Breeding Quality Today

for Tomorrow's Fiber

Studmaster males have been very carefully selected. We take into account all the characteristics of their fleece, the presence they exhibit and their pedigrees. We look at conformation traits such as bite, bone density, size and movement. But most of all we evaluate their siblings and their cria. This is called progeny testing and it is the only way to identify an alpaca's genotype.

We believe that progeny testing is the most effective way to select herdsire males with high breeding value. This involves using the selection index (see "Alpacas: Synthesis of a Miracle") to evaluate a stud's offspring for important traits, such as fleece weight, fineness, and density. This means not just evaluating the stud's outstanding cria; either all of the offspring, or a random sample large enough to ensure accuracy, must be measured.

By way of example, alpaca shows have a class called Get-of-Sire where three offspring are shown together, hopefully representing the male's production capacity. As a breeder looking to purchase a replacement male or stud services, would you rather base your decision on the three offspring that the exhibitor brought to the show or a complete survey of the cria from the stud's production? At this web site, Northwest Alpacas gives you the information on as many of our Studmaster progeny as possible.

Progeny testing is a strategy that allows breeders to choose service sires for outside breeding or to purchase females who are bred to potent studs. New purchasers should also use it to select their foundation breeding stock. For a complete discussion of progeny testing, see "Alpacas: Synthesis of a Miracle".

Our females have been bred to the following Studmaster^TM males:

MFI PERUVIAN PROVIDENCE     Providence’s sire is Accoyo Titan, who has sired multiple show winners. His grandsire is Accoyo’s Mr. President who sold in 2002 for $155,000 at 11 years of age. In other words, he has pedigree to burn. But what makes Providence stand out is his dam, Primadonna, who is also the dam of Proximation who was grand champion at the Breeders Choice in Butler Pennsylvania under Julio Sumar. Another sibling, Running Late, took 1st Reserve Champion or Champion at the All American Futurity, the National AOBA show, the International Alpaca Odyssey and MAPACA. Providence’s micron count at one year of age was 16.5 microns. He took first at the Breeders Showcase and his fleece won 3rd at the AOBA National Show.

MSA HEMINGWAY'S BOGART     Bogart is a Hemingway son from an Accoyo dam. He exhibits low micron, low CofV, low standard deviation and high fleece weight. The dam of this herdsire has constantly produced ideal progeny with a variety of studs. This HemiAccoyo progeny has it all, soft, fine, dense, heavy bone, presence and pedigree. His micron count at three years of age was 20.9 with a shear weight of 9.4 pounds.