Peru has three main topographical regions: the coastal plain, the Montana and the sierra. The sierra is an upland region with towering mountain ranges of the Andes, lofty plateaus, and deep gorges and valleys.
It covers some 30% of Peru’s land area, and has and average height of around 12,000 feet. The sierra is the home of the Alpaca. In the rugged sierra, or Alti Plano (High Plains), the temperature ranges seasonally from about -15C to 21C.
Don Julio Barreda, regarded as the world’s best Peruvian Alpaca breeder, has his Accoyo farm near Macusani. Accoyo meaning and Indian word for ‘sandy ground’ has a herd of approximately 2,500: About 75% Huacaya and 25% Suri. The bloodlines of his ‘plantel’ herd date back to 1946. Typical of the Peruvian Alpaca, they produce very high fleece weights with low micron counts, standard deviations and coefficients of variation. Seventy percent of the entire Accoyo fleece clip grades ‘baby’ – an amazing testimony to the quality of Accoyo.
Rural Alianza is a co-operative of four farms in the Puno region – Alianza, Huaripina, Antacalla and Macusani – and boats 35,000 alpacas. Alianza is also breeding for maximum fire production, with some males shearing up to 14 pounds after one year’s growth.
Sollocota is also the in Puno region, some 13,000 to 15,000 feet above sea level, and is made up of a co-operative of 160 families, managed by a committee of twelve. These distinctive animals are superb in their consistency throughout the hard, in crimp, fineness and density.
A large number of peruvian breeders have contributed with some of the best quality bred Alpaca's currently in Australia.
