Dark Sky Genie™

In the same way we breed for uniformity, density and maximum fleece cut weight then wouldn’t it be great if we could better predict colour outcomes too? Alpacas have so many beautiful colours and, if we were able to harness that raw and natural beauty in all our products, we could help reduce the need for dying. With environmental considerations so high on everyone’s agenda, there is an opportunity for alpaca fibre to come to the fore – beautifully soft, luxurious, and naturally coloured fibre products with no need for artificial additions.

At Dark Sky Alpacas we care passionately about our beautiful alpacas, Suri in particular, and strive to celebrate and promote their fleece by producing luxurious woven and knitted products.  Our headline product is woven cloth in a bespoke Dark Sky tartan design which requires five different colour yarns.

As a small farm we must be really considered about our breeding decisions, so we’re always looking for ways to help give us the best chance of success. The colour and quality of our cria is super important to us because:

·  we need all natural colours for our tartan – we don’t use any dye

·  all our fleece colours need to be equally fine, uniform and lustrous – so important for the feel and sheen of the cloth

·  and we love to look at that stunning variety of colours in our fields

Whatever your individual priorities are, understanding more about how base coat colour and pattern is controlled by genetics is a great advantage if you want to target certain colours or blends.  It’s also particularly helpful as we quest to breed across the colours to bring more fineness and density, particularly to the darker fleeces.

If you're new to colour genetics, have a look at our guide to how colour heritability works