It’s never too cold for THAT

TKO's King of the Ladies, 12/17/10

I guess the libidos of our Herdsires are pretty healthy when they can look at a group of grumpy, recalcitrant females on a 10 degree December day and still go charging into the pen as though it’s the greatest thing in the world. Oh, to be a male alpaca. ”Cold, what cold? I’ve got crias to make!” Green loogies and swift kicks to chest be damned. Yes, there are open and receptive females in the group waiting for them, the problem is that they have to run the gauntlet of uber-grouchy bred females in order to get to the promised land.  As for their handler…once he makes sure everything is, ahem, where it is supposed to be he prefers in these temperatures to go and cower in his wife’s office, Iphone in hand, until the deed is done. Geez, I’d worry about frost bite down there.

2 Comments

  1. Hi guys. I am just wondering if breeding this late in the year is something you do on your farm on a regular basis. We are new to the alpaca business here in Missouri and have opted to not breed in the winter, simply because we don’t want a winter cria… however is there much difference in having a winter cria as opposed to one in the fall? I don’t just want a new born to freeze to death if I can’t get to it in time. What are your thoughts?

    Cole
    Younger’s Alpaca Farm

    1. Hi Cole. Your way of thinking is spot on. The short answer is that we normally end our breeding season on or around the end of November. Every now and then we’ll make an exception for a very special female and go beyond that date as we are, in theory, equipped to handle a cold weather birth with a warm room built into our arena. I’m not a huge fan of that though and feel really strongly that it’s much healthier for the little ones to be born during a time of year when they can get out and really run (preferably with other crias too), not be cramped up in a 20 x 20 heated room with their dam for several weeks. If we didn’t have the warm room I wouldn’t touch a cold weather birth with a 10′ foot pole though…

      As for the breeding being done in the post, that female belongs to folks who live in warmer climes than we do. Good luck and thanks for reading!

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