Alpaca Journal

By Mike Safley

     AOBA held a national Alpaca Type Conference in Reno, Nevada November 2nd and 3rd. The attendees drafted a resolution and process for administering breed standards should the AOBA membership vote to adopt suri and huacaya standards. The administration document is similar to one created by the Suri Network.

    The participants also drafted a proposed huacaya breed standard. The proposed suri standard was created by the Suri Network and not changed at the AOBA conference. Suri Network has already voted to adopt the suri document.

    A committee was formed to be headed by Donna Christley. They will be responsible for disseminating all of the documents to the AOBA membership for review and comment. ARI has agreed to help fund the committee's costs. You should be receiving written copies of each document soon.

    I participated on the speaker's panel and was impressed by the rigorous questions and the participant’s command of the issues. I did not participate in the working session and was not involved in writing the draft standards, but upon reading the document, I felt good about the proposals. If it were left to me, I might change a few things, but a consensus, which the documents represent, is far more important than any individual opinions. In the last year AOBA and its affiliates have sponsored more than a dozen type conferences. AOBA members should be proud of the democratic process and the results.

Related links:

By Mike Safley

Very few alpaca breeders are neutral on the issue of breed standards; most fall into one of four schools of thought: 1) Absolutely in favor, 2) Wanting to learn more, 3) Apathetic or "I don't care what they do, I am going to breed to my own standard", and 4) Absolutely and aggressively against breed standards of any kind. The breeders who favor standards believe the practice of animal breeding is the pursuit of perfection and view standards as useful guides in the quest for the ideal alpaca. The opponents of breed standards predict doom if standards are adopted, often suggesting that pressure from powerful figures involved in the industry is behind the effort to enact standards.

Alpaca breed standards in North America have had a positive impact on alpaca breed improvement since they were first implemented in 1989. Many U.S. alpaca breeders are unaware of the dynamic role that standards have played in the development of the national herd. Once alpaca owners make their way through the arguments made against the official recognition of breed standards, they will find that standards are a good idea for a variety of reasons: standards encourage excellence in both conformation and fleece; they guide selection away from genetic defects; they help create more commercially productive alpacas; and they encourage more consistent judging at alpaca shows.

Opponents fear that a specific breed standard would create a marketing platform favoring one alpaca over another: Accoyo over Peruvian, Chilean over Bolivian, or the big breeder over the small. Opponents also suggest that standards will wreak genetic havoc on the alpaca breed and endlessly cite the mistakes made in dog breeding to support their argument. The dog analogy goes like this: dog breeds have historically been founded on dangerously narrow gene pools, perpetuated by inbreeding and utilizing breed standards as a selection guide. This process results in broad-based genetic defects in the breed's population. This argument deserves a response. Read entire article.

Related Links:

• A Comparative Analysis of Alpaca Breed Type and Standards
• Our Future: Alpaca Breed Standards or Flip of the Coin?
• A Standard of Excellence

By Thomas Shaw-Published 1913

It is almost impossible to attain marked success in breeding domestic animals without breeding them to a certain standard. The man who makes the attempt to do so is like the mariner who sails the seas without a compass. He, himself, cannot tell whether he is drifting. He is playing at what may be termed a game of chance. Read entire article.

Related Links:

• A Comparative Analysis of Alpaca Breed Type and Standards
• Our Future: Alpaca Breed Standards or Flip of the Coin?
• The History of Alpaca Breed Stanards in the U.S.

By Jude Anderson, Maggie Krieger, and Mike Safley

Breed standards for American alpacas have, in the past, been controversial. The leadership of the industry has, over time, uniformly opposed adopting breed standards. This article endeavors to look at breed standards analytically. The authors firmly believe that breed standards are an overwhelming positive for the alpaca breed, particularly regarding the health of future generations of alpacas. For you who endeavor to read the entire article, which is a little long and admittedly dry, we would ask you to ask yourself; how could these standards hurt our industry and how might they benefit not only the industry, but also the breed? We would be interested in your thoughts. Read entire article.

Related Links:

• Our Future: Alpaca Breed Standards or Flip of the Coin?
• A Standard of Execllence
• The History of Alpaca Breed Standards in the U.S.

By Thomas Shaw

         It is absolutely impossible to attain marked success in breeding domestic animals without breeding them to a certain standard.  The man who makes the attempt to do so is like the mariner who sails the seas without a compass.  He, himself, cannot tell whether he is drifting.  He is playing at what may be termed a game of chance.  Read the entire article.

Related Links:

• Comparative Analysis of Alpaca Breed Types & Standards

• Our Future:  Alpaca Breed Standards or Flip of the Coin?

By Jude Anderson, Maggie Krieger, and Mike Safley

         Breed standards for American alpacas have, in the past, been controversial. The leadership of the industry has, over time, uniformly opposed adopting breed standards.  This article endeavors to look at breed standards analytically.  The authors firmly believe that breed standards are an overwhelming positive for the alpaca breed, particularly regarding the health of future generations of alpacas. For you who endeavor to read this article in its entirety, which is a little long and admittedly dry, we would ask you to ask yourself:  How could these standards hurt our industry and how might they benefit not only the industry, but also the breed?  Read the entire article.

Related Links:

• A Standard of Excellence
• Our Future:  Alpaca Breed Standards or Flip of the Coin?

By Mike Safley

         The industry is making steady progress on breed standards.  Only last year the old Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association, Inc. (AOBA) Board of Directors force through an ill-advised by-law change that declared that there would be no alpaca breed standards established without two-thirds of the AOBA membership voting in favor of the proposed standard.  As it turns out the Colorado Appeals court decided that the old Board of Directors had acted in a manner that was contrary to the Colorado statutes for non-profit corporations.  The court reversed the Board of Directors’ actions.  The issue, of breed standards, is now back in play and the industry has some decisions to make.  Read the entire article

Related Links:

• A Comparative Analysis of Alpaca Breed Types & Standards

• A Standard of Excellence

Alpaca breeders who are truly interested in creating a useful set of breed standards should enjoy reading a piece written by Thomas Shaw more than 100 years ago. Shaw begins by saying:

"It is absolutely impossible to attain marked success in breeding domestic animals without breeding them to a certain standard. The man who makes the attempt to do so is like the mariner who sails the seas without a compass. He, himself, cannot tell whither he is drifting. He is playing at what may be termed a game of chance."

The article is written in an unfamiliar prose style and takes some patient reading. But, his discussion of Standards for Purebreds, The Makers of Standards, Advanced Registration, Fancy Points and Receiving Benefits from Standards are worth the effort.

Click here to read more.

RELATED LINKS:

• Our Future: Alpaca Breed Standards or The Flip of the Coin?
• A Comparative Analysis of Alpaca Breed Standards
• Australian Association Breed Standards

The industry is making steady progress on breed standards. Only last year the old Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association, Inc. (AOBA) Board of Directors forced through an ill-advised by-law change that declared that there would be no alpaca breed standards established without two-thirds of the AOBA membership voting in favor of the proposed standard. As it turns out the Colorado Appeals court decided that the old Board of Directors had acted in a manner that was contrary to the Colorado statutes for non-profit corporations. The court reversed the Board of Directors’ actions. The issue, of breed standards, is now back in play and the industry has some decisions to make.

The debate took a considerable step forward at the 2004 AOBA/ARI Fiber to Fashion Conference in Reno, Nevada. Curt Gedney, an ARI board member, organized a presentation on breed standards for the conference attendees. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. David Ames of Colorado State University. The panel included Dr. John Edwards, Vice President of Express Ranch; the second largest supplier of cattle genetics in the United States; Zane Akins who spent thirteen years as the CEO of American Holstein Association; and Dr. Phil Sponenberg who serves as technical coordinator for the American Livestock Breeds Conservatory.

Dr. Ames began the evening by suggesting that the alpaca industry had the opportunity to create their vision of an ideal alpaca in the form of written standards, goals or guidelines.

Click here to read more.

RELATED LINKS:

• Animal Breeding A Standard of Excellence by Thomas Shaw
• A Comparative Analysis of Alpaca Breed Standards
• Australian Alpaca Association Breed Standards