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.