Re: [AlpacaTalk] Is it so hard to get the heritage of your alpacas correct?
From: Allison Moss-Fritch <aemoss17@comcast.net>
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sun, November 21, 2010 11:02:32 AM
Subject: RE: [AlpacaTalk] Is it so hard to get the heritage of your alpacas correct?
Hi Heather,
I guess I am not so worried about where the animal was imported from. Many animals walked the length of Chile to get to Peru or walked all of Peru but were imported from Bolivia---so the country of origin tells you nothing of either the quality or heritage of the animals you are buying; it is a mere marketing ploy started many years ago by a small group of American breeders who were importing animals at the time.
What is critically important is the genetic background of the animal in front of you---the one you are considering adding into the gene pool of your farm.
Those individual animals which have only been identified as far back as importation---their genetic makeup---what qualities and faults they are carrying in their gene pool; that is what is important.
Those genes when added to your farm become a kaleidoscope of genes from which each offspring animal becomes but one more twist of that kaleidoscope---the genes in the scope do not change, but the arrangement of them, the expression of them in the cria you just bred---that is what you get---and the little pieces of glass in the scope are all you have to work with. That is your genetic world. If it is not in your scope, good or bad, you don't have it.
With the glass in your scope---you can make an infinite number of varying patterns which express a picture of genetic material---those are your crias. Every time you add new genes to your scope----new bits of glass---the pictures in the scope are once again varied in new ways.
If you line breed, the chances of making several similar pictures is raised---you will be using fewer glass pieces, so your pictures will become more similar to one another. That will give you more homogeneity---but it raises both the chance of better qualities you seek, and genetic faults which you do not.
So, it then becomes important which pieces of glass are in your scope---which genes are on your farm. When you add an animal, you are trying to pick up genetic "glass" bits that you need and yet not add in some pebble or debris that you do not want---a genetic fault of some sort. What country the glass came from---irrelevant, really.
My foundation animals are like the mirror inside my scope---they show the genetic material that is in the scope to me---provided it is uncovered in my scope. If I shake the scope, that rearranges those bits by covering different pieces than before and also by uncovering new pieces. All the pieces are still there, but each picture will be different depending on which pieces show.
Allison
Allison E. Moss-Fritch
New Moon Alpacas
350 Cloquallum Rd.
Elma, WA 98541
aemoss17@comcast.net
360 861-8584
From: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Heather Zeleny
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 6:05 PM
To: AlpacaTalk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AlpacaTalk] Is it so hard to get the heritage of your alpacas correct?
Is it just me (and a few other people with whom I've had this conversation), but does anyone else balk at the sloppy designation of alpacas for sale on the various sites? Side note, why can't those heritage selectors be set up to only accept a total of 100% anything, even a combination? I learned how to do that in lower lower division programming classes. Come on guys.
But really, I am so sick of seeing animals that come up on my search for full Bolivian, only to find ones who claim full Bolivian AND full Peruvian heritage, or whatever. I won't do business with a farm that is either that sloppy or intends to mislead customers, so they don't even refer to the registration certificate.
I have been approached by many farms offering their full Bolivian dams to me, but after look them up on ARI, I find they are not even close to full Bolivian. And these are even some large-ish farms, run by AOBA certified judges! Whaaaaaa???? Come on people.
So, when shopping for alpacas, please do your ARI searches to verify sellers' statements, at the very minimum.
Heather
Heather Zeleny
White Lotus Alpacas
Oregon
Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece
posted by Chaddo at 10:08 AM
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