Across-Herd Genetic Evaluation (AGE)

We have been providing all of our data to the AGE since its inception, including all past records for stock born here since 1997. The AGE will only be as accurate and useful as the information that is provided, to this end we will send in all data on all halcyon born stock regardless of quality. At writing we are in the process of setting up the 2006 shearing data to go in.

In order to see this program grow and develop we have taken the step of providing the AGE data we have available to us on our web site. We will continue to update this section as further reports become available. Please note that some stock sold, dead or in use as embryo transfer recipients have been removed, as they are no longer in our genetic pool.

We believe that traits for growth rate, fertility and carcase measurements will be of tremendous value in the future for fine tuning selection and breeding decisions.

However, we only use the fleece ABV's for measurement purposes as they have a poor history of results when used for breeding decisions directly. We are finding that those alpaca with highly visible fleece markers for SRS® are proving to be the ones with high ABV figures. We get this by selection for the traits involved not a figure that is trying to take account of a whole range of traits.

Some notes on reading the report.

0 is the average so if you see a + for Fleece Weight (FW) then it's a good thing.

Depending on what size animal you want to breed Adult Body Weight (BW) will be + or -.


For Fibre Diameter and CV% you want to see a - as this means that they are finer or lower than the average.

It's important to look at the results in context; for example the hembra below is one of our ET Donors. She is -1.4 for micron and yet she still cuts just above the average fleece weight.

She is slightly heavier than the average alpaca with a more even fleece. Put together this makes her a very valuable animal, couple that with the fact that she has produced some of our best machos (Halcyon Humdinger included) and you can see why she scores so well.

Her skin test confirms her advanced status.

The key is to not lose sight of the whole animal and just blindly follow one particular trait.

We hope to see in the near future a published list of trait leaders in order to be able to compare and measure our herds more realistically. It's good to know how you compare to the average but it's also very important to see how you compare to the highest stock recorded for each trait. Accuracy levels on each trait would also be an advantage, as would publishing of growth rate, birth weight and testicle size traits.

AGE results PDF ( Download Document )

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