Whether to buy or breed Suri or Huacaya Alpacas really comes down to personal preference and your own business plan and what you hope to achieve in your breeding program.

Firstly, let's look at the difference between the two breeds.

Huacaya - The Huacaya [wua'ki'ya] Alpaca has a soft 'wooly' fleece and looks more like a sheep with long neck and legs. The Huacaya's appeal to more because they are fluffy and cute. Huacaya's make up about 90% of the Alpaca Population in Australia. Huacaya's come in all of the fleece colours.

Suri - The Suri [soo'ree] Alpaca has silky locks of fleece. Similar to dread-locks and the fleece drapes down the sides of the animal. The Suri's fleece grows a few centimeters longer per season and the Suri's are also suited to warmer climates. The Suri's ears can be slightly longer than Huacaya's, other than this both breeds are anatomically identical. Suri's are rarer and their fleece returns a higher price. Suri's make up about 10% of the Australian Alpaca population and less than 5% of the world population and the majority of Suri's are white.

For us the decision as newbies to Alpaca Farming to breed both Huacaya and Suri was fairly simple. We couldn't possibly compete with what the majority of well established Alpaca breeders were breeding in regards to white Huacaya, but still loved the Huacaya's and we knew that there would always be a demand for Huacaya's for breeding and for their fleece. We also predict that long-term the Suri's should hold a higher price in the market place because of their rarity. We were also aware that as most Suri's are white, that by using coloured Huacaya females, we could breed for the even rarer coloured Suri's. It will take us around 4 years to be breeding F4 (fourth cross) Suri's if we get any Suri females cria's within our first year.