Tribute to Tribute

Look who came to live at our farm today. Beth is unloading Tribute to Money, a light silver gray Huacaya herd sire, born 3/10/03. He is 1/2 Chilean and 1/2 Peruvian and what a gentleman! We picked him up in Belding at Irish Valley Farm owned by Leslie and Bob Gosnell. We are hoping to get some outside breedings for him. There aren't many gray herd sires in our area. I will advertise him as a drive by breeding, meaning I can take him to the female's farm. He's such a nice guy that I can easily load, unload, and handle him by myself. Tribute has several cria on the ground so he is considered a "proven" stud.

That's the girls' pen behind and Tribute has just arrived. Is that lust in their eyes? The youngest girls, maidens, were the most interested in him. The older girls just came up for a look and went on with their business of cushing and chewing.

It's such a joy to have this handsome guy in the barn. All the way home, Beth, John, and I were talking about which of our girls would be the best matches. We also have medium fawn Polaris here, our own home grown herd sire. He hasn't proven himself as a breeder yet, so we are trying to figure out the best match for him.

Alpacas are induced ovulators which means that they ovulate after they are bred, sort of like rabbits. This means we should be able to time the breeding for when we want a cria. Gestation is roughly 11 months. So, if we do a breeding in June, we should have a May cria, or an October breeding should produce a September cria.

....and look at this totally awesome fleece that he's wearing.....