I just purchased my first herdsire. Unbelievable as it may sound, I have been breeding alpacas for five years without ever owning a breeding male. Of those five years, I have spent almost two actively looking for a herdsire.
Many new breeders make the purchase of a breeding male one of their top priorities. From a cash flow perspective, this makes a lot of sense – you not only save yourself the cost of outside breedings but you also can generate immediate revenue through the sale of stud services. But I’d like to make an argument for the opposite: holding on the purchase of your first herdsire.
When I first started out, it was clear that farms were often known by their herdsire. In other words, a really good male had branded their farm and their breeding program. As one well-known breeder told me, “People come to buy females but it’s the quality of the males that attract their attention.” So from that day on, I knew that a herdsire purchase would be the most important buying decision I could ever make.
With the implications of making a poor decision in this area, as a new breeder I then decided I needed to gain more knowledge before I knew what I wanted in a male and also before I felt I could adequately assess animals. So I spent a lot of time consciously recognizing what I liked and what I didn’t like. What colors? What look? Did I like a particular fiber style? What would I prioritize – size? capacity? bite? fineness of fiber? density? Where was I willing to compromise and where was I not? Some of these have changed in importance to me over time but others have not. Without knowing what I was breeding for though, it didn’t seem that I was in a position to purchase a male that would shape my breeding program in the direction I wanted.
A third reason why I decided to hold off was for a business reason. Besides feeling the stud would have the breeding value I wanted, I also needed a male that had a lot of market value. That means the right bloodlines that would attract outside breedings, the right heritage, and (although I hesitate to say it) the right show record. Now I have always derided the people who breed purely on show wins because I refute the misconception that show wins translate directly to breeding value. Ribbons are important for marketing value, but I’ve seen plenty of champions and blue ribbon winners who I would never breed a dam to. Their qualities do not align with my breeding goals. Having said that, I do look at show wins and I do show – this is a crucial part of the business to add marketing value. Got that? Breeding vs. marketing value are not always the same thing.
The last reason I held off purchasing a herdsire when I started out was purely practical. Every female I bought came with one or two breedings and I only purchased from people who had herdsires that I knew I wanted to use. So I really didn’t have to pay for any breedings for the first few years. And every time I bought an animal, I always asked for an additional breeding and often got it. Even today, I have a tidy little stockpile of high-value free breedings tucked away for when I need them.
I think I also had a vague niggling idea in my head that I would just breed a beautiful stud myself and therefore save myself the cost. Naive, huh? Especially with my micro-sized herd. That homegrown showstopper will come someday -in fact, I think now that I finally have purchased a herdsire, he might just pop up this year. Alpaca breeding seems to work that way, with a strange sense of humor saturated in irony.
The Pacablogger 