When this male arrived on our farm after having been recently shorn at his birth farm, we a bit shocked to see that they had sheared him to the skin everywhere except his topknot, and that they had cut back. So, now over a year later, we are finally seeing the 'Marquis' of his youth in his recovering fleece coverage. What we did see right away was just how deliciously soft Marquis felt, like royal velvet, to the touch. And, he showed rolling of his skin at his neck -- often demonstrative of improved density. As he continued to grow, we observed that his fleece was very dense. This is even more impressive when you consider how his very fine merino type crimp, like most other similar fiber, does not really lend itself well to bundling since it usually requires the very rare microbundling at this stage. We are looking for his coverage to further develop with time. Like in many grey herdsires during transition to full maturity, his primary fibers are currently longer than his secondary fibers in a halo. With his fine primary fiber, the secondary fibers can be easily dehaired, leaving a beautiful soft and even-grey roving. He has three crias on the ground -- two black and one grey crias -- for us and outside farms. From this small sample we have confirmed that he passes his finely crimped fiber in dark color. As stated by the farm that bred him, Grand River: "Marquis has a stunning look to him and his fleece is very dense and fine with a zippered style crimp which is consistent throughout. The genetics this male carries should make your decisin to purchase him even easier. This male carries the genetics from Dark Shaddow, 2006 Dark Futurity Herdsire of the Year and multiple true black champion and champion producer. Marquis is also grandson to Rincon Cloud, 2005 AOBA National Show Gray male color champion, Accoyo Peruvian Legacy, 2X Futurity Herdsire of the Year winner. His grandmother is Fortune Cookie, producer of 2 champions. His dam, Dutchess, is full sister to 4x champion Grand River Luminosity and champion Grand River Esperanza. Marquis paternal grandsire is Bolivian Vesuvius. Marquis has it all. In his very first show he brought home a blue ribbon, carrying on the family tradition of blue ribbon winners. " [073113]

Tira was one of the original gems of our herd, refined and elegant but tough enough to be an awesome mom! You could not refute the inner brightness and shine of her healthy fiber that imparted excellent handle to this day. Her fiber length was great and her density awesome -- where other farms often asked if she had been sheared early for more than one year of growth! This density impressed the judges in the show ring. Mike Safley really liked our girl at the 2006 GWAS. She was the first (he touched her on the way in) and most touched alpaca in the class. He could not take his eyes off her -- and why not, she was eye-catching! In his judge's comments, he said that she would be an excellent foundation female and to make sure to find her the right male! It's nice to know that one of the greatest alpaca 'founders' agrees with us! Tira's first cria was born at an impressive +21 lbs., and this robust cria was up immediately and nursing. That's the kind of crias Tira has. When bred to whites and lights Tira has produced whites, but when bred to color Tira has produced color in her crias. Her first cria Kimberly-Sue was so fine and shiny that she caught the eye of an outside farm as juvenile and moved to their program. Her second cria was our lovely Song, who has gone on herself to produce fantastic crias in our herd. In addition, she has produced three males of color - a light fawn, a medium fawn and now a dark brown cria with a handsome face. We do love what Song is producing that we recommend breeding Tira back to Patriot for her next cria. Tira is a mom with dense, well handled fleece that she passed onto her healthy, beautiful, and fast growing crias. We have decided to give Tira a break and retire her.