would hold to an even higher standard; that alpacas with any off-color fiber belong to the indefinite color classes. I submit that the benchmark should be zero tolerance for color contamination in solid classes. The new rules state that alpacas with minimal off-color fiber, competing in solid color classes will be regarded as lacking color uniformity. These animals, all things being equal, will not fare well against entries that have truly solid or one-color fleeces.

The next step in the process of refining our industry selection criteria will be a new appreciation by breeders that selecting solid-colored alpacas with color uniformity is critical. It is my hope that, as this awareness is incorporated into selection decisions, a potential problem for our national herd will be eliminated.

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