Evaluación de fibras finas y gruesas de llamas (Lama glama) K´ara criadas en condiciones altoandinas de Perú

The aim of this work was to evaluate characteristics of quality, growth and yield to dehairing of the down and coarse fibres of K’ara llamas, as well as the effect of factors that may affect their characteristics. In total, 69 K’ara llamas were used, 49 from the CICS-Lachocc of the Universidad Nacional de Huancavelica (UNH) and 20 from the Rural Community of San Miguel de Mestizas (CC Mestizas) of the department of Apurímac (Peru). Fibre samples were taken from three body areas: shoulder (P), rib (C) and hind flank (N) and the age, sex, live weight and fleece weight of manually sheared llamas were recorded. In addition, the length and growth rate of fine fibres (down) and coarse fibres (guard hair) were determined with a millimetre metal ruler. To determine the yield when dehaired, 20 fibre samples were dehaired manually. The mean fibre diameter (MDF), the coefficient of variation of the MDF (CVMDF) and the percentage of fibres smaller than 30 microns (Fib<30mic) of down and guard hair fibres were determined using the FIBER EC. The live and fleece weight was 87.9 ± 26.4 kg and 1175.1 ± 675.9 g, respectively, and the MDF and CVMDF of down fibres was 21.3 ± 2.0 µm and 18.9 ± 1.4%, and of thick fibres 49.8 ± 9.4 µm. and 24.7 ± 6.3%, respectively. The growth of down fibres was 5.2 ± 0.8 mm/month, and that of guard hair was 9.7 ± 1.0 mm/ month. The yield in the dehaired was 71 ± 8.5% of down fibres and 16 ± 7.4% guard hairs. There was an effect of live weight on MDF and Fib<30mic in fine and coarse fibres, and additionally in coarse fibres, also live weight had an effect on CVMDF, while fleece weight had an effect only on MDF. Likewise, there was an effect of sex on the monthly growth of the fibres and on the yield to dehairing of down and guard hairs. In conclusion, the down fibres of the K’ara llamas, due to their good diameter, length, uniformity and high percentage in the fleece, can be processed to obtain fine garments.