Sunday is turning into something of an event. The popularity of helping with alpaca shearing is growing each year and this year we will have the usual crew, including yours truly, plus some new faces.
Our local weaver and artist in residence is coming along together with another neighbour of ours Nathan B Gale DVM, Nathan is retired now but from 1968 until 1971 he was the Director of the Los Angeles Zoo.

Obviously the main purpose of shearing is to relieve the alpacas of their fleece for our commercial gain. But another very important part of shearing the alpacas at Mulberry Alpacas is to take fleece samples from all the alpacas for analysis by Yocom- McColl. We do a more sophisticated test than most farms because we are part of the Ideal Alpaca Community (IAC) .

Why do we do that?

Problem: In order to breed alpacas with better and better fleece traits, we want to choose superior alpacas for our herds. But how do we identify a “superior” alpaca? Genetic superiority cannot be reliably estimated just by measuring an animal’s fleece traits or even by pedigree!

Solution: A formal statistical estimate of genetic value, that is, its EPD (Expected Progeny Difference) is the best available way to predict whether an animal’s progeny are likely to be above or below average for each trait.

• You will know the genetic merit of each animal in your own herd, and it will be obtained through objective measurements and cutting-edge statistical methods.

• Knowing the EPDs allows you to make the most accurate decisions about what animals to buy and to breed in order to improve your herd to reach your breeding goals.

• You can use the EPDs to decide which animals to keep, which to sell, and which to geld.

• You can scientifically evaluate animals at all IAC farms that choose to publicly post or privately share their EPD results. This will make it possible for you to purchase animals and breedings that will improve your herd much more rapidly than if you were limited to only the animals you own for breeding.

• Above-average EPDs will be a strong selling point, and can be used to justify pricing. The large gains made in one generation in a “breed-up” program will be very evident from the EPDs of the progeny of an average or even below average female bred to a superior male. You can immediately show how rapid improvement can be made in just one generation. This makes even low EPDs valuable to your herd.


The IAC community as a whole will benefit from building a complete and
accurate database of EPD values. Using EPDs to make breeding decisions will accelerate the genetic improvement of the IAC virtual herd. Within 5 years, it may be clear that the average IAC animal exceeds the quality of the average individual in the national herd, in which breeding decisions have been made on the basis of phenotype and pedigree alone.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

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