We’re coming up to the beginning of birthing season here. I just have to get past the last show and shearing – then it’s the most anticipated part of the year. I cherish this time right now – when I can still imagine that each baby will emerge exactly as I planned it when I chose the breeding. Until that first white boy lands instead of the fawn girl I expected, my grand design is still intact and so are my hopes. Birthing is a time of both great joy and great anxiety. It can be a time of tragedy. But this is livestock, not chemistry, so as breeders we are all prepared for the potential emotional extremes. Even if the delivery occurs without incident, we may hold our breaths for the first week until that cria is past the most dangerous milestones. We are perhaps foolish and just a bit silly, to have so many dreams and aspirations concentrated in under 20 lbs. of doe-eyed infant, but it’s just one of those things you get to indulge in when you own alpacas.
As the 2009 crias are yet to arrive, I decided to indulge in a little nostalgia by charting the development from birth to adulthood of Adagia a.k.a. Gia, my go-to herd favorite. Gia is horrendously spoiled, adored since the first day her toes touched earth. In just two weeks, she’ll leave for her first breeding and I’m feeling pangs at the thoughts of her departure. When I look at the baby in the pictures from 2007 and the adult she is today, I see my hopes brought to fruition. She is not the perfect alpaca, but she’s a big step forward to what I’m breeding for and I can see a clear line from her dam to her and to what I expect her to produce. The cycle starts again.
The Pacablogger 