Alpaca: The Green Sheep?
by Tim McGee, Helena, MT, USA on 09.28.06
TreeHugger has featured alpaca mittens, and alpaca pillows, but what is an alpaca? Why should you care? Is the alpaca the sheep for the green millennium? I take a quick peak behind the scenes and find a surprising mix of possibilities, dangerous investment schemes and international intrigue.
Alpaca biology is green
Alpacas are camelids. That's right, like a camel, but much softer and smaller. The alpaca wikipedia article is extensive, but for our concerns their biology is unique and interestingly green for several reasons.
1) Alpacas are tough. Camelids appear to have an advantage in rather harsh conditions, say deserts or high mountain plains. Basically, the camelids thrive where most animals pack up and leave for greener pastures-literally. This enables the Peruvian alpaca ranchers to let the alpacas graze where no other animals would even hang out. The alpaca's adaptive strategies for living in harsh conditions give them a light eco-footprint.
2) Alpacas don't over-eat. When presented with mounds of food, a cow will eat itself to death- really. But alpacas are always watching their slim figure and stop eating when they are full. This makes them undeniably easier to raise and manage. By conserving food, alpacas are high-efficiency on four legs.
3) Alpacas are organized. When alpacas go to the bathroom they do it together- they all get in line and wait their turn to make a deposit. They even graze away from their waste pile. This makes the poop pile easy to clean up, and provides a readily organized supply of organic matter for fertilizer, or biofuel.
Alpaca fleece is fantastic
Their fleece is lighter, warmer, and feels softer then wool. Through their evolution in a harsh climate they have developed a fleece that does not retain water, protects against the sun, and keeps you warm on chilly winter nights. These inherent features of the fiber are difficult to replicate through a synthetic process, and just as wool has found increasing use in sustainable ideas, Alpaca wool could be the next step. The concept of using less material for more functionality appeals to just about every aspect of green design.
The great alpaca market bubble (burst soon to arrive)
But, there is a danger looming on the horizon. The U.S. alpaca market is a bubble. A report released last year from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis (PDF), explains why the $25,000 to $100,000's an animal in the U.S. won't last. In Peru, where they are from, alpacas typically can fetch only around $100. Exporting alpacas is illegal in Peru, the animal is a national symbol and a valuable commodity. The price difference has even spawned nefarious smugglers who moves alpacas into Bolivia or Chile for sale to the U.S. But why such a large difference in value? Well, you can read the report, but to summarize: The U.S. market is focused on breeding alpacas, not on fiber production. The actual value of the animal ultimately is based on what people will pay for it- or its services. The alpaca's only real economic service is to provide fleece (or more alpacas). With global alpaca production of fleece far outstripping demand there is no need for more fiber production locally. Spurious people promote alpaca breeding as a quick way to make money, but eventually people will realize that nobody will want to buy more alpacas and the price per animal will plummet.
The plummeting price might bring quality alpaca goods to your neck of the woods, but it is also a disaster for the poor U.S. alpacas and their farmers. The economics of raising an alpaca in the U.S. for profit on fiber alone is depressing. It is extremely difficult to make money, especially as Peru and other international fiber producing countries could readily supply any demand for the product. On this note, it might be wise for existing or future alpaca ranchers to think about adopting organic and sustainable practices now. Creating a niche market for local grown sustainable products might be the best way to weather the coming storm.
For more information about buying alpaca goods consider the Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America (AFCNA). Also, AlpacaNation has a nice retail section for alpaca goods.
In the end, alpacas have made it through tough times before, and there is no doubt alpacas and the people who love them will continue to prosper. Developing green technologies and thinking of the alpaca the next time you are shopping for a sweater might just go a little way to resolving the plight of the green sheep- the alpaca. ::AFCNA ::alpaca:wikipedia
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Pink is the New Green
- EarthTech Offers More Geeky Green Gifts
- What Makes a Good Product Service System?
- Buy Nothing Day 2008 Has a Hollow Ring
and most importantly...
THEY'RE ADOOOORABLE!!!
Stewart+Brown has been doing wonderful things with Alpaca. -sweaters and hats. Available at www.beklina.com
www.beklina.com/stewartbrownalpaca.html
Talking with a fiber artist who was researching raising fleece animals, my impression was that alpacas tend to have rather fragile health. Not nearly as robust as desert-faring camels.
Alpacas are cool!!
How robust is an alpaca? Well…breeders would like you to think they are medical care free, and can live anywhere in simple conditions. The fact is I haven’t seen reliable data either way. Talking with breeders and veterinarians I have found that alpacas are pretty healthy right up to the point that they die. As the species has only been in the U.S. for the past 20 years, advanced knowledge of husbandry and veterinary medicine is limited. On the other hand the growth of the alpaca herd in the U.S. is remarkable considering most people who go into it know nothing, and have farms everywhere from the deserts of California to the rolling hills of Ohio. The only statistics I have seen relate to mortality rates of Camelids in the UK, finding that the most statistically dangerous part of an alpaca’s 20 year life is the first week.
How does an alpaca taste? Perhaps I've naive, but is there anyone in the US that raises sheep for wool? As far I know they're raised for the meat; the wool is just a byproduct. I've got family that raises sheep, and from what I've heard it costs more to shear them than the value of the wool produced. Sure, alpacas' fleece would be more valuable, but it's only the large outfits that will be able to afford thousands of dollars for a single alpaca. (And you can't be green if you don't support family farms.)
The 'poop in a pile' is cute. However, if you're raising crops you're going to rotate them and rest the fields now and again. During that time, you put the sheep in those fields to help restore the nutrients. Pooping in a pile would defeat the purpose.
Are sheep "ungreen" ?
Hi, I'm writing a story about Alpaca farming especially in relation to being more environmentally friendly than other types of fabric farming. I'd love to talk to the person who posted the entry about alpacas on the phone for my story. Brooke Myers
Mitos is a really nice designer of Alpaca products. Alpaca garments are soft and wonderful. I think they are the best in the world, even better then cashmere.
This is a great article although there is a growing demand for U.S. raised and manufactured alpaca products. Alpaca fiber is a perfect fit in the Go Green movement
See AlpacaHeaven at MySpace.com for pix of the darling Alpacas who provided me the best poop I've ever used in my urban garden.
I like to vary the materials I use in my compost for the organic garden that feeds me 12 months ayear. The first year, I tilled in aged horse manure, & added aged chicken dung to compost the next year before digging it in for planting. This past year I have added aged Alpaca to compost in layers.
Wow, the Alpaca poo is dense and rich, and makes the fastest and BEST compost product ever. Wonderful texture result, too. I let some winter over, mostly covered, in the back of my truck as a worm bin. It is wonderful stuff, loaded with redworms. It's heavy tho, so a small tractor that uses bio-diesel would be wonderful for loading.
For the person who stated that having neat piles defeats the purpose - NOPE especially if you have a herd. Just shift your thinking from crap strewn all over the animals' grazing grazing area - to sharing with others, and you'll quickly see the benefits.
Am curious if anyone has used this great stuff for biofuel yet? I suspect it will be really great for that, too. Please contact me at jules@sunoregon.com if you know the answer to this query, or if want to provide quantities of 'Paca poop for a test to provide and promote local biofuel production.
Julie Mikalson
Renewable Energy &
Sustainable Communities Consultant
American Biofuels Council
(Member, 2007 Board of Governors)
awww this little guy is so cute, i wish i had one LOL!!!!!!!!!
Alpaca is the best
If anyone was interested in Green alpaca fibre production in the UK then i would be very happy to help. The best thing about alpaca is the range of natural colours that mean that using dyes is unnessary. It's a great green product.
Kerry Bettinson
Toft Alpacas
www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk
some additional infos...alpacas are the most wonderful animals. They belong to Peruvian heritage for over 5000 years and are entirely embedded in PEruvian culture. Peruvian farmers live in deprived and poor areas, I read recently that a family in the peruvian andeans eat potatos for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner...
About two years late on this one, but here goes...
1. At the time that the UC Davis report was written there was a major lawsuit against Land 'O Lakes over tainted feed that had killed or dibilitated a number of alpacas. Interestingly, an LOL DIrector also happened to sit on the Board that gave UC Davis the money to write the "study". Whjile perhaps not overtly false, many aspects of the report are inaccurate or exaggerated
2. Alpaca fiber in no way meets demand. There is now (2008) a worlwide shortage and prices are at a 15 year high.
3. Serious efforts are underway to establish alpacas as a viable primary agriculture industry in North America (and Australia I might add) Take a look for the Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America, Inc. or the Canadian Camelid Fiber Cooperative.
4. It is not unusual for prime beeding stock in any livestock industry to sell for many multiples of the value of ordinary stock. While prices may not remain as high as they currently are, there will remain alpacas that go for a significant sum - just as one can buy a bull for $50-100k if they go looking. Shucks, a kid in my small town recently sold a lamb for $4000, even though one could buy any number of other lambs for $40-50!
@ Alpaca Farmer -
It's never too late to comment on TreeHugger!
Thanks for your comments.
I have been fascinated with alpaca fiber and biology for years now. I find it interesting that camelids (of which alpaca's are a member), are thought to have originated in North America. There is quite a good match in alpaca biology and much of the dry high west U.S.
Their fiber is unique and long lasting, and I would love to see alpaca as a viable primary industry in the U.S.
Like much of the Inca legacy of agriculture, we are just starting to realize the real ecological value of their work, and how it can be applied to the rest of the world. Alpaca's fit in with this legacy, and I think they have a future here because of their unique biology, heritage, and fiber.
The caution about the bubble however goes beyond just the report by UC Davis but extending to the increasingly 'flat world' that has emerged in recent years. Inherently alpaca fiber is durable and valuable. But as it is now being produced aggressively in Australia and around the globe, how long will high prices for local alpaca last?
If I can get high quality, fair-trade inexpensive alpaca fiber or garments directly from Peru (where the animals are inexpensive) or Australia (where they are VERY serious about fiber production), I'm might be willing to spend the carbon off-sets to get it shipped to me. A $20,000 animal here in the U.S. becomes something of a liability in that situation unless their is some local, sustainable, niche market that only those animals can fill.
So, is it a speculative bubble? I don't know.
You are right there will always be prize alpacas, worth gobs of money. And having worked with alpacas myself, they are majestic animals, that can capture the imagination. I do see a bright future for them in North America eventually, but it could be a bumpy ride.
Anonymous wrote, "If I can get high quality, fair-trade inexpensive alpaca fiber or garments directly from Peru (where the animals are inexpensive) or Australia (where they are VERY serious about fiber production), I'm might be willing to spend the carbon off-sets to get it shipped to me."
The Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America is producing high quality yarn in the United States priced to compete with South American imports. It can be done!
Australia is shipping alpaca fiber across the Pacific, having it processed in Peru and then returned to Australia for sale. They are also sending significant amounts to China, where the carbon footprint consists of far more than shipping.
There is no doubt that the average price of an alpaca faces a major adjustment, but there are a significant number of people that are motivated to make it a sustainable industry. Time will tell if the succeed. The biggest obstacle is overcoming the pet and show mentality amongst most current owners in order that these animals can move on into mainstream agriculture.
To succeed in this, alpacas can not remain a sole use animal - any more than sheep are. They can not be pampered into old age and buried under a headstone. Rather, a model similar to other types of livestock will need to be developed, including consumption and hides - an area where the Australians are far ahead of the US at this point, even though the National herds are roughly the same size.
The sad fact is that as fiber producers, most animal breeds only have a 3-5 year productive life. After that non-breeders become hay burners. A profitable final disposition needs the exist for mainstream agriculture to integrate alpacas into a diversified farm enterprise.