Estancia Accoyo - the legend

History states that the world’s most respected alpaca breeder was the great Don Julio Barrada of Estancia Accoyo in Macusani Peru. Don Julio, born in 1919 was extremely thorough and professional when it come to breeding his closed herd of both white huacaya and suri alpacas. His performance recording and analysis was groundbreaking in Peru and across the globe and this attention to detail was easy to see as the impact of his genetics took the global alpaca scene by storm.

“Accoyo”, an indian word meaning “sandy ground”, was originally developed into a structured breeding herd of alpacas by Don Julio Barreda’s mother, Dona Victona Aragon Barreda. She bred alpacas before giving birth to Don Julio, who at the age of 13, learnt the art of breeding alpacas and harvesting their valuable fibre. For around sixty years, Don Julio ran a genetically closed herd and developed a selective breeding programme that focused on core conformation and fleece traits.

He was the first alpaca farmer to be recognised, outside of Peru, for recording various growth and conformation traits alongside valuable fleece traits such as fleece shearing weight, staple length and fineness. These traits were selected for and carefully and meticulously implemented in the breeding programme across the suri and huacaya herd and only those alpacas alpacas meeting his strict criteria were selected for breeding. Accoyo alpacas were generally run in two separate breeding groups; the A-line which were narrower framed alpacas with very fine fleeces and B-line alpacas with were wider framed with greater substance of bone than the A-line stock and they also cut a heavier fleece weight. The B-line stock typically did not retain their fineness past maturity.The farm of Accoyo lies near the village of Macusani, 16,500 feet above sea level and that makes it the highest village of size in Peru. National Geographic Magazine has called Macusani the world centre for alpaca fiber production as other large businesses such as Rural Alainza EPS also have one of their six farms located nearby.

The journey to Accoyo and Peru’s global recognition goes back many years and the industry has encountered some challenging times. In the 1970’s, socialized land reforms and the emergence of Shining Path or “Sendero Luminoso” terrorists wreaked havoc on the farms of the Altiplano. Don Julio managed to maintain his royal or main bloodlines (Plantel) through the unrest and grew the herd to around 2,000 head. Approximately 75% are huacaya and the balance are suri. The bloodlines of his “Plantel” herd date back to 1946.

Don Julio observes a three year old macho’s fleece

From the start, Don Julio has been known as an innovator. He was the first breeder to introduce fencing. Many in Peru thought him to be “loco,” building fences, creating artificial boundaries on the almost unlimited terrain, but it wasn’t long before the benefits of this radical concept became apparent. Not only could fenced plots support more animals by utilizing pasture rotation, but the alpaca were better nourished, had higher fertility rates, and lower cria mortality rates.

The benefit of fencing did not stop with better nutrition. This innovation allowed for the separate breeding of suri and huacaya. Llamas could not be crossbred with alpacas. Don Julio began to develop truly purebred alpacas of the highest quality.

Don Julio Barreda took great pride in the machos (males) at Accoyo. He was relentless in his pursuit of genetic excellence, rigorously culling and refining his bloodlines for sixty years. A male’s first test at Accoyo falls at a year of age where he is sheared and if he does not produce 2.7kg of fleece he is culled. The next test is at two years of age when the potential herdsire must produce 4.5kg of fleece to survive. The sires also had to be macho in their nature and look and the head type of the Accoyo stock became world famous and recognisable.

Fleece weight is not the only measure of quality. Each macho must have a refined elegance, Accoyo’s trademark head, large stature, and fine, uniform fleece. “Seventy percent of the entire Accoyo fleece clip grades baby,” says Peter Kothe, the man in charge of buying fleece for Mitchell Bros., one of the world’s largest purchasers of alpaca fleece. Kothe also says the “entire clip” includes leg, belly, and neck fiber from the total herd, young and old, not just the “Royal Family” or “Plantel” Alpacas – amazing testimony to the quality of the Accoyo production.

Even at 84 years of age, Don Julio’s divided his time between Macusani and Arequipa. He returned to Estancia Accoyo every two months to spend time supervising his herd, thereby ensuring that his workers do the culling, breeding, feeding, mating, shearing, birthing, and weaning according to his exacting standards.

Even with all these accomplishments, he and his lovely wife, Antonieta de Barreda, found time to rear four daughters and many grandchildren and he served tirelessly as mayor of Macusani. The alpaca males that were imported to Australia in the early 1990’s included the famous Purrumbete Highlander, Purrumbete Ledgers Dream, Purrumbete Inti, Purrumbete El Dorado, Purrumbete Sir Titus Salt and Purrumbete Snowman. These males along with several females completely revolutionised the Australian alpaca industry and they improved the national herd rapidly. Imports of Accoyo stock followed for the next decade until the Peruvian government closed exports. Accoyo stock is known globally as elite and genetically uniform due to the decades of selective and uniform breeding that occured.

Don Julio with a macho believed to be Accoyo Shere Khan

His bloodlines now cover the globe and a special few remain pure and exhibit the same quality traits that his A and B line were developed to achieve. No other breeder in the history of modern day alpaca breeding has had such an impact across the world and whose stock have redesigned an industry.

Those who had the privilege of meeting and learning from Don Julio appreciate the patience, dedication and vision this visionary had. Here at Accoyo Europe we continue to uphold the foundation of Accoyo and will keep the legend alive so that the future of this bloodlines can improve the breed with the consistency and uniformity proven over the past generation.

Peru will remember Don Julio Barreda for many years to come for the contribution he made to his country, his family and the Alpaca industry.