Cascade Alpacas of Oregon (the same folks featured on the American Express commercial) were featured on NBC's Today show with a segment co-branded with AARP (Your Life Calling) . The segment spoke to how Alpacas can be a good choice for people with no livestock experience and the peaceful nature of the alpaca. While I would have liked to see a tour of their farm store, the segment was a good overall piece and was in a postive light unlike some other jabs from shows in the past. Since it aired in the 8 - 9 am timespot - it is huge exposure for the Alpaca Community and is another way for folks to get to learn about these wonderful animals.
I still think that we need to get the message out there about the fiber, not just the breeding end, so that people that are not already raising alpacas can see a viable end product and the start of a true fiber commodity.
I also would like to point out that alpacas are not just for retirees - they are for every age - I see many new people coming into the community that are young and that really excites me!
You can view the video here
Alma Park Alpacas LLC & The Yarn Shop at Alma Park™ --- Home of the "Go To Fiber Girl" ©
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
MLS Peruvian Sebastian Takes 1st Place Get of Sire at the NJ Show March 6-7
1st Place Get of Sire for MLS Peruvian Sebastian!!
Left to Right
1 - me with my Jr. Herdsire Chase (Male TB)
2 - Theresa Reyes-Stassel with Amoreena from Harley Hill (Female DB)
3 - Corrine Spranger with Bandit from Treasure Grove (Male LF)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Snowmass Matrix Is Welcomed Home with a Red Carpet
Matrix - the highest selling male at an auction is welcomed home today. See the video of his walk down the red carpet.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Seedstock vs Commercial
At the Snowmass 2010 auction, they do it again with a record breaking sale for an alpaca male. Matrix sold for a whopping $675,000. Total proceeds of the sale were $2.1 million.
Doing my research before jumping into the alpaca business 8 years ago, I was curious to see why the alpaca industry did not follow the same model as most other livestock. Alpacas seemed to have no "commercial" animals. In most livestock models, there are 2 types of animals; seedstock and commercial. Seedstock animals will always sell for a premium price because the will advance the breed. One recent example is "Missy the cow", who sold for a record breaking $1.2 million at auction in Canada last November. Missy is considered an advancement because of her milk production, conformation and overall advancement over her lineage. Most commercial cows that are sold/bred for milk or meat can be picked up for a few hundred dollars. Other examples of this can be found in all livestock industries, horses, pigs, goats and more. Typically in any livestock industry, there is a "pyramid" distribution with seedstock at the top. Seedstock typically accounts for 15 - 20% of the overall population.
So why, you may ask has that not yet happened in alpacas? My theory stems from the fact that most alpaca breeders are not from livestock backgrounds and often breed on cuteness or emotion instead of cold hard facts like EPD (expected progeny differences). EPD is an estimate of the genetic merit of an alpaca for a single trait. This could be fiber quality, birthing ease, cria weight and many more.
I believe as the national herd becomes larger, we will see a clear delineation between commercial and seedstock animals and BOTH have their rightful place in this industry. Seedstock animals will go on to advance the industry in terms of fiber production and conformation and commercial animals will advance the industry in terms of a viable commercial fiber product.
I don't think there is anything new or amazing in my blog post here, just maybe a reality check to all those folks who think their entire herd is made up of seedstock. I think many folks need to stop being "barn blind" and realize that as they look out at their herd - only 20% of them can possibly be seedstock - unless they are the luckiest breeders on earth!
Doing my research before jumping into the alpaca business 8 years ago, I was curious to see why the alpaca industry did not follow the same model as most other livestock. Alpacas seemed to have no "commercial" animals. In most livestock models, there are 2 types of animals; seedstock and commercial. Seedstock animals will always sell for a premium price because the will advance the breed. One recent example is "Missy the cow", who sold for a record breaking $1.2 million at auction in Canada last November. Missy is considered an advancement because of her milk production, conformation and overall advancement over her lineage. Most commercial cows that are sold/bred for milk or meat can be picked up for a few hundred dollars. Other examples of this can be found in all livestock industries, horses, pigs, goats and more. Typically in any livestock industry, there is a "pyramid" distribution with seedstock at the top. Seedstock typically accounts for 15 - 20% of the overall population.
So why, you may ask has that not yet happened in alpacas? My theory stems from the fact that most alpaca breeders are not from livestock backgrounds and often breed on cuteness or emotion instead of cold hard facts like EPD (expected progeny differences). EPD is an estimate of the genetic merit of an alpaca for a single trait. This could be fiber quality, birthing ease, cria weight and many more.
I believe as the national herd becomes larger, we will see a clear delineation between commercial and seedstock animals and BOTH have their rightful place in this industry. Seedstock animals will go on to advance the industry in terms of fiber production and conformation and commercial animals will advance the industry in terms of a viable commercial fiber product.
I don't think there is anything new or amazing in my blog post here, just maybe a reality check to all those folks who think their entire herd is made up of seedstock. I think many folks need to stop being "barn blind" and realize that as they look out at their herd - only 20% of them can possibly be seedstock - unless they are the luckiest breeders on earth!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)