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Alpacapalooza 2008 Ribbon Winner!
12:32 PM | 
Posted by
Jen Pietsch |
Congratulations to our beautiful crimpy girl Brooklyn, our fourth place ribbon winner at this year's Alpacapalooza. Three days of "peace, love and livestock" -- indeed!
Thank you so much to Albert & Kris for making me feel welcome while showing me the ropes, and to Janet for all her prep work and this terrific picture of little Brooky too! A full show report in four parts to come next!
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Breeding Notes: Part I
The last couple of weeks have been filled with cleaning house and packing to move. Through it all, in the back of my mind has been a constant concern about and delight for the prospect of selecting potential breedings for the upcoming season.I have been reading and asking questions from experienced breeders, soaking in everything I can find about genetic selection methods. Keep your eyes peeled - over the next couple of posts I will fill you in on what I have learned. Today, however, I will discuss what is known as “line breeding/in-breeding” versus “out-breeding”.
Line-Breeding vs. In-breeding
“It’s line-breeding if it works… it’s in-breeding if it doesn’t.”
Strictly speaking, line-breeding is any mating in which the mated animals have a common ancestor. When first-degree (mother/son, sister/brother, etc...) pairings occur, it is often called in-breeding. Line-breeding implies more distant relationships between the pair.
The reason for line-breeding is to produce offspring that are more genetically uniform with the goal of accentuating superior traits. With line-breeding, good traits hopefully become more consistent, although it can also magnify less desirable traits by making them more consistently prevalent as well.
In-breeding, on the other hand, tends to bring recessive genes to the surface by forcing them to pair with one another. With either in-breeding or line-breeding, the genetic pool becomes drastically smaller and the general health and fitness level of the off spring may suffer. To sum it up one can use line-breeding to achieve greater predictability in their breeding program but not without risks.
Out-breeding
Out-breeding is breeding of animals that don’t have common ancestors. The predictability of outcome of this method of breeding is decreased. Out-breeding can hide recessive genes in a way that they can’t be expressed. Inferior genes or traits can therefore be more widespread than the outward appearance would have you think in advance.
So What Is One to Do?
I see the merits of both and will seek to appropriately combine both line- and out-breeding. Much of our herd has great genes that I would hate to not ignore. The fear of the consequences of a breeding gone wrong seems to be a gamble. Therefore, in order to make the gamble pay off, I will try to ensure the positive traits that I seek to compliment from our Dams are ones that I can be reasonably assured will be passed down.
To increase the odds of achieving this goal, I will also research the off spring on the ground from the selected sires. Have the traits I want to pass on and see in my cria been passed down previously? Coupling this ‘seeing-is-believing’ approach with a healthy dose of caution about line-breeding should ensure an improvement on our herd over time.
Growing Possibilities
The first spring seed catalogs have started rolling into my mailbox, and I am planning and dreaming of my new Orcas garden. Burpee’s glossy photographs aside, this takes some serious imagination here in the far away frozen tundra of Chicagoland! We have had the farm now for less than six months; before the next six months pass we will have, if all goes as planned, two new cria on the ground - or - as they say in the business, “dams with cria by their side.” How I love the sound of that!Matchmaker, Matchmaker
The two expected cria are by two of my girls, Wanda and Carmen, with sires from San Juan Island’s Krystal Acres Farm. The couple who operated the farm before us had bred there in the past, and the resulting cria were sound and of good conformation; the decision to breed at Krystal Acres again was E-A-S-Y. Albert Olsen and his wife Chris picked up the girls on Orcas and transported them by ferry to San Juan. Coordinating the effort was our herd manager, Janet Franklin. We we are lucky to be working with Janet; she is keeping me and the herd under her able and experienced wing until our arrival this June -- Thank You Janet!
Albert and Chris ran tests to ensure the girls were “sufficiently pregnant,” then transported them safely home where Janet has had them in the best of care since. Now is when the decisions become difficult. I have seven girls that need to be bred come this spring to ensure babies for the following spring…
The Breeder’s Eye
Many of an alpaca’s physical characteristics are influenced by multiple genes (polygenic influence). This makes predicting breeding outcomes difficult. Understanding how genetics can work for breeders is critical for herd improvement. (Which is what I want.) What worries me is the second element of the puzzle, the art of breeding. Good breeding depends greatly on the “breeder’s eye” -- being able to visualize through an intuitive sense how a given breeding will work out. This is a skill I will have to develop over time.
What is Heritable?
Heritable traits are generally thought to include: fiber density, fiber length, fiber fineness, and the animal’s growth rate. What isn’t heritable usually includes traits involving reproduction and disease resistance, according to the literature. Over the next few weeks I will be looking for a balance of good heritable traits and fair stud pricing. I will be gambling my vision, my girls, and what I have learned thus far about genetics in order to improve our herd.
Who to breed to whom will be the focus of the next batch of posts… we at Orcas Moon Alpacas are looking for a few good men -- who produce only women! Now back to my Burpee’s catalog...
Sail Away from the Safe Harbor
This quotation comes to us from Page 43 of the San Juan Island's 2007 Telephone Directory, of all places.It's chalk full of such witticisms; talk about a page turner!
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
--Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Bing and the Chocolate Factory
Oh my, our little dog "Bing" the Border Terrier has just eaten a pound of Toblorone chocolate while I was out on a run. The children don't seem alarmed; although they did pick up the wrappers... Thanks guys! And now my husband has gone off screaming like a g--l about the dog dying and it being all my fault on account of my weakness for chocolate.
screaches my husband.
"Whoah Nelly," I think to myself, "I am going to have to handle animal emergencies much worse than this soon enough, and let's face it, I don't want to have to foot the vet bill every time. I can do this -- at least I can try! Heck, I'd better be able to -- in less than a year I'll be birthing cria with a catcher's mitt. Right?"
voice on the other end of the phone.
Why the type of chocolate should matter, to this moment I haven't a clue. I do know, however, from reading a recent New Scientist article, that cacao beans are deadly to dogs. They apparently don't have the genes to process the stuff -- poor dears!
the good stuff, " I quip with my best "strong" voice.
The receptionist kindly instructs me to "induce vomiting" by making Bing "ingest" 2-3 Tablespoons of Hydrogen Peroxide. Thankfully, we have some on hand but no, funny how she didn't manage to outline how one forces their pup to "ingest" peroxide! Now here is how I envision the proceedure: 1) catch dog, 2) hold dog, 3) make dog drink what dog doesn't want to drink, 4) rock dog midly for good measure, 5) get dog outside, and finally 6) watch dog vomit. Piece of cake, right? Is it ever?
So I ask my dear husband and partner in life to help me catch Bing, "I don't want a kidney, Dear, I just want you to hold the d-mn dog while I force this peroxide down his throat!" Needless to say, I am on my own...
Catch, dose and release -- ahh, here is where I manage to miss a critical step as previously envisioned, and I release Bing not outside -- but into the house -- and now we have chocolate-smelling dog vomit all over the joint. Talk about lessons learned! Well, at least Bing is safe.
Here is to greater, more pleasant (if less sweet smelling) adventures in the New Year!
A Helpful Link ~ What to do if your Dog Eats Chocolate
Reflection
Normal day,
let me be aware
of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you,
love you, bless you
before you depart.
Let me not pass you by
in quest of some rare and
perfect tomorrow.
Let me hold you
while I may, for
it may not always be so.
--Mary Jean Iron
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