Markets Evolve -- Is Your Herd Ready?
Herd Evaluation
| Pricing: |
Travel expenses and flat fee based on herd size.
Fiber sorting services: $7.50 for each 'rolled' or 'noodled' blanket/neck fleece, or $10.00 for each bagged fleece.
Additional charges, covering such as locating stud males for purchase or performing a foundation female search, will be based on our consultation. |
| Call for Details: |
603-831-0315 |
Service Description
Most people start out in any venture with a solid business plan, but the importance of periodically reevaluating one's goals and amending those to reflect a change in your competitive advantage or market niche is always key in maintaining a proactive stance in your industry. It is no different in the alpaca business. In fact, how one's herd squares with those goals is important in a rapidly maturing market such as alpaca breeding. Now, I know firsthand that casting a gimlet eye on one's own herd is very difficult, because we all do select our foundation stock not only for the animals' particular conformation and fleece qualities, but because we also have a special attachment to these alpacas!
In my fourteen years in alpaca breeding, the maturation of our market has been amazing, even to someone that performed corporate strategic planning in a highly evolved business, as I did.
I am an apprentice fiber sorter, and I have spent many years selecting and adding to my foundation herd and have produced champion alpacas that have won their banners at some of the most competitive shows.
In advance of my visit to your farm, I will need a complete herd list, with ARI registration numbers, so I can evaluate pedigrees, as well as any fiber test results for herd members.
We'll start out discussing your program goals, how they have changed and what has worked and what has not. Then, we will get hands on your alpacas, and I will evaluate each animal on a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria.
Now, I am an investment analyst, so in the end, you will get a detailed written evaluation. It will include descriptions of each animal, from pedgree to conformational and fleece traits, and ideas about that animal in terms of your stated goals. There is a very detailed spreadsheet that grades qualitative fleece and conformational elements across your herd. I include an executive summary, and positives and negatives as well as action steps.