Dr Jeri Booher writes: There is no doubt that the North American alpaca industry has made tremendous progress since the inception of TIMBERLAND ALPACAS back in 1992. In 1992, the registry had approximately 2,500 alpacas in its database. Today the number of registered alpacas exceeds 25,000. There is also no doubt that the quality of the North American alpaca has increased dramatically over the last eight years. If there exists one Huacaya herd sire that has made the most profound impact upon improving the overall quality of the alpaca outside of South America, there is definitely no doubt that this alpaca is Peruvian Hemingway. Hemingway arrived in the U.S. as a three year old in the 1993 Peruvian importation out of the Royal Allianza herd in Peru, and was selected by and reserved for Roger Haldane of Australia. Roger was a veteran alpaca breeder, had the reputation of having the most excellent alpaca herd in Australia. Roger was extremely impressed with the quality of Hemingway’s fleece and was convinced that Hemingway had the potential to impart his fine, lustrous fleece to his progeny. Tom and Jerilynn were able to see the first of Hemingway’s North American progeny to hit the ground, and they were truly impressive. In 1996, TIMBERLAND ALPACAS was fortunate in being able to acquire ownership in Hemingway, Ltd. The prepotency of Hemingway is truly remarkable. The offspring of the Hemingway bloodline have been the most successful of any herd sire in the show ring in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Hemingway’s sons, grandsons, and great grandsons stand at stud for numerous ranches in all three countries. What is the trademark of the Hemingway progeny? Fineness of fleece, a low coefficient of variation, uniformity, and luster. At fourteen years of age, Hemingway still retained at 23 micron fleece, 16% CV, and crimp to boot. In three years of the International Alpaca Odyssey, four of the six Supreme male and female Huacaya champions have been offspring and grandoffspring of Hemingway. Like the true soldier that he was, Hemingway lived until nearly twenty years of age and is now resting alongside Victor. His offspring and the subsequent generations still comprise a good majority of the TIMBERLAND bloodstock.

Nucatta is an excellent mother. She vocally defends and protects her crias. Her daughter Rockford Hemingway’s Ruth, a daughter of Hemingway himself, as well as her others show her excellent progeny. All of her crias are dense, and have wonderful luster and crimp. In 2008, Nucatta gave birth to another cria-Rockford Renaissance, with the sire as Snowmass Reminiscence, who has almost impenetrably dense fleece and a champion ancestry line from Snowmass Snowmaster, Snowmass Edelweis, Snowmass Legacy Gold, and Snowmass Andean Gold. This match certainly made another exquisite cria. Renaissance is white & BEAUTIFUL!!! He is now the biggest cria born on our ranch, at 18.13 lbs. & he was born 1.5 weeks early!!! His fiber is beautiful, & is showing promising signs for great fleece. She had plenty of milk & has excellent mothering abilities. In November, we bred Nucatta to Snowmass Snowmass Snow Legend, our Accoyo multi blue ribbon champion with exceptionally dense fleece, who's sire is the great Snowmass Incaaccoyo Star & grandsire is Snowmaster himself! This cria is sure to be another spectacular addition to your herd.

Snowmass Snow Legend is one of the finest studs in the nation, with a cashmere-like fleece of 14.4 micron count in 2004 and still, over 40 offspring, at the age of 8, his micron count is 21.6!! Son of one of the most unique Full Accoyo sires in the US; his father Snowmass Incaaccoyo Star (I-Star) is sired by the one and only, Peruvian Snowmaster (more on side). I-Star passed on his great conformation to Legend; including bite, straight legs, & straight top line: as well as his FANTASTIC fiber with a tight and uniform crimp, lock structure, density, coverage, soft handle & bundling and luster. Even more exciting than that, is that Legend is a male full of attitude, presence and great conformation. Just looking at him makes you go WOW. He represents the greatness of his sire & grandsire, with an additional brightness, luster and highly expressive crimp making an unbelievable fleece on this true Champion. Snowmaster & I-Star passed all this onto Legend, plus a great disposition! Finding a top of the shelf white alpaca with the fiber characteristics combined with a strong conformation is important for any alpaca program...and as Snowmaster is no longer available; & there are very few of these treasured Snowmaster offspring still existing, here is a great chance to obtain these great and rare genetics through his grandson Snow Legend, by breeding your prized alpacas to him! Don't overlook this Peruvian Snowmaster grandson! His name says it all...He truly is a legend of Snowmaster’s incredibly exceptional genetics, that needs to be carried on. He truly has it all: an Elite Full Accoyo lineage from Snowmaster (which is one of the most desired in the industry), fabulous confirmation & remarkable fleece! Thank you to Evergreen Valley Alpacas, Enterprise Ranch, Grazing Hills Alpacas, Stirling Ridge Alpacas for choosing Snow Legend for breedings!