The thin crust of morning snow had melted and the four-door Toyota pickup was slipping and sliding down the hill from Accoyo to Macusani. Don Julio Barreda was sitting in the backseat with my friend Mario Pedroza. Alonso Burgos, of Grupo Inca, was driving. From behind my seat, the 82-year-old Don Julio spoke to me in English, which he rarely does.

"Mike," he said, "Twenty, twenty."

I turned and asked what he meant. He smiled and explained to Mario in Spanish. "Twenty pounds of fleece, twenty microns fine, every alpaca, every year," Mario said, was Don Julio's new breeding objective at Accoyo.

Was it possible? I asked myself. But I concluded that if Don Julio believed it, who was I to argue? After all, the alpaca is heir to the vicuña, whose fiber measures 12 to 13 micron. Because of its fineness, which determines approximately 85 percent of the price per pound of raw fleece, uncut cloth made of vicuña fiber sells for $2000 per square meter. The same genes that create fineness in the vicuña are in our alpacas somewhere. (We see them every once in a while: Sandy, a cria born at Northwest Alpacas, had the luxurious vicuña color and 13.7 micron fleece.) But what really impressed me about Don Julio's remark is that I had never heard any other alpaca breeders articulate such a long-term, specific, quantifiable goal for their herds.

But then Don Julio Barreda is not just any other alpaca breeder.

I first met this remarkable man in the early 1990s when I was president of the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA). Interested in creating contacts with Peruvian alpaca breeders and textile manufacturers, I had corresponded with Alonso Burgos, who was an officer with the International Alpaca Association (IAA), headquartered in Arequipa. We arranged a visit to Portland from a representative of the IAA, Bernardo Montesinos.

Bernardo stayed with Julie and me at our ranch for several days and, as he was leaving, he invited us to visit Peru. Not many months later, in 1991, before it was even legal to export alpacas from Peru, we accepted his invitation and made the first of many trips to alpaca country

One of the first questions I had asked Bernardo upon his arrival in the U.S. was who is the greatest alpaca breeder in Peru. "Don Julio Barreda," he replied without hesitation. When I arrived in Arequipa, I asked Alonso Burgos and Peter Kothe, who was in charge of purchasing fleece for the Michell Company, the same question. Their responses were the same: "Don Julio Barreda."

I asked my hosts if they might introduce me to Don Julio. They agreed and Bernardo invited Don Julio to a dinner party at his home in Arequipa. The day before the dinner, I got my first glimpse of Barreda's alpacas at Grupo Inca's farm, Sallalli, near the Colca Valley. The farm had purchased 24 machos from Barreda's farm, Accoyo, for their breeding program. They were larger than any alpacas I had ever seen, and their fleece quality was so striking, I remember thinking they must be a different breed than the ones I had at home.

After dinner, as is the custom in Peru, the men gathered in one room while the women gathered in another, and I finally had my opportunity to speak directly with Don Julio. Bernardo acted as our simultaneous interpreter. Our conversation became intense, as I peppered him with questions about selecting superior herd sires. At one point Bernardo, who is fluent in several language, repeated my question to Don Julio in German. "I am sorry," he replied in Spanish, "I do not speak German." We all laughed and by the end of the evening Don Julio had agreed to visit our ranch in Oregon the following July.

To honor his visit, Northwest Alpacas organized the first ever Alpaca Fest International, July 25-29, 1992. The event was cosponsored by Washington breeders Ralph Uber (Yakima), Bill and Nola Graham (Spokane), Bill Barnett (Arlington), Bruce and Becky Barr (Roche Harbor) as well as Phil Mizrahie (Los Angeles, California), and Julie Otis (Snowmass, Colorado). The event was attended by alpaca breeders from across the country and a large contingent of the curious public.

Don Julio opened the event with the following speech:

I feel so happy and overwhelmed that in my late years, at last, I can visit your land. Ever since I was a child reading Tom Sawyer's adventures about the intensity of Niagara Falls, the Mississippi River, and so many other wonders of this great nation, I have dreamed about visiting the United States. As a teenager I admired a man who symbolized kindness and straightness--that man was Abraham Lincoln. He touched deeply into my soul.

This nation of yours is immensely big and rich. From abroad one can imagine this, but actually standing on the land verifies the truth of this statement. Thanks to Mr. Safley's kindness you have me here now visiting with you and I thank deeply the amiability of my hosts.

I come from a place located at 15,000 feet above sea level. It is the high plateau of the Titicaca Lake, where the people's economy revolves around alpaca breeding. In this land of high, snow-capped Andean Mountains, the largest lake of the southern hemisphere lays peacefully. The Tiahuanaco Empire developed as a prehistoric culture that spanned through parts of Peru and Bolivia. There, this ancient people conceived of domesticating the most beautiful animal that Pachacamacc (the Maker of the Universe) had created. The Auchenids [Pliocene ancestors of South American camelids], or forefathers to the alpaca, were not only to adorn the shores of the huge, blue lake, but also to provide its people with work and a means of sustenance.

It was on these desolate plateaus that the Andean men, the same ones who had domesticated potatoes, quinoa and other plants, started the huge task of domesticating the wild Auchenids. These men wanted to transform the Auchenids into a manageable resource, and their efforts created the domestic llama and alpaca.

The alpaca that we know today is the synthesis of a miracle that the ancient Peruvians received from the Almighty, just like the manna received from God during the Exodus. The Andean manna came from heaven in the form of beautiful little creatures of fragile legs, long necks, and tranquil glances; beautiful in all respects. These were the guanaco and the vicuña and, perhaps, a suri ancestor, which with the affection and care of men, turned into llamas, huacayas, and suris. They populated all the high plateaus, from the lake shores to the snow-capped Andean Mountains. From this vast territory, where the wind snatches from each chilliguar or huayllar [Andean plants] notes and harmonies played as if on a gigantic pipe organ, the alpaca was created, serenaded by subtle music, hard to perform and even harder to forget.

A few days ago in the city of Puno, Peru, the first Exposition-Fair of South American camelids was held. I began to think, however, that we must change this term because today there are camelids from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. They are no longer unique to the southern hemisphere. Today they could very well be called American camelids, since paleontology traces the ancestors of these creatures to the northern hemisphere.

Llamas and alpacas can be a link between the U.S.A. and developing South American countries, and not just a commercial link. They could also be a common bond that brings together our fondness and love for these creatures with support and collaboration for initiatives in the selection and breeding programs. The northern shore of Lake Titicaca is considered the most privileged area for breeding alpacas. This is where genetic selection has attained its highest development. There are social enterprises, like Marangani, that own huacayas endowed with fine hair between 20 to 24 microns. Others, like Rural Allianza, pride themselves for having a specialized breeding program for suris. Among the small and medium-sized private enterprises with a vast selection tradition, some important achievements have been attained: production uniformity, phenotype homogeneity, and high performance (yields) which are 30 to 40 percent greater than the average of just four decades ago.

After a period of negative lethargy which sprang from social problems, one can find today a new alpaca breeding movement, which stems from the will of the farmers to improve their herds. There is hope that, once again, the whole of Peru's Andean Mountains, as described by the first Spanish chroniclers, will be populated with camelids. The high plateaus of the department of Puno will be the source of the alpacas to populate other regions, maybe even your country.

In the first part of this century, the development of alpaca breeding was slow and each breeder had his own method or system. Most breeder initiatives were influenced by market opportunities, which gave us programs and common goals. Also, there were negative influences, mostly from technicians who knew a lot about sheep, but little about alpacas. Only in the 1950s, after a commercial boom that raised fiber prices, was more attention given to alpaca breeding. The first norms and technical guidelines are now set for greater development.

Having arrived in your land, I am curious to know how the alpaca behaves in other latitudes and climates. I am very interested in determining their productive variations in your country. I am also curious to find out how they adapt to the new trees and flowers and, above all, among kind-hearted and affectionate owners. Maybe they do not want to remember their own land where sometimes they were treated with indifference or lack of care.

I know that you, my fellow breeders from North America, can walk with longer, quicker steps and will, with the aid of the science that is available here, create a type of alpaca to your own liking. Allow me to say this: It would be ideal that our experiences, although maybe a bit old-fashioned, could facilitate the progress that you foresee and maybe, thanks to an honest collaboration, we could make the alpaca an animal known and respected in each household of your great nation.

Don Julio spent two weeks in the U.S. touring alpaca ranches, attending Alpaca Fest International, the Lama Association of North America (LANA) Convention, an American rodeo, a Peruvian horse show and many other agricultural sights and events. When it came time to leave, he asked that the following letter be communicated to all his new friends and fellow alpaca breeders:

Surely you would like to know my point of view regarding the livestock that you are breeding in your fertile land.

The alpacas I have seen are well-built animals, especially the young ones, but not so the older ones. This means you are breeding the alpaca right and are now on your way to clear progress.

Some animals, e.g., those who were at the sale show, looked good to me, and if they would not have had such strong [coarse] fiber, they could have got a very high qualification, even in Puno.

In Puno we have plenty of livestock which, due to their genes, have fineness and density in the fleece but insufficient length in their staple. This is important to observe. Because you are feeding your animals high-quality nutrition, you are getting a longer staple length in the fleece. At the same time you are creating a well-built animal that will give you much better production in the future.

I believe that the coarse hair of your animals is due to their background--the ones you have got from Chile. All this can be improved by choosing the right type of good-quality sires.

I believe that you have now a very clear perspective or panorama of the alpaca's future in your country.

When Don Julio first visited the U.S., I had not been to Accoyo. At that time no white men dared to travel in the high sierra due to the threat of terrorism. My ignorance of the scope of the accomplishments at Accoyo led me to remark lightheartedly to Don Julio, "One day I will breed better alpacas than you."

"Thank you for telling me," he graciously replied. "When a man knows someone is behind him, he walks a little faster."

Since then, I have made many trips to Peru and Accoyo, and my respect for Don Julio has increased. It is my admiration for his accomplishments that inspired me to write this book, hoping that it will give other breeders the information they need to follow in his footsteps.

Don Julio was the first alpaca breeder to mention Gregor Mendel to me. Although I have been breeding alpacas for almost fifteen years, only during the last four years have I taken the time to research the scientific basis of inheritance. I have discovered that much of the conventional wisdom about breeding alpacas is ill-founded and that, as an industry, we have a lot to learn. I have begun to change my ideas about breeding and selection and the initial results of my efforts have been encouraging. I do not pretend to be a geneticist; I really do not have any particular aptitude for science, and most of the texts I have read have major sections in them so complex I do not fully understand all of their nuances. But after many years observing hundreds of breeding and births, I see their common sense. And I have seen the results in Don Julio's herd and my own. I know that alpaca breeders can create new levels of value and excellence by creating breeding programs based on Mendel's laws of inheritance.

Animal breeding will not deliver instant gratification to practitioners who want to significantly alter the characteristic of their herds. Before any substantial progress can be made our standards of selection need to be quantified, measured, and adjusted. Our research needs to center on specific production characteristics. The status quo or conventional wisdom of the current alpaca breeders needs to be challenged. We all need to walk a little faster.