*NEWEVO
The Journey of a Suri Llama
by Kay Patterson Sharpnack
9-29-03
Peru, January 26, 1997. I am living a lifelong fantasy in search of new bloodstock for my breeding program. Four of us are on a jolting 3 hour journey going from the little town of Nunoa to the Huaycho area to see llamas: Mauricio de Romana, a friend who is introducing me to the primary llama breeders on the altiplano, 2 Quechua Indians, Jose Berdejo, interpreter, and Alberto Velardi, camelid vet tech. Huaycho was one of the last strongholds of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). Seventeen security guards, over 500 alpacas and some llamas had been recently slaughtered here by this terrorist group. The church and most of the Huaycho buildings sustained damage from gun fire which is still evident, and the small cemetery holds new, decorated graves. I feel so privileged to be the first foreign breeder to see and select llamas from this special place.
Driving past the main Huaycho Coop buildings, we continue to climb the rough road and another breath-taking vista opens up. The altitude is over 15,000 feet. We are at the small estancia of Maximo and Porfirio Diaz. In one of the rock corrales, I spotted a lovely, maiden, charcoal grey female with attractive white facial markings, born “about January of 1994.” She belongs to Maximo Diaz and is pre-selected for my 1997 importation by putting a splash of blue paint on her croup. I name her *NASKA.
Returning in April, I travel with Mark Brant and 15 Peruvian government officials, veterinarians, and Quechua helpers in 3, 4-wheel drive vehicles (rented from the Kantu Co.) to ear-tag my final selection. Mark, Tom Hunt’s llama agent, then takes care of all details for the shipment. *NASKA joins 15 additional llamas from the Huaycho area plus my other selections and begins Peruvian quarantine in Takna in June of 1997.
A few weeks after all the llamas arrive at HSTAIC, (USDA/APHIS high security quarantine in Florida) in October 1997, I am advised that *NASKA had given birth to a premature, 19.0 lb. black male with white on his face and throat. Thanks to the superb care of Renzo, a wonderful young Peruvian veterinarian accompanying the shipment through quarantine, *NEWEVO stepped off the van into a cold foggy day at Hinterland on January 8, 1998, in good health.
It was blatantly obvious that he had a different type of fiber - tightly locked with high luster. We had not seen all of Maximo & Porfirio Diaz’s breeding males, so I had no idea who the sire may have been. My first choice for a name was “nuevo” (new in Spanish). It had already been taken so I went with “newevo” a sort of double entendre for “new” and “wave.”
On a cross country trip in March of 1998, I stopped to see Mark and his 1997 Peruvian imports. He showed me photos of the llamas he had selected for the 1998 importation, which he would bring in through Canada. They were all basically suri-type fiber animals. Among the photos was one of a black male with some white on his face that Mark had purchased from Maximo Diaz and named *PERUVIAN MAXIMO PC-1. I told Mark at the time that I thought *MAXIMO might possibly be the sire of the black male born to *NASKA in US Quarantine. Knowing that the 1998 imports would not go into Peruvian quarantine and be screened by the ILR until June, I waited until July of 1998 to ask Mark to send me a copy of his DNA report as soon as the blood was processed. It was early January of 1999 before I received the necessary information. During the interim, Mark sold *MAXIMO to Larry Fiske and David Setzke of Grand Companion Llamas, who, later, very kindly supplied me with many fine photos of *PERUVIAN MAXIMO PC-1.
Meanwhile, Bon and Cindy Burgess first saw *NEWEVO in November of 1998 when they attended Iris Christ’s Llama Woods dispersal sale. They fell in love with him. I promised to sell them half interest after two conditions had been met. One, *NEWEVO had to pass second generation screening or be upgraded to ‘Registered’ and two, he had to stay at Hinterland until he was test bred.
In January, 1999, I had UC Davis check to see if *MAXIMO qualified as his sire. He did. Thus, *NEWEVO never had to pass second generation screening and was automatically upgraded to “Registered.”
*NEWEVO was test bred in August of 1999 and found to be fertile. The partnership contract was drawn up and *NEWEVO left in September to spend the next 12 months at Friends & Feathers Farm with Cindy and Bon.
On October 8, 2002, the Burgesses purchased the remaining half of *NEWEVO just 24 hours before he was due to be picked up and returned to Hinterland for the 2003 breeding season. The rest of the story is now history. *NEWEVO was not only the high selling llama at Bon & Cindy’s Final Fiesta dispersal sale August 30, 31, 2003 but also, the all time, highest priced llama ever sold at auction. His dam, *NASKA, a non-suri, remains at Hinterland where she continues to produce the highest quality offspring, among them daughter and ALSA Halter Champion, NEXTSTARR by Fivestarr (now owned by Carlos Mendoza, MD & Mary Beth Hartsough) and son, NASCAN (by Besakih) her most recent show ring winner.
Note: “ *” before a name (i.e. *NEWEVO) denotes that the animal has been imported to the USA from a country other than Canada.