Bid to win a Precocious breeding at the Green Mountain show!

Some of you may know that Cas-Cad-Nac Farm has a long history with the Umass Amherst Camelid Studies Program. It’s founder, Dr. Stephen Purdy, was our one-man-badsass-truck-driving veterinarian way back when this whole alpaca thing started for Jen and I in 1997. There was many a late night call that Steve took from us dealing with animal health issues that admittedly nowadays seem almost laughable. Specifically, I remember one call having to do with a broken toenail of all things. As a wise man once said, “it’s a long way from the heart.” Of course Steve was also there for us whenever the proverbial you-know-what was hitting the fan for real and always showed up here night or day whenever we needed him, saving us from many a nasty jam whether it was a bad dystocia or a broken bone. We also learned over our time working with Dr. Purdy that he was an excellent teacher who really enjoyed sharing his knowledge. So when he decided to leave his private practice behind to work as a college professor and found the Camelid Studies Program at UMass, we were the ones that funded most of the first 5 years of that program. We felt strongly (and still do) that a program that would get undergraduate animal science majors and pre-vet students to work specifically with alpacas and llamas would be of great long term value to the US alpaca community as a whole. The percentage of large animal vets coming out of veterinary schools is already small as it is and the percentage of those vets who have had meaningful exposure to camelids is even smaller. The CSP in Amherst was conceived as a program that could help to alter that trend.

In addition to the support that Jen and I gave personally to the CSP, the program also became one of the primary recipients of money from the North American Alpaca Show (which was a non-profit), which we helped to run up until 2011. Dr. Purdy and a crew of his students can always be seen at the NAAS , where they do everything from helping exhibitors load/unload trailers and help with animal check-in, to working as ring stewards and gate keepers. What really matters of course though is that over the ensuing years the Camelid Studies Program has followed through on it’s original mission: many students who have come through the the CSP have graduated and gone on to veterinary school. Though it may be a drop in the overall bucket when viewed in the big national picture, the program is nonetheless doing precisely what it set out to do.

All of which brings us to this weekend’s upcoming 2012 Green Mountain show at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex, VT. The Green Mountain Alpaca Fall Spectacular (what it lacks in size it makes up for in location and number of syllables in its name!) has also been a major benefactor of the Umass CSP since the show first began several years ago and like the NAAS, will have a swarm of eager Umass students helping to run the show all weekend long. Along with our partners, Magical Farms, we were approached by show organizers earlier this fall about the possibility of donating a breeding to the show’s silent auction of stud services, all proceeds of which will benefit the UMass CSP. Long story short: Magical Farms and CCNF are pleased to offer a breeding to our Futurity Champion, NAAS Judges’ Choice winner, and 2012 Futurity Reserve Herdsire of the Year, MFI Peruvian Precocious! Anyone that has watched our breeding program’s production over the past couple of years knows what an immediate impact this spectacular Herdsire has had here at CCNF and it is no fluke that two of Precocious’s sons (Invictus and Tenacious) have joined him in our Herdsire stable.

Now pay attention please: for those who may feel that top of the line elite alpaca genetics are sometimes out of their reach, you should not let this opportunity pass you by. Precocious’s stud fee is normally $7,500 (and worth every cent for the right female) but if history is any guide, there is a very good chance that some lucky breeder will pick up a breeding to him this coming weekend for pennies on the dollar. If you are not going to be at the GMAFS in person, it would even be worth having a friend bid for you, no joke. You know that saying, “well they don’t just give it away?” Well in fact that’s exactly what we’re doing in this case and the lucky bidder will not only be getting a breeding to one of the best huacaya Herdsires in the country but will also be supporting the Umass Camelid Studies Program in the process! It’s really a classic win-win…