This is true to a point, but here in France there are many breeders who have very small herds and buy stud males. In this case they have perhaps a couple of females to use their Stud over then he has nothing to do all year until the cria arrive the next year. He then needs a seperate area fenced away from the girls and another male for company (more expense).He cannot be put to his cria, so the genetics he puts on the ground are limited (reducing his value)and what does the breeder do then, buy another male for his next generation, and perhaps a few more females for his original stud, this ends up being uneconomic and slowing down the owners breeding program. Surely having a few good females and putting them to a variety of the best studs (or just one for a discount) available each year (cheaper than buying a male of equal superior quality) pushes forward a breeding program in leaps and bounds without breaking the bank?

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suridefrance@aol.com
www.suridefrance.com

I believe one of the biggest problems here (and elsewhere) is that there are a lot of people with 2 or 3 females (llamas or alpacas) who suddenly decide that they will breed from them and sell the offspring to make some money on the side, without understanding anything about genetics, conformity or inbreeding. Due to their limited finances, they then buy the cheapest entire male they possibly can and then use him as a stud.

We are fortunate in that we have other professional llama breeders that live within a few Kms of us and so we can “borrow” each others stud males if and when the need arises. We also know that the stud males are from good stock as we sold them in the first place .

We have also seen some horrible examples of what can happen due to inbreeding. We had a call for help a few years ago from an English couple in France that had purchased a stud male and some female llamas (no paperwork, no microchips, no vaccinations etc) from a couple returning to the UK. After describing their problem, they sent me some photos through to study. The stud male had a badly twisted jaw which they said was getting progressively worse with time and one of the females had a badly dipping back. We advised them to have the stud male castrated immediately to prevent him mating with these females. Unfortunately, some 3 years on and we know that this stud male has mated with the females and their daughters and their grad daughters. Some people will never learn, but then again we can only advise, it is down to the owners to do the right thing.

With regards to stud male behaviour, I believe it is quite normal behaviour for a seasoned stud male to attack other entire males that approach his herd of females; he is simply trying to ensure that it is his genes that are passed on and not those of any competitor. There is one well know French breeder in the Limousin who borrowed a stud male from a French breeder and when he came down to check the llamas in the morning, it had killed one of his own stud males. I know that Yoda (our stud male) will attack any entire male llama that comes near his herd of females, but when there is no threat of other males mating with the females, he is as gentle as they come. This is exactly the type of behaviour they would exhibit in the wild but as we have created smaller boundaries for them, the loser of the battle cannot simply run away and lick his wounds any more.


Rgds, Mike L

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www.borderllamas.com