Decisions Decisions

I hate having to rework my plans, but sometimes it is necessary. According to the information I have gathered from my good friends on the AlpacaNation forum, I have purchased myself into a corner. My original idea for my herd was to cross bred. Obviously since Priscilla and Michael are brother and sister they could never be bred to each other and Michael could never breed to anyone who comes out of her so I figured if I have a completely unrelated female, I could breed him to whoever came out of the other female. Conversely, since I now have a mother and son, I could breed the son to Priscilla and mom to Michael. Crossing my fingers that the crias born this year are girls, mothers and daughters could share herdsires and the crias would be sold to prevent relationship issues. It was a beautiful plan and logically it made sense and until someone examined what I have in my herd.

Jasmine is a blue eyed white (BEW). Apparently this is not desirable in an alpaca mostly because a lot of BEWs (I think I read 25%) are deaf. Jasmine is not deaf but any cria born from her has what they call the white spot gene. The whitespot gene apparently causes the BEW. And BEW should only be bred to a solid color animal to reduce the chance of any offspring being a BEW. Also, any cria born from a BEW should only be bred to a solid animal. (If you're looking at my pictures you're seeing where I'm going). Yes, my dear Michael has the white spot gene. Which means if I breed him to Jasmine or any cria that comes from her I run a 25% chance of getting a BEW, which de-values any of those offspring greatly. So my cross breeding idea just went ka-blooey.

There is good news: Apparently as undesirable as BEW is, there's something very attractive about BEW if you are breeding for gray. If your BEW has a gray parent and you breed her to solid animal that has a gray parent, you have a better than 50% chance of getting silver gray. Amazing. I did want gray fiber, so this is a beautiful and interesting development. And I found a black herdsire who has a beautiful gray sire and grandsire. Guess who's next on my purchase/wish list?

And that brings me back to the original topic at hand which is the genetic corner I've purchased myself into. I know what my idea scenario would be, just purchase enough animals to match up to the kids I've got and keep everyone. One scenario I've been toying with would be I get half interest in the male I discussed earlier, buy a black female to breed him to and acquire another BEW female who has a gray parent. And breed for gray and black with him. But then what to do with Priscilla? I would prefer to buy a white male who is proven and has several cria with dark eyes and breed her to him but it doesn't make sense to have one breeding pair of white, so then I'm in a position where I'm acquiring more white/light girls. I have identified such a male, but budget constraints are keeping me from moving forward with my male acquistions. And I have to be realistic and grow my breeding program within my current financial budget. (I can hear the screams of NOOOOOOOO! - A lot of alpaca breeders cringe at the idea of acquiring boys. As someone once put it to me, "you doon't have to buy males, males happen to us". Males are not considered a good thing but since I'm creating a fiber farm, COME ON BOYS!)

Speaking of boys: What about Michael Jackson and Captain Gold you ask? Well, both of them are yearlings, so I have a couple of years to worry about them, but I'm thinking along the same lines. I would hope that some of the cria that would be born would be girls that could make-up their "harem".

Yes, ladies and gentlemen I am married to my harem idea. It's the best way I can think of to keep from breeding myself into the corner I'm trying to wiggle out of now.

I'm BAAAACK!

It was noted to me that it has been some time since I lasted posted. Well in spite of my happiness of acquiring Jasmine and Captain Gold, I've gone through a good number of tribulations which had me back to rethinking the alpaca business.

Because I intend for this blog to be educational and to allow readers to learn from my experiences, I'll share and I'll try to be brief but three months is a long time.

The first big shock came when I found out how much it would be to transport my animals. It is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I'll never buy another animal that I can't personally transport. I was able to make myself comfortable with the knowledge that I got such a great deal on Jasmine and Capt Gold that the transportation and price balance each other out.

It really hurt my feeling that the people I thought would understand weren't very understanding at all. In fact some of them were downright mean. I will never understand why people think that new people should know everything and be rude when they don't. I also don't understand why they want everyone to learn by trial and error just because that's how they learned. Thankfully, there were people who understood my point of view and were supportive of me.

My next blow came when the farm I bought Jasmine and Capt from refused to register them in my name. WTH?!!! Her justification was that she priced them low because she wanted them gone quickly. She failed to remember that she put an agisting clause in her contract which implied that there was no specific timeframe for the animals to be moved. I posted this situation and this time I got more of the response I thought I would. It was really bad when she threatened to sue me for sharing my story. Since I have never publicly used her name or farm name and since I was telling the truth, I was never worried because I knew she had no legal leg to stand on. Apparently she found that out too because I now have both ARI certificates in hand and my kids will be united in April. Sadly they won't be with me but they'll be together.

Which brings me to the most wonderful surprise. Rick and Pati were unhappy because I posted about being hurt over Carmella but they being true to the wonderful people they are, they let hard feelings go and offered to go get Jasmine and Capt Gold and agist them with Priscilla, Michael Jackson and Mr Ewok. Words cannot begin to express how eternally grateful I am to them and all of the kindness they have shown me.

Thus is pretty long so I'll end this posting but stay tuned. I have plan changes to share and ponder. And it won't take me three months to get to it.

Happy days are here again!

I'm feeling much better about my farm and farm plans. I have found a new girl to add to my herd. Her name is Jasmine. She's a bred girl and she comes with a male cria at her side. I've named him Captain Gold. I'm very excited about my new additions. She's bred to black and has a silver grey mom, so I could end up with a grey female. I understand she's overdue for a female.

Next summer I'll start looking for a light colored herdsire. Because Jasmine is a blue eyed white, The herdsire I buy will have to be a solid male with no white on him.

Now that my farm is back on track, I'm seriously debating having my own mini-mill. There are so many latent costs associated with processing fiber that I understand why some breeders are not looking to process their fiber. I'm not sure but I am excited to have a new research project.

Paying for Respect

Just when I thought I'd recovered from the surprise to my plans, I get hit with another blow. I guess I need to clairfy my previous post. This business is about selling alpacas. "A bird in the hand beats two in the bush" So yes, I understand selling an animal if you have someone standing in front of you with cash in hand. But when you have a verbal agreement, it really isn't too much to ask for a phone call saying "Hey we got an offer on the alpaca you wanted to buy and we'd like to go forward with the sale".

For a while I was thinking about getting out of the alpaca business, but at this point, I have invested too much to simply walk away. And I have found an incredible deal that I believe can help me get back on track. And I have to remind myself that simply because one person does something, doesn't mean another will.

I'm choosing to use this as a "live and learn" moment.

Business is business...and heartbreaking

I just found out that the girl I planned on getting myself for Christmas was sold. The news is very upsetting. The plans I had for my farm have gone up in flames. She was a key foundation female for me. I realize there are other alpacas for sale but that isn't the point.

I understand that someone with cash in hand is a better option than someone who would make payments, but I just don't think I could have done that. I know the sale wasn't made to hurt my feelings, it was simply a business decision, but the result is the same.

I'm more than a little disappointed right now, but eventually I'll come up with a new plan. I'm considering trading Priscilla, but then again, I may simply select another female and be in the same position I was in before. I don't know, I'm feeling pretty disillusioned right now.

Maybe it's a sign to stick to my fiber farm and forget doing anything with breeding until Michael is old enough to become a herdsire. Who knows? As soon as I figure it out, I'll post.

New Home for the Kids

Since I've moved to Arkansas, I haven't been as active with my kids. I miss them dearly. The good news is that I may have found a home for them close enough that I can see them as often as I used to. There is a llama farm just outside of town. I'm going to visit this weekend. I am beyond excited.

Good News and Good News

I am a very happy girl! Both of my girls spit off! Now we just need to keep them happy so they'll stay that way. I kind of feel sorry for the boys getting all happy thinking they get to play again, but such is the life of a herdsire. A friend did tell me something really scary, four of her girls have been holding on to their pregnancies for close to or over a year now. ay,yi,yi. I really hope my girls don't do that to me. It'll be really exciting especially to see Carmella's cria. This one will be Flash's first. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for light colored girls. :-) I've recently relocated to my new home where my farm will eventually be.

Farm hunting time!