Crias #7 & #8 and a Summer Sale

It has been a very busy time so, unfortunately, we are a tad late in reporting the most recent births.

On June 17th we were very happy to welcome Tucker Creek's McKenzie, a beautiful 17 pound bay black female out of Marcella and our outstanding herdsire, Sun Tzu. She is the first of eight cria we are expecting out of Sun Tzu this year and are most excited as this is his first season. She was certainly everything we had hoped to see. She has dense curly fiber with a very soft handle.

On the 20th Autumn Sunshine delivered an impressive 17 pound pure white baby boy out of Pacific Crest Accoyo Paul Revere. Like all of Paul Revere's cria, Tucker Creek's Nnyrok has very curly dense fiber. He was one our speediest crias to stand and nurse completing the entire process in less than one hour. He is half Accoyo and Full Peruvian--and a second generation Studmaster progeny--should be very fun watching this young male grow up.

As the birthing season continues one truth comes to mind . . . as more crias arrive the more important it becomes to take a really hard look at the herd and make some decisions on what we want it to look like. Who should be included in our foundation herd? What animals do we want to sell? What are the characteristics of the females left to deliver? Considering the severity of the winters on the Oregon Coast what is the ideal size herd in preparation for winter (this is more of personal issue than an alpaca husbandry issue--we prefer fewer critters through the winter). So to that end begins our annual evaluation of our herd which consists of 62 animals as of this writing with 16 more crias due by year end. Ideally we would prefer to go through the winter with a herd closer to 40. Many of the prices on our website have already been reduced--so it is a great time to add some wonderful animals to your herd as our Summer Sale begins now!

Crias #5 and #6 – This is not a perfect science

As I write this I struggle with whether there is a productive purpose to this blog entry. Oh my goodness—the readers might think our program is flawed. Or, it may discourage some from becoming alpaca breeders. Bottom line—the purpose is to demonstrate that this industry is not an exact science. Things don’t always happen according to plan. But doesn’t that also happen in any other business or profession?

Any one who has been involved in the breeding process of any species for any length of time can tell you stories about the one who didn’t make it. Sami D was cria #5 and unfortunately she never got to take a single breath. She would have been the seventh female cria born to Ominaca’s Bo Jangles—she has never had a male cria. Little Sami died in utero most likely from a premature placenta detachment. There were no outward signs. She appeared to be delivering on a timely basis—Saturday, June 9th was right at the 345 day mark. Unfortunately, she and the placenta came out at the same time. She probably died a day or two before delivery. It is very sad—that never changes. Do you get hardened to it? Losing a cria is never an easy thing. But it makes you enjoy the successful deliveries all that much more—and most of them are successful.

Cria #6 appeared at 4:05 pm on June 11th. Jasmine follows the tradition of her dam, Queen Amidala, by having a very text book delivery. Keeping with our musical theme his name is Tucker Creek’s Sinatra. He weighed in at 14.6 pounds and had no problem zeroing in on mom’s milk. By the next morning he was rough and ready for cria races. In case you wondered--we certainly did call him Sinatra for a reason--he has baby blues--though he is not deaf or blind.

There are differing opinions as to whether blue eyed alpacas belong in a breeding program. It would be difficult to establish how many blue eyed alpacas are actually in the US alpaca herd as many breeders may not register them (many non-breeders are not registered) and if they did would they note they had blue eyes. I certainly don't claim to have the answers. Breeders and doctors with endlessly more experience than I don't have a consensus of opinion. But you can find some very good articles which address blue eyed alpacas at the links appearing below and you can form your own opinion:

http://www.alpacagenetics.com/AndyMBlueEyedWhites%20sent.pdf

authored by D. Andrew Merriwether, Ph.D.,

and Ann M. Merriwether, Ph.D

http://www.shagbarkridge.com/info/deaf.html
authored by Philip A March, DVM, MS and David E Anderson, DVM, MS

and Philip Sponenberg mentions blue eyed alpacas in his article http://www.alpacas.com/AlpacaLibrary/Articles/JigglingGenes.aspx.

If you have any comments, opinions or questions, please feel free to let us know.

#4 Arrives at 5:30 pm

Baby number 4 delivered at 5:30 pm . . . this year is definitely destroying the typical alpaca delivery time of between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. Sorpressa presented us with the second cria in a row to deliver late in the day.

But now we have Peggy Sue and what a beauty she is. Sorpressa is a gorgeous medium brown out of Faiks’ Firenza and MFI Peruvian Glacial Storm. Her 2006 breeding to MSA Peruvian Cannonero has resulted in a dense, curly, light fawn female with a real independent attitude. She weighed in at 16.8 pounds and was up and running in no time at all.

And to add to the excitement of the arrival of this beautiful little girl . . . we finally have a Cannonero cria we get to keep. In the past the moms have all sold before we even got a chance to see their cute little noses. We finally had to break down and buy one back from a client just to have one on the property. It seemed a real shame to have this incredible stud and not a single progeny on the property . . . but not any more.

Cannonero was awarded male color champion at the Redmond AWE show in 2003. He is out of MSA Sorpresa and PCA Spartacus with Hemingway on both sides of his lineage. His lineage also includes Pperuvian Camilio and Peruvian Navidad. He displays dense, super soft handling fleece that parts like a book in rows of shiny, crimped fiber. He is bold, square and covered to the ground.

Considering the density and crimp on both sides of her lineage we look forward to a gorgeous Peggy Sue.