[alpaca_fibre] Re: fiber herds
- From: Ian Watt <alpacaconsult@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: alpaca_fibre@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 16:39:58 -0700
BJ,
The major problem with finding well priced fibre animals is all to do
with service fees and little else, it seems to me. When a breeder is
paying the exorbitant fees that some males attract it is always going
to be an uphill battle for the breeder of a faq male cria to get their
money back, let alone make a profit. Breeders have several choices:
1. they can sell the animal for a low fee and ammortise the loss into
the next female they breed, or
2. they can use lower cost males as sires.
I have just had several quite lengthy phone calls with several
Australian breeders on just this subject and the word I am getting is
that there is now a wider choice of quality males available for service
in Australia for under $1000. One man I spoke with has spent over
$80,000 on a white male which he put out for work at $1500 a service.
he has dropped that to $900 with a return service for free if the cria
is not registered. When you realise that less than 10% of all the males
born in Australia are registered for use as sires, you may appreciate
the importance of these price movements. I suspect that these price
movements may well result in fewer breeders owning males as its
financial attractiveness becomes less and less.
The main reason later castration, as advocated by many, is the
seemingly extra length of leg bone in animals that are castrated at
less than 18 months.
I have yet to see this nor have I seen anything that indicates this is
deleterious to the animals health. Longer legs does not automatically
translate into weaker legs however, it would transgress the showing
standard!
My view is that fibre animals will probably only have a financially
productive life of five or six years after which they will either
become pets or rugs. In the longer term, skins and meat (in that order)
will become very important economic byproducts of fibre and animal
production. If I am right and the alpaca wether has a commercial life
of shorter duration than breeding females, then leg length becomes even
more unimportant.
It has been suggested that castrating before the influence of
testosterone is reflected in fibre fineness blowout, is a singularly
good enough reason to castrate sooner rather than later. This is
something that I would support.
At the moment, compiling a herd of quality fibre animals would have to
be very challenging!
I am afraid that I do not know enough about the US industry to suggest
where you might start in sourcing these animals - perhaps someone else
might have an idea or two?
Kindest regards,
Ian
On Thursday, Jun 10, 2004, at 11:36 US/Pacific, BJ Forster wrote:
> Hello Ian,
>
> I attended the workshop you held at Champion Alpacas as well as
> listened to
> you at the Fiber To Fashion Conference in Reno this year.
>
> You and several other speakers really helped clarify what I want to do
> with
> my alpacas. I don't want to be an alpaca breeder selling breeding
> stock.
> I am interested in the fiber for my own use and other local crafters.
> I
> currently have 5 suri males, 2 pregnant suri females and one gelded
> huacaya. When you were talking about Australia's fiber herds, you
> mentioned that the fiber males were gelded at 6 weeks and kept for 5
> to 6
> years. All of the vet books I have read, do not recommend gelding a
> male
> until he is 18 months old. What are the downsides to gelding so
> young?
>
> Of course, the other problem I am running into is that everyone wants
> to
> charge more for the animal than the fiber is worth.
>
> I would appreciate any comments on starting a fiber herd. Several of
> my
> fellow crafters would like to have good fiber animals without the
> associated expense and problems of breeding females. Again, they can't
> afford the high prices that so many breeders want to charge.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> BJ Forster
>
> ---
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>
Cheers,
Ian Watt
Morro Bay
www.alpacahandbook.com
The International Alpaca Handbook is here!
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