New sales listings on the CCNF web site

So after stepping back for a while and not writing any new copy for sale animals post-National Elite Auction (read: sucking my thumb, feeling sorry for myself), that little hiatus is now officially over. We have begun the process of creating what really amounts to our first new private treaty sales listings in almost 4 years. From 1997 to 2010 the NEAA had really been our primary sales outlet and one admitted side effect of that was that our private sales off of the farm were drastically de-emphasized during that period of time. We just never had enough production to both supply what amounted to a semi-production sale at the Elite and maintain a healthy list of animals for private treaty, at least not without compromising on quality in one place or the other. With the decision that the 2010 National Elite was that sale’s final edition though, we are now starting to list animals that in recent times might not have “gone public” for at least another 10 months in the normal course of things. You heard it here first: CCNF is not entering any of our alpacas into an auction in the 2011 calendar year. What this means is that all of those great animals that would have been slated for a 2011 sale will instead eventually make their way onto our private treaty sales list.

The updating, writing, and posting of new sales animals will obviously be an ongoing process (and by definition, never ending) though I hope to have the more or less current and complete list up for the public’s consumption over the next couple of weeks. For now the male side of the sales list (which includes a goodly chunk of our 2010 male show string) is up and complete.  Those boys can be all be seen here.

A brief word and plug about the males that we have listed: we believe them all to be capable of being true Herdsires. Though none of our guys are priced incredibly high, one of the reasons you will never see a truly low priced male for sale at CCNF is that we feel philosophically that those animals should be culled from the ranks of the domestic breeding herd. Though every breeder has to make culling decisions for themselves, in our case the standard for what we feel constitutes a Herdsire is really quite harsh. Obviously when you breed a female you are not hoping just to replicate her, you are striving to improve her. That is why the selection of the male alpacas one breeds with is so crucial. Four legs and two testicles do not a Herdsire make. While show winnings are certainly nice for marketing purposes, they are only one of many tools by which one can measure one alpaca against another, and ribbons and banners are by no means a guarantee of quality. Conversely, nor do a lack of trophies automatically indicate a lack of quality. If you’d like proof of us putting those words into practice I would simply cite the 20+ blue ribbon winners, including one AOBA National Champion, that we have gelded over the years rather than trying to pass them off as breeding animals. Particularly as a Herdsire, they either have it or they don’t. Bottom line: choose your males wisely and if you’re hunting for a new Herdsire I hope you’ll give our guys a good look. Thanks for reading!