Chimera Ranch Foundation Dam Alpacas
Everyone we have spoken to about this business, has given us the same advice.
Buy the highest quality Dam you can and then selectively breed them to
the highest quality sires you can. If this means that your budget will
only allow for 1 Dam, so be it. Having one high quality dam will be a
better long term investment decision vs having more lesser quality
dams.
But how does one define quality? As with everything in life, we are
sure there are many varying opinions. For us, we used the following
criteria to help us.
Conformation: we wanted
physically sound females. We wanted foundation dams that could deliver and take
care of the cria without human intervention so we were interested in
females with a great bone structure and stature.
Fleece: we wanted
Fineness.
Less than 22 AFD for the darker colors; Less than 20 AFD for the lighter
colors. We searched for consistency of character and structure. Root to
Tip, Nose to Tail.
Color: Our eyes always
gravitate to the Dark Fawns, Light Browns, Silver Grays and Blacks. As such, colored animals were at the top of our focus and we can guarantee you that we overlooked some great alpacas in the process of selecting our foundation dams.
Heritage: Success breeds
success; we wanted to leverage success alpaca lineages, but also begin
to work with and learn from successful breeding programs.
Others Opinions: we
looked
for dams that had experienced success in the larger halter shows. The
fact that certified judges felt that the animal exhibited great
conformation and fleece characteristics in comparison to their peers,
meant a lot to us.
Age: our initial exposure
to Alpacas was in the show environment and we fell in love with it. As
such, we wanted to balance our foundation dam selections with dams that had some show
ring time left and with bred dams that could produce the next show
classes.
Using the above criteria as a base and the knowledge we were
gaining day by day, show by show, we started a slow but extremely
educational process. We have acquired foundation dams that have done well in
the show ring and we have acquired some great mentors and friendships
through the process.
The one key element that we have come to believe is that 60% - 70% of a
cria's foundational traits will come from the foundation dam, so start with the
best you can. The other key element is that we are dealing with
genetics. The Best bred to the Best, does not always guarantee Better
or excellent, but is does increase the odds for success.
Take a look at our foundation dams. We are excited about the future cria that they
will be producing and the opportunity to share those cria with all of
you.
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