Planning for Next Year's Cria

Before Indie's arrival on July 4, we sent two of the girls to a farm in Maine (Olympia & Amity) and two others to another farm in New Hampshire (Pepper & Lady) for breeding. Our plans are to have a few cria running around our pasture again next summer.

We plan this far ahead because alpacas gestate for 11.5 months, and we try to time it so the girls give birth while the weather is warm - unlike our first farm-born alpaca, Baxter, who was born on a 46-degree day in April - brrrr

Why aren't we breeding here on our own farm with Baxter or Ace?

Great question!  While they are technically old enough to sire offspring, the boys are still immature and the girls know it.  They're close, but not quite ready yet.

So, while we are breeding outside of our own farm, we want to make good choices in planning for future generations.

As we consider sires, we look at temperament, body composition, genetic history, and fiber quality (consistent staple length, crimp, fineness, and color).  Color is not always a priority because sometimes we're hoping for a specific color and sometimes not.

For example:  Amity is bay black and Olympia is medium brown.  We paired them with two different white males this year who are comparable in size to the girls (Amity and Olympia are very tall) and are known (or 'proven') to pass on particular traits to their offspring that appealed to us.  

When we bred Amity two years ago, we paired her with a male who was the same color as her, since we wanted another dark alpaca.  Little did we know that we would hit the jackpot and her offspring, Ace, would turn out to be  Amity's "mini me".   This tells us that she has strong traits that will transfer to her offspring. 

So, this time around, we're hoping the best traits of both Amity and the sire we chose for her (his name is Templar) will pass on to their cria.   

This is our second attempt to breed Olympia (we were unsuccessful last year), so we have yet to learn what traits she will pass along to her offspring.  We selected a male (his name is Katsumoto) who has a great track record for producing offspring with long, crimpy fiber, and floofy ears (we LOVE floofy ears!).

Ultimately, we want happy, healthy, pronking crias, but for now, we just wait for Amity and Olympia to start showing signs that confirm they are pregnant.

But wait - there's more!

On Sunday, we brought Pepper and Lady home from their breeding sessions.  ​

This is our first breeding with both of them. Neither has had a cria before, so we have yet to learn from Pepper & Lady how they will inform us that they are pregnant (personality change) and what traits they will pass along to their offspring.  

We chose a handsome light silver-gray male named Kodachrome for Pepper because a) we'd love a gray alpaca, and b) Pepper has a LOT of gray genetics in her bloodlines -- so our prospects of achieving this color are high.  Both Pepper and Kodachrome have fiber with a beautiful staple length and crimp that we hope will be passed on to their cria. 

For Lady, we chose a young light fawn male with a beautifully dense and crimpy coat that compliments Lady's own dense, crimpy, dark fawn coat in hopes they both pass on their fiber qualities to the next generation. 

Again, we wait for them to tell us if they're pregnant.

Anyway, the girls were away for six long weeks, and boy, did we miss them --  and not just us, the herd missed them too.