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I have received a lot of email regarding the difference between a Classic or A-Line and a B-line Accoyo. This designation applies to huacaya only. To fully appreciate the destination, will have to explain some of the history that drove Don Julio to breed for these two types of Huacaya.
In Peru, the mills, primarily Mitchell and Groupo Inca, both in Ariquipa, drove the economics of Alpacas. Early on, the price they paid for Alpaca fiber was solely on weight. The Alpaca ranchers would send in their clips and they would be sampled, and weighed. If the sample was not terrible, i.e. they were only supposed to send in the blankets, they were paid on the weight of the clip.
Under this economic, Don Julio Barreda, bred for what we call a Classic A-Line Alpaca. He wanted to maximize the amount of fiber that could be cut off and animal. His breeding program was geared to produce studs, which were large and strong in frame, for a larger surface area produces more fiber. He bred for a very dense fiber with long staple length. Many of the first Accoyos imported from Peru had these attributes. Large solid animals with fantastic density, so dense, that it was hard to even get your fingers through and part their fiber, with very fast growing long staple lengths.
In the 70's and early 80's the mills began to sell sweaters made from baby alpacas. These sold far better than they expected. but the quantity was limited. In Peru, an good Alpaca could produce 8 to 10 fleeces during it's lifetime, only one of which would be qualified as baby, which when tested would be about 23 micron. To encourage more production, the mills began to pay a premium for baby alpaca fiber.
With this new economic, Don Julio decided to breed for a different line. He did not abandon his Classic breeding program, the A-line but decided to breed for a parallel line.
When I spoke with him at his home in Ariquipa, he said, "I saw no reason why I could not produce this baby alpaca fleece from an adult, and in that way I could have 10 baby fleeces from one animal." It was a bold and brilliant move. Breed for an alpaca that throughout it’s producing life would produce fiber so fine that the mills could not distinguish any difference between it's fiber and that of a baby. And from that the B-line was born.
B-line Accoyos are a finer fibered animal. Many of the Studs blowing out to no more than 23 micron, in their twilight years. But, with this fine micron, came a negative, and that was the size of the animal. B-Line alpacas are generally smaller than the A-Lines, and even though they are dense by normal alpaca standards, they were not as dense as the A-Line. When I asked Don Julio about this, he said that his B-Line was relatively new and in time he would undoubtedly be able to achieve the same size and density as his A-Line, ultimately there should be no difference in the weight of the clips.
In the P4 import, a very, very few B-Line alpacas imported, and these were all very young animals. P6 is the true B-Line import of young alpacas.
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