THIS Guy! CCNF Mjolnir Prepares To Work.
Knowing the odds of producing a legitimate next-level Herdsire male in any given birth class (read: a male WE want and need to use within our program to advance the proverbial ball), we’ve come to count ourselves as legitimately fortunate in recent years. That the likes of Bataclan, Perceus, Priam, Sovereign-Legacy, Idris, Snow King, Camden, Amador, Triumvirate, and Reign Dancer were all homegrown here at CCNF, is the combination of a program that likely has figured some stuff out, act first and foremost as our own harshest critics, and then of course have also had the stars align just so on multiple occasions. Oh, yeah: also time, money, blood, sweat, and tears. But I digress.
After all, sometimes the stars don’t quite align. That potential breeding male that may be very nice, but is still just not quite there? That happens here ALL of the time, too. And anyone telling you they have a magic trick that means that all or most of their male crias are always breeding quality, likely doesn’t have a sufficiently high standard against which they are making such a judgement. A harsh but quick and easy rule of thumb when evaluating such animals: if you really have to ask whether a given animal has “it,” chances are the answer is no. It’s a bit like Colin Jost’s joke about the term “Riz.”
CCNF Mjolnir (CCNF Electra x CCNF Idris)
Mjolnir’s Fleece
All of which brings us to a young Herdsire who most certainly does have Riz and so much more: CCNF Mjolnir. The son of AOA National Fleece JC-winner, CCNF Electra (CCNF Elicia x CCNF Bataclan), and our 2x Futurity Champion Herdsire, CCNF Idris (CCNF Mechlin x CCNF Centurion), Mjolnir is one of those walking, talking, and just slightly dangerous anecdotes that gives life to the the illusion that high-end alpaca breeding is just easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. For both of his parents were legit ringers and so, of course (eye roll here), it followed that he is too. It always works that way, right? RIGHT?! Um.
Is he perfect? No, but Mjolnir is close enough to perfection that we will be finding him some girlfriends here this summer, even though he’s related to over 90% of our elite light/white females. Sigh. His combination of extreme density, uniformity, and fineness puts him in a class of 1 here right now and therein lies the “problem.” Once we have achieved a confirmed pregnancy from our young rockstar, hopefully later this spring or summer, we will begin offering him for outside stud service on a limited basis. We’ll keep you all posted. 🙂
Follow me on BlueSky at @ccnfalpacas.bsky.social and on Instagram at ccnfalpacas. You can also find and follow Cas-Cad-Nac Farm Alpacas on Facebook here.
Hi Ian,
I’ve been doing a lot of research on alpacas and potential herdsires over the past few years and couldn’t agree with you more. Having a background in veterinary work and raised on a dairy farm that used very selective AI breeding, I have become very focused on the breeding aspect of alpacas. I would really like to learn more about your Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to breeding decisions. Look forward to hearing more about this new up and coming male of yours!!!
Hi Travis,
First off, thank you for reading! Boy, the Dos and Dont’s of alpaca breeding and Herdsire selection could be its own volume. You will find (sounds like you maybe already have) that there are lots of different opinions out there on this particular topic and different theories on how best to go about achieving the best breeding results. The “science” of alpaca breeding, at least here in North America, is at best incomplete in my opinion, with lots of folks making some pretty broad generalizations based on limited experience and/or small sample sizes.
Most of what we have learned here at our place has been via trial and error, and we could argue that one of our most obvious advantages is simply that we’ve been around the block and seen some stuff. One thing I will say that’s pretty cut and dried which we do really stick by: in the case of individual animals, we want our data (in this case fiber stats/histograms, as we don’t use or believe in the efficacy of the AOA EPD system) to back up our eye and hand test, NOT the other way around. We don’t care how gaudy the numbers may be, if there’s something we don’t like in an animal (and especially a potential breeding male) they are out of consideration. Same obviously goes for show results. They are great and all but they are really just a marketing exercise. Too many folks in the alpaca world confuse that all for being something it is not. Anyway, would be happy to talk at length some more on all of this at some point down the line. Thanks again!
Coming from the merino wool industry in Australia I am a big fan of the Master, daughter and commercial flock system of breeding herdsires.
In this sytem premier breeding studs (that what a registered sheep/cattle/alpaca business is called) provide high quality males to daughter studs to produce (replicate the genetics primarily) males for commercially-oriented flocks. This means the daughter studs enjoy an intimate relationship with the master stud and faithfully follow the genetic plans of that stud – in return the master stud passes on only the best of their genetics for replication.
In your case Ian this male would probably be passed on to a daughter stud to ,produce the next generation of males for the wool/fiber focussed growers …..for me it would be an animal that I could enthusiastically promote to my commercial breeders and growers!
I notice the genetic relationship within your herd with this male which brings up that vexing question of a genetic bottleneck appearing in the national herd which then leads to desirability of opening the register/opening of a new register for the importation of ‘outside’ genetics ……sorry if I ruined your day mate!
Best wishes
Not all all, sir! The registry should have been opened several years ago already. The registration of new outside(ish) animals that are already coming from registries of their own — read Europe, Australia, and NZ – let’s leave SA animals to the side for now — could even be a source of desperately needed revenue. That of course requires the current voting membership of AOA to be proactive. Fancy a bridge in Brooklyn? I’ll wait over here. Sigh.