Alpaca Journal

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 Mike Safley

The fiber from a species can be identified by its properties of scale height, frequency, and length. The photo below depicts eight different fibers; animal, plant, and man-made. It is easy to picture why coarse wool itches and why alpaca of identical micron has a softer hand than fine wool. Cashmere fiber's cuticles are less frequent making it more like suri, and silk is smooth and lustrous. The photo omits two fibers of great interest to alpaca breeders; suri and vicuña.

Trained farm managers are graduating from University of Massachusetts Camelid Program.

UMass has implemented an exciting Camelid program that will train the alpaca ranch managers of the future. Review the circular by clicking here or call Steve Purdy, DVM at (413) 549-3820, or email him at srpurdy@vasci.umass.edu.

Two Australian farming families have again produced the world's finest wool - fibre so delicate it is almost invisible to the naked eye.

The 93kg bale has been bought by Italian luxury fashion house Loro Piana for more than $232,000.

The southern NSW farms, the Wilsons and the Walkers, equalled their own world record of 11.8 microns they recorded last year. Read more.

Thank you.

Toni Johnson of Alsea Bay Llama Rescue
Waldport, Oregon 

Mike:

Thank you for the Witches Brew recipe. For several years, I battled a skin problem with one of my elderly llamas. Our vet did a skin scraping and found nothing, but I was convinced all the symptoms were mites. Even though the test results came back negative we treated her for mites with limited success. Last summer she had another outbreak and we took her to Oregon State Vet Hospital. They found mites but not on the outbreak spots. They found them when they did a scraping BETWEEN her toes. The vet recommended shearing her and using Athroban. Big waste of time, money, and stress on the animal. I then tried a course of Ivermectin injectable 3 times - 2 weeks apart. That cleared all areas on her skin except the belly area. Your concoction is the only thing that impacts the outbreak on her belly.

Your info on mites is so important. One thing most owners aren't aware of is just how dangerous mites can be to the health of llamas and alpacas. I have an acquaintance that one of her llamas died because of the severity of the mite infestation. The vet had done 2 separate scrapings and found no mites, but the necropsy showed a huge mite infestation.

Related Links:

• Alpaca Skin Problems: The Myth, The Mites, and The Munge.