Our Suri Breeding Program

Our prime herd sire Accoyo Pperuvian Bruxo is among the most famous Suri herdsires in North America.  Part of the second importation from Peru (hence the "Pp"), Bruxo came from Don Julio Barreda's ranch Estancia Accoyo.  Don Barreda has bred suris to suris for nearly 40 years, and has said his suri breeding goals were, "Luster, luster and luster".  We're grateful for the opportunity to breed with Accoyo suri genetics, and we follow Don Barreda's guidelines.  Bruxo is the source of the great genetics of studs like Macguyver and his offspring (Captain Morgan and many others), Helios, Luxor, and many, many others.

We own and breed only ARI registered suri alpacas.  We breed suris equally for luster and for animal health.  Our breeding priorities are luster, fineness, uniformity and density.  Correct conformation and bite are fundamental requirements in the selection of stud males.  These goals can be reached by using only the best males for breeding.  We believe these goals are reached, in major part, by rigorously culling or gelding males that don't measure up to our high standards.  Thus we offer a strong line in gelding alpacas, and offer them as a service especially to folks considering getting into the alpaca business.  We've gelded more than 20 Bruxo sons.  Starting with geldings is a smart and cost-effective strategy to begin learning the alpaca business.

Achieving one's breeding goals together doesn't happen in one generation, but we work toward these goals with each breeding and with patience over time.  The foundation of breeding suris is understanding the relationship between suri and huacaya alpacas.  These two types of alpacas are extremely close in their genetic relationship.  Although the genetics have not been completely worked out, it appears that there may be one gene (or perhaps a few) that governs fleece type in alpacas.  It does seem clear to many breeders that there are a few suris, like Bruxo and most of his Accoyo peers, which always throw suri offspring.  These are called “homozygous” for the suri gene, whether that is one allele or several.

Most suris are “heterozygous” for the suri gene, meaning they can throw a huacaya when bred to another heterozygous suri.  Colored suris have a higher probability of being heterozygous, but this is a matter of probability until a suri has enough offspring (usually more than 30 for a male) to determine whether a huacaya has been produced.  Macguyver and Captain Morgan are examples of homozygous colored suris, because they have more than 50 suri offspring and no huacayas.  Huacayas produced from two suris often have superior brightness to the fleece, and may be wonderful fiber producers in many respects.  This may be the source of the "silky" bright huacaya fleece type.  An alpaca is either homozygous or it is heterozygous for an allele; if a suri throws even one huacaya, then it is heterozygous.  We would cull from our breeding program any male that throws one huacaya offspring.

After 6 years breeding suris and over 100 crias born on our farm, we've never had a huacaya born on our farm.  Bruxo taught us most of what we know about how to breed for the suri fleece type.  When providing breeding services for our clients who purchase female alpacas, we offer a live suri birth guarantee.  This means we guarantee that our studs will throw a suri offspring that will live at least 30 days.  If a client of ours should ever deliver a huacaya from breeding to one of our studs, we will provide a free re-breeding to another male at our expense.  We're that certain our males are homozygous for the suri gene.  We're so confident about our studs that we offer outside breeding services to suri girls showing huacaya ancestry in their ARI pedigree, with a live suri cria guarantee.

If you'd like to talk about breeding for suri luster, please contact us for more information at alpacas@suri-futures.com.