Within the Diamond Saga, Quechua is the only male from this bloodline we currently retain in our farm.
We are watching him grow, observing how he develops and if the traits he displays are the ones we need to preserve and pass on. Males have to be outstanding to be used for breeding as they will pass on their qualities to a larger number of new alpacas, compared to a dam, that will only produce one cria per year.
Like the rest of the animals in this line, Quechua’s behaviour is a trait we would like to preserve and transfer to any future crias. In our journey we have encountered some animals that should have never been used for breeding, as they displayed behavioural traits that are not desirable. Saying that, human interaction is another influencing factor and behaviour cannot be attributed only to social environment or genetics.
Conformation is another positive feature of Quechua. He has a strong stand and, even though I particularly like his head style, I’m counting on its shape becoming longer. At the moment placing the halter is a tricky. He is only over six months old and he needs a small adult size head collar to go around his face and neck, but there is not much space to place the strap above the nose high enough, otherwise it’ll to allow breathing freely. This is very a important matter as alpacas can only breathe nasally, and not through the mouth. Badly fitting halters when training can put the alpaca off and resist being haltered in the future.
Down to business as always, Quechua is hiding his white spot pattern from his dam. This may show after shearing his first fleece (when true colours are reveal, so exciting!). I hope he will show some good traits from his sire, maybe conformationally, I think he has exceeded his progenitor’s attributes. I am deciding if, as well as the low micron and SD, and lack of primaries, his fleece is dense enough to grant him a space in our breeding program.
Dam: Snowshill Diamond Girl
Sire: Sapphire Bernie
Kestle Alpacas 