Lost Creek Llamas
Breeding Program
In all species, the tried-and-true axiom is
to buy and breed from the best you can possibly find.
"Best," to the llama market (which changes with the
winds of fashion), has included abundant wool, the most-curved
and/or -warped ears, popular ancestory, and whatever colors or
markings that are currently eyecatching and uncommon. None of
these attributes make a tangibly better llama -- only a transiently
more fashionable one.
We have set out to define "best"
in more tangible, long-lasting terms with direct applicability
to the classic
performance llama. In the initial selection of our breeding
stock, we screened for overall health, biomechanical suitablilty
for packing and driving, physical soundness over time, longevity,
mental and emotional stability, and a coat that lends itself
to optimum health and easy care. These attributes are not in
order of preference: above-average ratings in all categories
were mandatory for any llama selected for our breeding program.
We of course have eliminated llamas with known
carriers of genetic defects in their background. Although ferreting
out this information can be tricky, until DNA markers are found
and tests available for each defect, it's the only way to stack
the odds in favor of a healthy offspring and gene pool -- thus
it's a critical step for us and for anyone who buys a breeding
llama from us.
Finally, we also began our breeding herd with
entirely outcross llamas -- not just with differing backgrounds
from each other, but without any of the heavily-used Patterson
studs in their ancestry (most of which were woolly llamas or
woolly-classic crossbreds anyway), without any South American
import ancestry (virtually all of which have been woolly types)
and with a minimum of Catskill ancestry (the Catskill Game Farm
was the source for much of the Patterson herd and many other
llama breeders' stock for a very long time, and thus is overrepresented
in the gene pool). This critera not only improves the likelihood
of maintaining adequate genetic diversity and vigor, but it also
means that we won't be inbreeding and linebreeding to ancestry
that wasn't even phenotypically classic, let alone ideal classic
performance llamas.
We've also made efforts to be sure that we
aren't taken in by the trends and fashions of the pack llama
market. As an example, twelve years ago the heaviest llama was
automatically assumed to be the best pack llama. It took ten
years for people to admit that this criterion was producing far
more duds than packers. The most prevalant myth today is that
the tallest llama is automatically the best pack llama. Some
people go so far as to say that no llama under 44" can pack
or drive acceptably. Careful investigation reveals not only that
taller llamas (over 46") statistically have markedly increased
difficulty remaining sound later in life, but that the very best
packing, driving and performance llamas in the country include
several llamas under 44" -- and some as short as 42.5".
Decendents from three of those animals have made it through the
difficult cuts of our stringent selection process and into our
own breeding program. It would have been a tragedy for the entire
performance llama gene pool if these terrific animals had been
castrated on the basis of height alone. (Also worth noting is
that we've found through long experience that most llamas are
measured sloppily -- and thus are commonly represented as being
2" or more taller than they really are. More than one llama
has "shrunk" upon arriving at our farm!)
We also put no stock in showring placements.
Although performance classes do test aspects of disposition,
they are no test of physical fitness or soundness. Worse still,
halter ("conformation") classes reward traits that
interfere with or even prevent adequate performance on the trail
and soundness over a lifetime.
We instead rely actual field testing. Over
the years, we have learned to identify many llamas that won't
be able to make the grade or remain sound based on biomechanical
principles -- and saved ourselves a lot of time and money in
the process. However, the trail is still our ultimate litmus
test. We're quite sure that we don't (and won't ever) know it
all.
Classic performance llamas aren't pasture
ornaments or walking wool gardens. They are frequently companions
in addition to functioning as work partners. We get to know each
of our breeding prospects on a personal level before deciding
if they should in fact be making more llamas, and if so, we use
that knowledge when deciding who to pair them with. This simply
isn't possible on larger farms. This doesn't mean we breed from
our favorite pets, as some do. If one of our llama friends isn't
breeding quality, s/he is neutered -- it's that simple. Yes,
that means we put our money where our mouth is and spay
females, too (see Lost
Creek Nubin Calliope , Rocky
Mountain Kiowah , and Spokane
River Kokanee). For a llama to be pulled from the gene pool
is not a disgrace or a failure to him, her, or us, but for us
to knowingly produce no-purpose llamas, llamas that have a high
chance of carrying a genetic defect, or llamas that are more
difficult for the average owner to handle -- especially to compete
with an oversupply of genetically flawed, difficult and no-purpose
llamas already on the market -- would be unspeakable acts on
our part.
No llama is perfect. All of our breeding and
potential breeding llamas fall short of perfection in one or
more minor ways. This is where the art and science of knowledgable
selective breeding comes into play. We continue to scrutinize
our breeding prospects closely long after purchase, and even
after we have started using them for breeding. We retire llamas
from breeding (but not from life!) after they've produced offspring
that are better than themselves.
Even the results of our own selective breeding
are scrutinized. Just because we produced a llama does not mean
he or she will grow up to be bred -- we demand improvement from
each successive generation until we reach the point that our
stock "breeds true."
Thus far, we are very encouraged by the fruits
of our stringent selection procedures, and other performance
llama users are already grateful for our efforts.
All of that is about quality . . . what
about quantity?
It doesn't matter how many llamas you have
if you need pack llamas and none of them can pack up to real-world
expectations -- quantity alone is useless (worse than useless
where animals are concerned, because they all need feeding and
care). However, quantity is also a very serious concern to us.
As mentioned above, trends and fashion are
very much at work in the pack llama gene pool. Trends are based
largely on simplicity and what the most prominent advertisers
happen to have; valid information is not only scarce, it's repressed
by the trend-setters. It's no wonder that few buyers are able
to educate themselves before buying llamas, even working pack
llamas. When our llamas are "out" (even though they
are clearly outperforming the "in" llamas), the segment
of the buyer pool that will even consider our llamas is substantially
smaller.
There is also an ever-increasing oversupply
of extremely low-priced generic crossbred llamas and flunkies
from nonpack breeding programs. That surplus means ridiculously
low prices, and that in turn means undiscriminating buyers (of
which there are many) see no reason why they should pay a fair
price for a personable, good-quality pack llama.
All of this means that the intelligent buyers
who recognize the quality of our pack-bred classic llamas are
currently few and far between. We would be stupid to produce
llamas at 100% capacity (we in fact are breeding at around 15%
of absolute capacity).
Producing too many llamas at any one time
also affects quality in a very tangible way -- training and interaction
time is greatly reduced to the point that the resulting animals
would be nearly as wild and fearful as the llamas raised nearly
everywhere else. Our buyers don't want that, and neither do we.
Finally, well-bred performance llamas live
and pack for a long, long time. If they remain uninjured, one
can realistically expect an excellent pack llama to do an acceptable
job on the trail into his or her early twenties. That means for
every really good llama we sell to someone, there's a potential
buyer out of the market for quite some time, perhaps 1.5-2 times
longer than if they'd bought an "average" llama instead
... it's a no-brainer that there's no point in making good pack
llamas faster than they wear out!
Although having fewer llamas available for
sale means that we may not have the right llama at the right
time for those buyers who are in a hurry, it does mean that we
can be very selective who we sell llamas to. Our pastures remain
healthy and spacious, not overcrowded. Our own production of
well-adjusted classic llamas with their easy-care coats place
little extra demands on our time after their training is complete.
In short, we have structured the quantity produced by our breeding
program to meet our ability to fulfill our lifetime obligation
to each and every llama we have been responsible for producing.
If there are so few buyers, why breed at
all, then?
First, we KNOW, first-hand, what it's like
to pack with average or poorer llamas ... the kind that are most
readily found for sale today. They're not worth the extra trouble;
in fact, average llamas in the backcountry constitute an unacceptable
risk in our experience. No matter how much people want to believe
otherwise, it takes an excellent pack llama to satisfactorily
meet an average backcountry hiker's demands! In order
to protect Jim's back and Gwen's knees and still have a good
time and a safe trip, we need llamas that handle the changing
backcountry weather and perform at the level of our carefully-selected
breeding stock. To assure that we continue to have adequate pack
llamas as our breeding stock ages, we must breed a few for ourselves.
People who are passionate about their backcountry
access and experiences are also awakening to the reality that
above-average llamas are needed for enjoyable, long-term packing.
They are also finding, from first-hand experience, that pack
llamas bred to the latest trends are just not able to meet their
desires.
Twenty years from now, the demand for llamas
like ours -- trail-proven performers that truly meet North American
hiking standards -- will be different. It has been changing already.
Breeding a few of our llamas now -- so we will continue to have
high-performance, outcross breeding stock in the future -- ensures
that these carefully- and stringently-selected, exceptional genes
remain available instead of being lost forever.
You can meet and view our breeding llamas
and their resident progeny along with the rest of our llama
family.
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