Genetic Gain

If you are looking for an explanation of genetics, I'm very sorry to disappoint. I will leave those explanations to others with much more scientific expertise than I.
Here on this page I will only try to explain how we see gain and it's effects on our farm.

When we were still in the investigative stages of researching alpacas, everything that I could read, I did - several times. Admittedly there wasn't as much out there, even just 5 years ago, as there is now. But I found and read what I could before we even began to look at farms and alpacas.

There seemed to be much conversation about "old world" alpacas and the much wanted "north american" alpaca. It seemed that these were two different looks and qualities. I don't disagree with this, but it really all came down to Genetic Gain.

The concept is really fairly simple. Evaluate your alpacas honestly for the good and not-so-good qualities that they have. This also means looking at the offspring that your alpacas have produced (probably one of the most important items). Find out who they were bred to in the past and what both the dam and sire brought to that particular paring in the offspring. If there is enough information, you should be able to get a good feel for what characteristics your alpaca is adding to the mix. You may be able to even see some consistencies in the characteristics from one or the other.

In this manner and with attention paid to the details, you will learn to make informed decisions in your breeding plans.

A few examples follow:

You may have a female that is consistently throwing crias that are always the color of the male. No matter what you breed her to, she always has offspring the same coloring as the male. This makes it fairly predictable if you are trying to get a certain color from her. If you want black - breed her to a true solid black. But please remember we know only a small part of it, so nothing is 100% and certainly not guaranteed.

Looking at the weak characteristics can really help you in improving your offspring and the genetics in your herd. Genetic Gain is, simply put, improving your herd with every breeding and generation.

Do your homework and it will pay off in the long run. Cost is of course always a factor in purchasing outside breedings, but certaily should not be the only reason you look at a certain male for a breedings for your girls.

Weak conformation in your female? Be sure to breed to a male with strong and correct leg and body structure. Seems simple, doesn't it. It really is, use common sense and then learn everything you can about the males you want to use to breed to improve your herd.

Common Sense and Self-education = Sound breeding decisions and gain within your herd. Good Luck!