The problem we have is that we now have eleven of his progeny here and we happen to think they are rather good. Just looking at colour alone he has given us eight brown cria and three medium to dark fawn cria. Now that may not sound like much until you consider the colour of the mothers. Out of those eleven cria four of the mothers are white, two are black, two are medium fawn and only three are brown. The brown cria are all exactly the same colour as The Clump. In my book that is pretty impressive. We asked him to produce us good looking brown cria and he did.
Our problem, and believe me we have discussed this subject in depth, is should we use him again this summer?
Our discussions have caused us to stick to our original plan and use Qjori over all our females this year, regardless of how good any of Columbus's cria are. So we have decided to offer up Columbus for lease for the remainder of the summer if anyone wants to inject a really good brown colour into their herd.
I don't quite know how to market him, I think we ummed and aaaahhed about it for too long and a magazine advert would just be too late. We are probably too late anyway but it seems a shame for him to be standing there watching it all go on without contributing.
We only showed Columbus once, last year at the Royal Bath and West Show. He was awarded first place in the senior brown male class, which given that he was the only senior brown male was pretty much a given, we knew he was good. However, what stuck in my mind that day was what the judge, Nick Harrington-Smith, said about old Clumpy. I listen to Nick, he knows a thing or two about alpacas.
Nick invited the audience to look at Columbus and observe how 'beautifully balanced' he was. He also went on to say that he was 'fine, dense' and a 'very, very good brown male'. It's funny what sticks in your mind, those words, from one of the top alpaca judges in the world, have stuck with me. It made me feel immensely proud.
Anyway, moving on. Columbus can be seen on our website or here in Patouland in the flesh. The nuts and bolts of it is that for £1,500 he can be leased for the remainder of the summer and used over as many females as you like.
So there we have it, I am using the blog to promote Herr Clumpmeister. If I am met with a wall of stony silence then so be it. If no-one takes up this offer though I will be screaming 'What the bloody hell's the matter with you all!!!'
5 comments:
Wow that is some sort of offer, and I would love to jump at the chance, I have some lovely brown females he would certainly compliment.
BUT sadly don't have any spare cash at the moment, especially as we haven't been set up very long and have had to invest a lot in the barn & land etc.
I am sure there will be some lucky person who will want him.
Good luck, and maybe next year we will be in the position to take up such a good offer.
Ginnie
Columbus is a lovely quality boy....someone will get a good deal with the package on offer....Im sure someone will snap up the chance to use him for the rest of the season........Jayne
Ah Mark, you teaseth so - We've sat and chewed this over, it's very appealing - we will probably keep chewing until somebody very sensible (and with more facilities, and more ladies than us) snaps him up - and I hope somebody does use his obvious talents.
That's a stunning offer - but with using ours on some we don't have enough girls - I also don't think I would be able to sleep at night with the responsibility! You might get sick of me phoning ever 2 minutes - He breathed a bit heavily, he may have blinked rapidly, he seems restless, he got up 5 minutes early . . . . !
If only you'd told me sooner !! All my fawn girls are preg and I really needed a brown male this year! Next year ??
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