By Bill Graham
My growing concerns over the suri alpaca breed has lead me into a much debated issue in the industry. That being the cross breeding of Suris with Huacayas. As many of you know this is not a new practice. Through-out South America , Australia , and in the U.S cross breeding is happening. The practice was used widely in Peru during the importation days in order to ship colored Suris to the U.S. for big dollars. The American market wanted color and as long as the alpaca was suri phenotype and registered suri it was alright. This seemed all fine and many breeders with-out really understanding how the genetics work bought into this program. This also applies to any importation where the background of the suri was unknown! I will talk about importation later in this article. Read more.