Alpaca breeders get serious about business

JON MORGAN

Peter McKay gives a demonstration of the mating ritual of the alpaca. It's not what you think. The Hawke's Bay farmer tilts back his head, opens his throat and goes "orgleorgleorgleorgle".

This rumbling gargle is the male alpaca's foreplay. It starts the female ovulating. Mr McKay and wife Tessa have 160 alpacas on their 235-hectare sheep and beef farm at Maraekakaho.

Mrs McKay tells what happens next. "They mate sitting down. It's called a cush," she says. "Then we wait two weeks to see if she is pregnant. If she goes into the cush for him, it didn't work the first time. If she spits at him, it did."

She bursts into laughter. "It's called a spit-off. No, really, it is."

The couple are serious alpaca breeders. The long-haired, long- necked South American close relation to the llama and camel has become a popular pet among lifestylers since it was first imported more than 20 years ago.

But now it is developing beyond this - moving from a small industry based on building up breeding stock to one that exploits the alpaca's best qualities.

The chief attribute is its long, lustrous and silky fine fibre. It can be knitted into inexpensive garments or woven into high- priced Italian suits.

The McKays imported New Zealand's first alpaca fibre mill five years ago and have gradually built up production of a range of garments and yarn.

"Alpaca clothing breathes with you," Mrs McKay says. "Its hollow fibres trap air and it matches your body temperature, which makes it good for babies and youngsters."

Now the couple are working on another of the alpaca's attributes, one that is rarely made use of outside of South America. It is the meat.

They have passed two crucial tests - getting Agriculture and Forestry Ministry approval to process alpacas at a Feilding meat plant, and the taste test.

Chefs describe the flavour as similar to lamb, lean and tender but with a slightly gamey taste.

So far, it is on the menu of several restaurants, mainly in Hawke's Bay, and is being marketed further afield by hotels supplier Grande Gourmet.

The reaction from customers so far has been positive.

Mark Southon, chef at The Food Store, Auckland, says he wants to price alpaca - which comes in traditional cuts of strip loins, shanks, French racks, shoulders, back straps and particularly tasty neck chops - at just below the most expensive meats to encourage diners to try it.

"It's a great idea," he says. "It's something different to eat and not a big stretch from the usual lamb and beef."

Glen Anderson, chef at Mangapapa Petit Hotel, Havelock North, says the shanks dish he has served his customers has "gone down a treat".

He describes alpaca as slightly richer in flavour than lamb and predicts it will become "all the rage", like ostrich did a few years ago before settling down.

For the McKays, their top fibre- producers are their priority. Animals who don't have high- quality fibre, or are infertile, have conformation faults, poor temperament or are indifferent mothers are killed for the meat.

Breeding of the fibre herd of 60 alpacas is on fibre quality and colour, with the importance of producing animals whose fleece is all one colour.

Colours range from white through grades of creams, browns and greys to a deep blue-black. Mixtures are not uncommon and the most eye-catching of these have a market among lifestylers.

Alongside these is a herd of about 100 meat animals, rejects from their fibre herd and others bought from other breeders and lifestylers.

"Most alpaca owners ask themselves two questions," Mr McKay say. "What can we do with the fibre, and what does the meat taste like. We've tried to answer both of those questions."

Now aged 53, he describes his progress through life since he left school at 15 with the comment, "It's been about buying myself a job".

Apple and vegetable growing has been his mainstay. At 17, he bought a 0.1-hectare section, sold that to buy 2.6ha, then sold it to buy 4ha.

It is a pattern that has worked well through the years, with occasional lows being balanced by highs, and he estimates he is now on his 13th property.

He supplemented his income with orchard management and packhouse work and Mrs McKay worked in vine management for her father, winegrowing pioneer Chris Pask.

When the couple, who have two children, Kendra, 19, and Luke, 18, bought at Maraekakaho 10 years ago the land was another in a long line of similar property deals.

But it has come to mean more to them as they have learnt new skills as sheep and beef farmers and, more recently, as alpaca farmers.

Lambing is early, starting at the end of May, and the aim is to have all lambs off the property by the end of November to beat the summer dry. Mr McKay has planted lucerne in the past two years to add an extra feeding option that he hopes will lift the lambing percentage and improve his finishing capability.

The first two alpacas arrived eight years ago as pets for the children from Mr Pask. "He suggested donkeys, but I rejected that. We settled on alpacas - I thought at least I could spin the fleece," Mrs McKay says.

The family quickly fell in love with the animals. "They're inquisitive and each has its own personality, and they're easy to handle," she says. "They look cute and cuddly but they like to keep their distance from you."

As they learned more about the alpacas they became fascinated by their special qualities.

Two breeds exist - the suri, which has silky finer fibre in long tresses, and the huacaya, whose fibre has a crimp that makes it suitable for knitting.

Unlike wool, the fibre is not coated in greasy lanolin, which means it is low-allergenic and easy to make into yarn. It is also a lot less itchy than wool, with follicle scales smaller and lying flatter.

They also discovered that in New Zealand a lot of fibre was being shorn and then stored away and forgotten. Or it was being blended with wool to make garments.

"It was looked on as a nuisance," Mr McKay says. "We'd go to an alpaca show and be the only ones out of the 500 owners there wearing alpaca fibre."

But there was a niggling desire within the young industry to do better. "Many wanted to see clothing from 100 per cent alpaca fibre and some wanted to make a garment from just one animal of a uniform colour."

They looked at a mill in Adelaide and decided to import one from the makers in Canada. They won't say how much it has cost them but admit it has been a big investment.

Running the mill has become Mrs McKay's specialty. In a tour of the big shed, she demonstrates how a fleece is turned into knitting yarn.

It is first tumbled in a roller to shake out dust and dirt before going into a hot citric wash. After it is dried it goes into a machine called a picker, which opens up the fibres. Then a conditioner is added to prevent static.

Another machine, a dehairer, removes guard hair and any remaining detritus before the fibre goes to a carder that draws the fibre into even lengths that are gathered in a long "sliver" and deposited in even measures into cans.

From there it goes to a machine that stretches and aligns the fibres for spinning. It is then spun into thread on to bobbins, goes to a plyer that creates two-ply fibre and wound on to cones.

Finally, it is sent through a steamer that sets the twist in the fibre and it is waxed. An extra step for those wanting to dye the fibre is to wind it into hanks or if it is to be sold in a shop it is wound into balls.

Knitting kits of patterns, needles and yarn are also being offered.

The idea to go into meat came in casual conversation with other breeders at an expo in Feilding two years ago.

Then came months of research and the development of a risk- management programme with Venison Meat Packers, Feilding. Mr and Mrs McKay are full of praise for the enthusiasm shown by the plant's staff for a species of animal they had never had to deal with before.

The first meat was produced earlier this year and the call has gone out to lifestylers and breeders to send in their unwanted animals as the restaurant marketing push is stepped up.

Mrs McKay says the industry is now coming of age. "Commercially, we're moving off the lifestyle blocks and into the real world. We're making the alpaca into a sustainable product. It's not just an attractive pet anymore, it can also be the provider of an income from its fibre and its meat."

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