The term “Stud” can be applied to a number of different, but related situations. It can be applied to a single animal, when the term “stud” means an entire male used for breeding purposes. It can also be applied to a place, ie “stud farm”, or simply “a stud” when it refers to a specialist farm breeding registered animals. It can also be applied to a group of animals, usually as “stud stock” when it applies to both male and female animals used for breeding. This page is dedicated to the selection of stud stock for your fledgling stud farm. A rule of thumb when choosing stud stock is always to buy the best you can afford, and this should be a totally unyeilding rule when purchasing or selecting a stud male. The male should be registered with your national Alpaca Association (in New Zealand: Alpaca Association New Zealand) and certified with that organisation to be of a suitable standard to be a stud male. The male will bear the herd prefix of his birth stud farm and be identified by a numbered ear tag and DNA parentage identification. Using entire males that are not registered or certified diminishes the value of his offspring who can then not be registered either.
There are many articles written on the “ideal” alpaca, particularly in relation to the purchase of your first animals. Unfortunately many would-be alpaca owners simply cannot afford the prices such an animal would command. If you are still reeling at the cost of purchasing a female alpaca, read Breeding on A Budget.
When selecting your alpaca, the basic considerations are good health (insist on a vet check at the sellers expense if you are purchasing animals worth more than $6000), good reproductive ability (choose females who have successfully raised at least 1 cria, and ask about her conception/pregnancy/birth/lactation history), and lack of genetic faults. Colour is, in our opinion, the least important consideration, and should only be taken into account if you have specific goals, and then only after everything else has been taken into account.
If you wish to breed quality alpacas, you need consider the following, whether choosing female breeding stock, or selecting a stud service.
Phenotype: the physical appearance of the alpaca. When there is no pedigree or progeny available, phenotype is all there is to assess. Usually the physical appearance of the animal gives a good indication of its breeding value. However, this is not always the case. Some animals consistently produce cria that are lesser than themselves, while some consistently produce cria that are better than you might expect. Photos can be misleading, depending on the skill of the photographer. Shearing data is useful, but depends on the age of the alpaca at the time of shearing.
When you are selecting a quality alpaca, you would always expect it to have superior conformation and shear statistics. These become less important when you are selecting lower priced animals.
Pedigree: It takes time for alpacas to grow up and produce progeny – up to 4 years in some cases. These animals will have no progeny for you to assess, and in this case the pedigree of the animal may assist judgment. Any registered alpaca will have his family tree printed on his registration certificate. Pedigree is harder for newcomers to assess, as they have no prior knowledge of “bloodlines”. This means, if you want pedigrees to be meaningful, you must spend time researching the industry icons.
Animals considered to make up the backbone of the alpaca industry include
Purrumbete Ledgers Dream
Other names of note include:
Purrumbete Brigantine
Jolimont Sculptor
Jolimont Warrior
Windsong Valley Iceman
Benleigh Bellissimo
Peruvian Sonoma
ILR peruvian Auzengate
ILR Peruvian Drambuie
Purrumbete Sir Titus Salt
Somerset Peruvian Excellence
There are not many females recognised as industry icons, but two of the best known are Purrumbete Sweet Freedom and Purrumbete Vanilla.
NB: Alpaca breeders tend to drop prefixes off names when discussing animals. Thus Purrumbete Highlander is usually reffered to as “Highlander”, ILR Peruvian Drambuie as “Drambuie” etc. Unfortunately, this can lead to confusion as several animals with different prefixes can share the same name. For example, there are several studs named “Warrior”", but only one “Jolimont Warrior”. It pays to check the prefix of the animal concerned to ensure you and the seller mean the same animal!
Peruvian ancestry is normally considered preferable, particularly if the animals concerned were sourced from the Accoyo or Rural Alianza studs.
Also consider the progeny and show performance of parents, and show successes of siblings
Progeny: The best indicator of an animals breeding value is it’s progeny. Consistently good progeny equates to genetic strength. Progeny can be inspected personally or assessed by show ring performance. Remember, 50% of the genetic input comes from both parents – if a male is producing good cria from mediocre females – he’s a great choice. If a female is producing cria better than herself – she’s a good buy!
