IMPORTANT INFORMATION
for female llama owners
seeking breeding services
Our breeding season is mid-March through the end of July. Even the most optimally fertile females will need to stay here for 30-45 days. For that reason, the LAST day to book stud service for the current year is May 1. After that date, we will begin booking the following year.
Requirements
We provide stud service to female llamas who are:
• registered and/or proven working animals
• Classic or any of the k'ara types
• between 4 and 20.5 years of age
• in good health and have a history of good nutritional status
• at an appropriate weight
• reproductively sound
• of acceptable working conformation
• in a stable, long-term home
• sufficiently unrelated to the selected stud (COI 3.125% or less)
Females should be up-to-date on any vaccinations. At our discretion, we may require negative fecals and/or proof of recent treatment for external parasites. Nail trimming must be current, and grooming or shearing must be suitable for the area and season. Out-of-state animals must have a current CVI and meet any other requirements for entry into Oregon from your state.
We reserve the right to decline to provide stud service to anyone and for any reason.
We reserve the right to turn away any llamas who arrive with health issues, are overweight, or otherwise not as represented.
We DO NOT provide stud service to crossbred, pet, guard, craigslist, auction or "came with the property" llamas.
(We really shouldn't have to say that, but apparently we do.)
What is included in our On-Farm Breeding Fees
The booking fee is 50% of the stud fee or $500, whichever is greater, and is non-refundable. The booking fee holds your slot for that year, and includes 45 days feed and care for your female.
Your female will be cycle-checked daily and hand-bred under observation when receptive. Any behavioral anomalies will be recorded and shared with you.
The breeding fee (remainder of the stud fee) is for successful insemination by a specific male llama, and is due before the female returns home.
An application for ILR registration with the sire, dam, and stud owner information plus our signatures will be provided to you after the baby has been born and you provide us with photos, date of birth, and sex of the baby. In some cases, we may require DNA verification of parentage before signing.
What is NOT included in our On-Farm Breeding Fees
Ultrasound and progesterone assays to confirm pregnancy or to assess reproductive status. We can probably arrange these for you while your female is here on request; veterinary services for camelids in our area have become scarce.
Shearing is not included, but can be provided for $50 per llama.
Care beyond 45 days for females awaiting transport home after successful breeding is $2/day.
Care beyond 45 days for females who have not yet conceived is $10/day. If your female is 8 years old or older and has never successfullly carried a pregnancy to term, plan on her taking more than 45 days to conceive.
Our breeding season is mid-March through the end of July. If your female does not conceive by the end of July, she will need to return the following year, and you will be charged per-diem feed and care when she returns. A deposit to cover the first 45 days of feed and care is due by Jan 1 to retain that female's slot in the stud's schedule.
We DO NOT guarantee that your female's pregnancy will continue after she transfers to your care nor that she will have a live birth ... because continued appropriate care choices are out of our control from that point forward. If your female loses her pregnancy, contact us to discuss what you know about the circumstances; include any information from your veterinarian if available. Depending on the circumstances and solely at our discretion, we may offer a return-of-service for that female.
About Breeding Leases
A breeding lease is when you take our stud to your farm for the breeding season and handle any breedings yourself for a flat fee.
Outside breedings (to females you do not own) during a breeding lease are also possible, but must be agreed upon in advance. Outside breedings will increase the flat fee.
We are very picky about where our llamas go! Our stud must be kept in a safe area; we will inspect his living quarters and the breeding area before finalizing the agreement. You or someone working with you must be experienced handling llamas, and qualified to handle a breeding male. We do not want our males coming home with bad habits or injuries. We do not assume any liability for our studs' actions when they are not in our possession. (For owners of packing females who have not handled studs for breeding before, we can sometimes work with you to attain the requisite skills.)
On rare occasions, we will agree to a mutual stud swap for most or all of a breeding season. We breed minimally ourselves, with most of our breeding females taking every other year off. Please don't be surprised or insulted if you offer a male and we turn him down — even if we think he's totally amazing, he still may not be the right fit for us that year.
Other stuff!
We offer a reduced stud fee for multiple females from the same farm.
For individual breedings (that is, breedings we conduct on our farm), we may require right-of-first-refusal to any resulting offspring.
Return-of-service will generally be for the same female to the same stud, but we realize that the real world presents all kinds of unforeseen issues, and we will work with the female owner to achieve an outcome that is fair for everyone.
How to Inquire About Stud Service
If you're interested in breeding one or more of your females to our trail proven Classic packing studs, contact us and include the following information (YES, this is a TEST!):
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Your female's ILR registration number, or date of birth and known history and/or ancestry if not registered
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Your female's working credentials, if any
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List of any unregistered offspring and their birthdates
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Left, right, front and rear photos or video (clear and up close). For Classic llamas include post-grooming photos; for all k'ara types, include both pre- and post-shearing photos.
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What your breeding goals and priorities are for this female?
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Which stud(s) you are inquiring about breeding your female to?
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Summarize how you maintain reproductive fitness in your female(s)
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How far are you willing to go to achieve conception? (ie, "no drugs or hormones", "treat a retained CL if necessary but not more than that", etc).
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Your phone number and location. (HINT: We're in Dexter, OR)
Again, the above is a TEST!
Forgetting to include a bit of information or sending photos later or not being sure which stud might be best for your female won't prejudice your inquiry — we're all human! It's the people who send us one-liners ("want to breed my female let me know what you have") who automatically get the delete key. :-)