John's Commentary

Thanks for visiting my commentary page. For the most part I just like to bring my thoughts out into the open (regarding the alpaca business). If you'd like to respond just drop me an email.  

"Stick To Your Guns"  May 27th 2008

In our recent visits to The Futurity and the AOBA Nationals, we have noticed that the animals that win blue have high amplitude crimp, fluffy faces and a bright pencil stucture (at least in whites). I'm sure they are probably somewhat fine and somewhat dense. Its difficult for me to comprehend as it seems just last year it was simply a good top knot and 'nice' crimp but the finest and densest animals won blue (staple is in there somewhere).

Little farms like ours will always be playing catch-up if we get swayed by the flavor of the year. We MUST stick to our guns.

My opinion about crimp is quite simple. Machines can put any crimp you would want in fleece. What crimp is better, high frequency or bold (low frequency)? How much crimp is too much?

My opinion about brightness and pencil structure is just as simple. When a fleece gets washed it is all destroyed.

A quick story about crimp (and brightness): We sheared of a 2" square of fleece from a girl we had skin biopsied. She had had 2" of fleece at the time. When we skirted her fleece for showing we noticed a short spot that had even more luster and crimp then the rest of her blanket. It was the 2" square that had been sheared off. It had been protected by the fleece around it. Protected from the constant rolling in dirt and the sun.  So I guess being here in dry lot conditions instead of on nice grassy wet fields puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to shows.....or makes our animals better deals to the discerning buyer.

While I like the curb appeal of the fluffy face and top knot that covers the eyes, there is just no other value to that fleece. I see this as an area where individual judges will be the difference between a ribbon or a walk EVEN if a standard is put in place. My take is to concentrate on the best blanket....with as good of a top knot and face fleece as possible. Some of the greatest studs have the ugliest heads styles.

While we have centered on fineness, density and staple length as we started our program, I have to now add consistency and blanket coverage to the mix. I should have known that we'd eventually get there as a really smart lady in this industry told me that is what they have done in their program. Focus on the SD and CV of fine fleece. Thank you Julie Skinner for saving me 20+ years.

So for now, we continue to focus on the results of biopsy information including the SP ratio (low primary counts), the difference between the primary AFD and the secondary AFD (smaller is better) and the follicles per millimeter (density). Along with the visual staple information, we can drive our program to high quality fleece output from our animals. Those statistics directly affect the CV and SD of the fleece but without the environmental effects that I have mentioned above.

A case in point: Genesis was skin biopsied at 3 years of age. His secondary AFD was 20.5um. His fleece AFD was 20.8um. This tells me that we were spot on in his feeding regimine (we use Norm Evans mix growth and reproduction along with fiber nutrients). His CV was low at 18.8. a testament to his high SP ratio at 12 to 1 and the 6um difference between his primary AFD and his secondary AFD. So from this point on there is no sense in looking at his fleece statistics as any change upward is likely environmental. If indeed I am concerned about his 4 or 5 year staistics, then a biopsy at that age would be used to drive our breeding decisions. Our current direction is centered in the 3 year mark of our animals.

One more quick story: We have an animal that everybody believes is the densest animal in our herd. Turns out she is the least dense, her fleece is coarse and is 100% medulated. These factors give the impression that she is dense. This shearing we were able to improve her fleece AFD by a full 7um (to 27um) through proper nutrition and controlled feeding (she was extremely over weight at 210lbs). Her fiber size under the skin (determined via skin biopsy) is a mere 22um. This summerizes why we have decided to use skin biopsy results as just one more bit of information to help us make breeding decisions.

While it would be nice to have one of the top 5 males in the country and we just continually put him over our girls to create high quality cria, it will be even nicer to have a top male and create the highest quality cria possible with each breeding and continuously improve our herd each breedding season.

"New Client Starter Packages"  Feb 4th 2008

While researching the alpacas business, we heard a common message that the best starter package is the purchase of 2 bred females due in the appropriate season for your area. The reasoning seemed to revolve around having cria to sell as soon as possible or doubling the size of your herd as soon as possible. 

After almost 2 years in the business and 13 purchases later, we have refined our thoughts to the following: 2 females bred to the same stud with proven cria on the ground and 2 follow on breedings to the same stud to boot.  The ideal situation is if the stud is local so you can avoid travel and breeding costs (see discussion of 'free' breeding below).

This package is a true breeders package in that you are creating a nice baseline for the genetics in your herd via the service sire. Your maximizing your chances for a great cria (assume 1 out of 2) and the following year you can breed back to the same stud, further increasing your chances for great cria. With the right females bred to a top stud, I'd expect a 75% chance of a great cria (3 out of 4) and the final cria is likely to be very good.

To make the deal incrementally better, buy 2 proven females. Buying the male is a little premature unless you purchase more females but it all depends on you budget. Its not altogether a bad move with the right amount of females.

To make the deal cheaper, buy 1 bred female with a free breedback and a pet male.

"To SHOW or Not to SHOW"  Jan 7th 2008

When we first entered this business, we had thoughts of not showing animals, just breeding  and selling a few cria a year. I guess the idea was to keep the costs down, maybe a little less anticipated aggravation and to keep a low profile. It can be done, but you better be a damn good marketer.

If you breed alpacas for a business, you ABOLUTELY NEED TO SHOW animals and you need to place. Certainly it is best to get a Color Champion, A Reserve Color Champion or a First Place but in my opinion the first and most important step is to place anywhere consistently.  I regularly go to www.alpacashows.com and review past show results and what sticks in my mind first as I scroll through the results is the farm name and the capital letter pre-fix of the animals name.

Of course its up to each individual how detailed they want to get scanning show results. How big is the show? What farms participated? What animals were in a particular catagory? Who was the judge?

Just how did Snowmass, Crescent Moon and Accoyo America get big names? Just look at the AOBA National show results since 2001. Are these programs successful? I'd say by the auction results each of these farms participate in, they they have successful programs. (www.celebritysales.com). At the same time you can see by my comments throughout this website that I mention the same names over and over, yet there are many more successful operations across the country. This is because of geographic reasons. East coast farms show in the East, Mid-west in the Mid-west and so on. I tend to look at the show results in our region but when selecting a male for breeding, I look at the shows attended by that male or his progeny.

Perhaps a better example is a smaller farm here in AZ. As I scanned through shows like the AOBA and the Futurity, I recognized HRAZ in there a few times. Heartland Ranch down south in Elgin has had some nice show placings over the years.  Being from AZ, we of course had heard of HRAZ but if we are from another state, scanning the show results may be the only place we would have ever seen their name (or better yet their program results).

To sum up, although it's relatively expensive marketing, placing in shows is a necessity for most farms who want to be recognized for their breeding program and hopefully that will lead to sales.

 

"Free breeding and free re-breeds"  Dec 17th 2007

Is there such a thing?  Of course not!! Transportation cost money and agisting costs money. Longer quarantine times cut into the general 60 day 'free' agisting. Sure some farms try to buck the trend with 90 day agisting and what not. Somebody is going to pay.  I've seen contracts go both ways, a failed breeding gets a free re-breed but not agisting, or its just flat free until you get a cria (except for transportation). What about the pregnacy testing the second time around, it certainly isn't cheap in this area?  If I am in the market for breedings I like the "completely free" version of the contract, if I am providing breedings, I like a contract that requires the second agisting period and all veterinary costs to be paid. 

Its a tough call. Why is a re-breeding required? Female issues, male issues, farm issues?

Currently we expect each contract to be unique but we expect to offer a variety of options. I personnally like the idea of pricing my breedings at a fixed amount based on the quality of the male and ALL costs are covered by the farm receiving the breeding. For example, a breeding cost of $1000 would cost the receiver $1000 + $3 per day agisting + Progesterone test + ultra-sound and of course transportation.  If the farm is willing to trust a spit test, then they can save money. If they happen to live nearby and want to pick up their animal after 45 days, then they save money. We can ultra-sound or you can have a vet do it...its the receiving farms choice. Our ultra-sound is free...if you trust us!

Of course the other option is to pay a flat fee of $2000. This of course drives the breeder to be as efficient as possible. In the case above I would expect a perfect breeding to cost ~$400 (out of pocket), so the breeder would clear $1600 in the best case.

As a breeder it boils down to what you think your male's breeding is worth and are you willing to cut into that amount for any reason??? As a farm purchasijng breedings it probably boils down to knowing the fixed cost or not (of course transportation is never fixed).

With rising transpotation costs, I see a trend toward local breedings or longer agisting times to avoid the 'risk of absorbtion' and hence a second trip would not likely be required.

Please email me if you have thoughts.... john@vanityalpacas.com