Alpaca seasons....

Moonshadow's Monique

What do we do in the Pacific NW in the winter with alpacas?  It is February, it is still winter, somewhere in the beginning of raising alpacas I thought this would be down time without much alpaca business to do.  I'm not sure why I still think this?  If I went back and checked any web traffic stats I can validate this seems to be when alpaca folks really start getting into gear.  By now most of the spring shows have their registration open.   Final decisions must be made on who will be our 2012 show string?  For the juveniles (cria born last year), we always have that initial "wow" or "opinion" the day they are born if we are really pleased with the results.  Then there is cria tip shearing where we get another look at whether they are "show quality" or not.  Then there is weaning, which some definitely take better than others.  There is a period of time we call the "doldrums" where we look at the fleece and wonder what were we thinking when we looked at it last time?  Then there is last year's show string to reassess whether they should go back for their 2nd year and any older ones that might be worth taking back into the show ring.

2011 cria, to show or not~

Lots of things go into deciding whether to show an alpaca or not.  Obviously, are they conformationally correct and do they have consistent high quality fiber are the main ingredients.  Beyond that we also look for temperament, since shows can be extremely stressful on some alpacas more then others.  We look at what do we gain by showing that particular alpaca.  Is it for sale?  Will it promote the Herdsire it is out of?  Is it a great reflection of our breeding program?  Is it old enough and mature enough to handle the show?  When we look at the juveniles, we know we will not wean them, halter train them and whisk them off to a show within days or weeks of being weaned.  This is a lot to ask and is a good way to end up with an extremely stressed, sickly young alpaca.  The judge will not see the same animal you looked at on the ranch, since the health and mood of an alpaca will show in how their fleece looks and feels, plus how the alpaca carries itself into the show ring. 

Earlier in February we weaned our first group of cria from June's Six Pack, we have 4 of this 6 still with us.  Three of these will go to the shows with us.  The fall cria we had haven't been weaned yet, we are choosing to not show any of these this spring because they would fall into that group of being weaned, halter trained and whisked off in a trailer in way too short of a period of time.

Moonshadow's Victory's Spirit

Moonshadow's Golden Treasure

We are keeping our show string small this spring.  These 3 juveniles, 1 yearling from last year's show string and our newest Herdsire since he is still somewhat young at 2 1/2 years old and hasn't started breeding yet.  Some people with a very mellow male might continue showing once they've started breeding, but we never have.  Surrounding a male with open females everywhere just seems a little unfair and asking a lot if we want him to behave like a gentleman.  For those we don't take to the halter show and they have beautiful fleece, we will do fleece shows and enter their shorn blanket fleece.

Also this month, we did a Valentine's day meet and greet Herdsire review at the Enumclaw Expo Center.  This was a really fun day getting to see other breeders we sometimes only see at shows.  There are some really nice Herdsires in our area so it was nice to have them all in one place and have the time set aside to talk to owners about them and their progeny.  We already have 8 breedings lined up for our new guy this summer as a result.  Pictures and stats can never replace actually getting your hands on an alpaca and seeing it in person.
 

Snowmass Golden Victory and Snowmass Matrix Principe
our featured Herdsires~

February was here and gone in a blur.  Lots of plans and commitments so now we need to get into action to make it all happen.  With the crazy weather we've had this year, we haven't begun to halter train.  Our first show will be Alpacapalooza on March 30th-April 1st.  We better get moving, winter is almost over, there is tons more to do in the spring!