Alpaca Journal

By Mike Safley   

Every livestock breed has its legends.  Racing has Man O’ War and Bold Ruler; Aberdeen Angus breeders revere Old Jock; and Merino breeders remember Master Builder, a descendent of the great impact sire Majestic.  Alpacas of pedigree are a rather recent phenomenon.  We cannot reach back centuries or even decades for the icons of alpaca breed improvement.  The most famous alpaca herd sires are of recent vintage, some are still alive.

By Linda Cortright

            Linda Cortright is editor of Wild Fibers Magazine. I recommend this magazine to all alpaca breeders.  It is loaded with interesting articles, such as Read Before You Breed, which is Linda’s review of my book, Alpacas: Synthesis of a Miracle. I have linked three of these articles in this issue of the “Alpaca Journal”.

            I also want to let you know that I am running low on copies of the book, so if you have been thinking about purchasing it and have not, you may want to act now. To order, click here.

by Sandra J. Welsman

The Australian Sheep Genetics System paper surveyed the current and historical status of the various sheep selection systems that are available to wool producers.  This is an extensive 57 page summary of what genetic selection systems are available to breeders.  Anyone interested in learning about Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) will want to read this paper. The paper also speaks to across herd genetic improvement programs. The Table of Contents for the paper follows.

4 GENETICS SERVICES AND COMPATIBILITY

4.1 A range of genetics service providers

4.1.1 LAMBPLAN – Meat and Livestock Australia

a. Goals, markets and customers

b. Breeding – vision and results

c. Products, services, market response

4.1.2 Advanced Breeding Services – NSW Agriculture

a. Goals, breeding vision, products, markets

b. Industry Wether Trials – Bloodline comparisons

c. Merino Benchmark: across-stud

4.1.3 CSIRO – Select Breeding Services and databanks

4.1.4 Central Test Sire Evaluation - Merino

a. CTSE information and database

4.1.5 Other quantitative genetics service providers

a. Agriculture Western Australia

b. Natural Resources & Environment, Victoria

c. Mackinnon Project – University of Melbourne

d. SARDI

e. Independent consultants

4.1.6 Soft Rolling Skins and Elite Wool systems

a. Assessment: ‘elite wool’ methods in the marketplace

4.1.7 Professional sheep classers and stud advisors

4.1.8 Practical services – laboratories, scanners

4.2 Current services: methods and compatibility

4.2.1 Summary of sheep genetics data collections

4.2.2 Enterprises, pedigree, accuracy, links

4.2.3 Traits recorded, measurement and data integrity

4.2.4 Data collection, delivery, processing

4.2.5 Preparing BVs, indexes, comparisons, reports

Abbreviations and Glossary

To read this summary click here.

Did your breeding create a good nick?  I have always had good luck with repeating the breedings that resulted in superior breedings.  That’s called a “good nick” but the larger idea is to discover a “good nick” between blood lines or strains of pure bred animals.  Anne Peters’ article provides some interesting insights about how “good nicks” occur.

Just what the heck is a "nick" anyway?  Being curious as to where this term came from, the author consulted Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary and discovered that it actually had a genetic definition: "to complement one another genetically and produce superior offspring.”  Yup.  That about sums it up.  A nick is a cross of two bloodlines that seems to produce superior results.

Nicks have been around as long as there have been Thoroughbreds, and probably as long as there have been animal breeders.  Some of the earliest include the Godolphin Arabian crossed on daughters of The Bald Galloway, a cross that produced this foundation sire's most important offspring Lath, Cade, and Regulus (see Andrea Hoogendoorn's interesting article on Siblings.)  Lath and Cade were out of the same mare, Roxana, while Regulus was out of a second daughter of Bald Galloway named Grey Robinson.

Click here to read the article.

Why Inbreeding? Anne Peters answers her question in a clear minded objective fashion. Alpaca breeders who are interested in the potential of close breeding as well as the downside should take the time to read this article. It is published on The Pedigree Post, This is a great website with interesting ideas about animal breeding.

Click here to read the article.

Related Links:

• Nicks or Not
• Pure Blood Part III
• Nearco: A Primer in Linebreeding
• The Good, The Bad, and the Inbred: Why Stallions Succeed

A great site that contains a little of everything on the status of sheep breeding research. I want to warn you that the site contains 98 pages and many abstracts, so only dedicated researchers should click on this link. Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics

Only abstracts are available at this site, but most appear as short papers of 4 pages (longer for keynote papers) in the printed proceedings: so if something takes your interest, continue to information on ordering copies.

To a person who has never bred animals, let alone alpacas, the technical aspects of genetics and animal breeding theory can be intimidating. It is important to step back and realize than common sense is the common denominator for success. People, who succeed at animal breeding use good information, are deliberate, patient, and consistent and they keep their breeding program simple.

These attributes would make anyone successful at any endeavor. Alpaca breeding can be mastered by anyone that is willing to learn the science of inheritance and apply it systematically. There are no short cuts. If you breed an outstanding male to an inferior female you will see improvement. The cria will most likely not be the equal of the sire but it will be better than the dam. Breed the same dam to an inferior male and the poor result is predictable. It’s common sense.

Click here to read more.

RELATED LINKS:

• Developing a Breeding Program
• Selection from Animal Breeding
• Animal Prepotency

This article is an overview of the history of animal breeding. I was particularly struck by the emphasis on Professor Jay Lush’s contribution from his 1945 book, Animal Breeding Plans.

Ollivier discusses the definition of animal breeding, unconscious selection, population genetics, and it’s transformation to modern quantitative genetics. He summarizes recent developments in animal breeding and genetics and makes some far reaching observations about future challenges for animal breeders.

Click here to read Scientific Challenges to Animal Breeding and Genetics.

RELATED LINKS:

• Creating a Breeding Program

This paper, by Australian experts discusses the state of research into the feasibility of using artificial insemination in alpacas.

Artificial Insemination (AI) is an acceptable breeding technique in the rules of the Australian Alpaca Registry. It is prohibited by the ARI.

Click here to read Artificial Insemination in Alpacas (Lama pacos).

This article explores the mobile mating business. With more open females every year the market for stud services is ever expanding. Breeders prefer to keep their female with cria at side at their own ranch. This may be a business opportunity or service that you could use.

Click here to read the article.