New Genetics On Their Way Via Strongshepherd’s Juno!

Anyone in the alpaca industry here who tells you they are not concerned with the rapid shoaling (to borrow a maritime term) of the genetic depth in the US domestic herd is, quite frankly (and to put it nicely), not paying attention. While the state of play, especially in white and light animals, has forced us in recent years to become comfortable with linebreeding on a breadth that we would never have imagined as recently as ten years ago, we have nonetheless been on a near-constant lookout for animals that would offer both some genetic diversity to our breeding program but just as importantly, real quality. At this stage of our game, it is admittedly a pretty tough bar for animals to clear.

Given all of that, you can imagine how happy we were to line up in the show ring near our old friend and colleague, Randy Strong, and a striking young alpaca male this past spring during our one token outing at the multi-show Alpaca Jamboree in Harrisburg, PA. Randy and his better half, Karen, of K-Ran Alpacas, had for several years now owned and showed animals with their good friend, Barb Sodums, at Shepherd’s Creek Alpacas, and they had all recently decided to officially create an umbrella farm known as Strong Shepherd Alpacas (which as I snarkily pointed out to them, could also work as a name if they one day decided to diversify further and start a folk-metal band).

The gorgeous young Herdsire Randy and Barb were showing in the ring, literally next to me as it turned out, was named Strongshepherd’s Juno, and we are thrilled to announce that we have just acquired half interest in the young fellow from his birth farm(s)! While the maternal side of Juno’s pedigree (see below) has some well-known heavy hitters, notably Majestic Peruvian Jumanji and Beethoven’s Dorian, the name that got our attention — and frankly, the only reason I’m sitting here writing this today — was his sire: Man in the Moon’s Peruvian Ganymede. We have followed the genetics of that line from afar for many years now, and though Juno, as a colored male, does not answer our almost unattainable dream of finding a highly advanced but genetically unrelated white Herdsire, he will nonetheless be a very fine answer to the question of where we take our darker colored elite-caliber crosses from our other established genetic lines. That Juno can offer very real diversity from that paternal side of his pedigree, but without compromising fleece quality, is an exciting prospect indeed. We look forward to seeing what the future holds as he hopefully comes of age in 2024. Many thanks to Strong Shepherd Alpacas for agreeing to share their special boy with us!

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