Nomad! What wonderful luck that I stumbled across this guy. I found him because I was interested in his best friend for life, Alpine's Catoctin. He looked great, though, and his pedigree was pretty cool, and he was very bonded to Catoctin, so I took a chance and brought him here as well. Oh, what a great decision that was! Nomad has quickly become a farm favorite here, and has become one of my top males in breeding rotation. He has so many things that I was looking for in a grey male. Pedigree-wise, Nomad boasts a tidy stack of "impact" greys -- minus Inca Legend, making him an excellent outcross for that line -- with Orlando Cloud his grandsire, and Lanark's Silver Charm and Danko his great-grandsires. His sire, Rainer's Exodus, is an under-used male who counts multiple-champion Alpine's Carderock among his 24 (mostly grey) registered offspring. Also among these are two of Nomad's full siblings -- Alpine's Calais Cloud, a 16.6-AFD / 3.9-SD blue ribbon winner, and Alpine's Volt, an absolutely stunning male, likewise with multiple blues. Volt was, in fact, a male that I had strongly considered buying. I am so glad I waited, because his full brother Nomad has everything that Volt has -- and then some. Nomad is ideal in size and stature. He is perfectly compact -- the exact size we are breeding for -- with excellent substance of bone. He is very square and arrow-straight, with a level topline. His neck displays the beautiful, graceful curvature that seems strongly associated with the Orlando Cloud line; his head, likewise, is a beautiful example of Orlando "type." Nomad's fiber coverage is massive, with perfect, thick, "bell-bottom" legs. Then, there is his fleece. Nomad offers a grey fleece that is not only outstanding, but compliments our herd beautifully in what it has to offer. For one thing, he is dense ... Really, really dense. He has an outstanding staple length -- 4.5" at his 3rd shearing -- and a superb, tight, high-frequency crimp. He has very good fineness and uniformity as well, with a 19.4 AFD and 4.3 SD on his first shearing. He has not had a histogram run since, but his current fleece still looks to be in the low 20's. All of these traits should be an excellent compliment to many of our dams. Last but not least, though, is the real reason that Nomad has so quickly become a favorite: his personality. This is the sweetest, friendliest, gentlest male we have ever encountered. He loves neck rubs and attention, yet allows himself to be haltered and led like a gentleman. His disposition -- like so much else about him -- is truly ideal. After a couple of confused days, Nomad has enthusiastically begun his breeding career. I am confident that this male will have a tremendous impact on our herd. Well, Nomad didn't wind up getting much work in 2017 -- until now. His first cria was just born on our farm, and OH MY GOODNESS she is better than I ever imagined.

This is our dear Callie. Callie is our "first cria;" although she was not born on our farm, we acquired her at two months of age in a package of some of our very first alpacas. For this reason, she is very special to us. (Her maternal half-sister, Cuppin' Cake, was the first cria ever born on our farm.) Callie's full name, Callipyge, means "beautiful buttocks" in Greek. I named her this because she had the most fantastic rear development as a young cria, and she has kept it as an adult. (Oh, how pleased I was to discover that the name Callipyge was not taken in the AOA registry!) This female has so many qualities that make her appealing. She is an ideal size: compact and square, short at the withers, yet possessed of an absolutely fantastic spring of rib. Callie is built for carrying and delivering cria! She has great coverage and a beautiful topknot, and her fleece is bright and slick, with a high-frequency crimp. Callie's dam line is an excellent one for its mothering ability (Callie's almost-full sister has now proven to have inherited that trait from their dam), heartiness and easygoing dispositions, not to mention their beautiful black fleeces. Her mother and two sisters are all sold. I am not particularly eager to sell Callie, either, because of my emotional attachment to her, but we have a good number of foundation females, and our focus is on grey ... So ... Callie has reluctantly been priced. Callie is now proven! It took her a little while to take off, but now that she has, she, like her dam, is a power milker. Awesome! Her cria is growing like crazy, and as she matures, it is evident that she is even nicer than her dam ... And thinks she may edge into silver grey territory. Not going to complain about that! Callie has been bred to one of our newest herdsires, Gray Alpaca Co's Nomad, for a 2017 cria. Nomad is a compact, beautifully built, super-super dense male with a high-frequency crimp style, fantastic staple length and the most wonderful disposition.