The Value of Breeding For Quality

We have a medium fawn girl out of 4P Pachacuti who has everything one could desire in a producing female such as fleece density and coverage, confirmation, heavy bone and a vigorous constitution. the only thing lacking in this girl is fineness. We had her bred to MFI Glacial storm in an attempt to improve on the fleece characteristics of the cria. On June 19, 2006, she gave birth to a beauthful medium brown femal and at this point, it looks like we've accomplished what we intended. Of course we can never measure how much of the outcome was "engineered" by our astute planning (an outcome for which I am happy to take ful credit) and how much was the random act of nature but the result has convinced me of the value in always acquiring the best feamles one can afford and breeding them to the very best herdsires available. There are no short-cuts.
My purpose here is not to promote a particular herdsire. Rather, it is to support the value of breeding selections based on the use of progeny testing.
As we looked at the phenotype of Glacial Storm offspring and their micron counts, we deterimed that the pairing of our Schnookums and GS had the potential to achieve our breeding goal.
I can say, I've never seen a fleece like this on an alpaca before. At an early age, she shows outstanding high frequency crimp, stapling and luster. In addition, she has inherited all of her dam's strength and vigor.
She'll definately be hitting the show ring in 2007. We' expect great things from her.