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by Brent Walker
 When
I was a kid, I used to help my Dad repair the marking harnesses
worn by the rams every breeding season. Each harness held
a different colored crayon-like marker. When the rams bred
each ewe they'd leave a colored mark on her tail. Every 17
days Dad and I would change the color of the crayon marker
on each ram. Thus the tracking of gestational lengths at WoodsEdge
began. With one-hundred and fifty lambs to be born in seventy-five
days it was a great management tool to know when ewes would
birth.
Since alpaca and llama studs breed each female individually,
we don't need marking harnesses. We know the exact breeding
date of each female. We calculate the due date using 335 days
from breeding date for alpacas and 350 days for llamas. Of
course, not all our animals have "read the book"
and deliver on due date, but once they have had a number of
births and established their own individual track record for
gestational length, I can more accurately predict due dates.
If you go to our birthing schedule on line, you'll see due
dates for each female in the current calendar year. If you
come to the farm, you'll see the same list posted on the barn
lab refrigerator, as well as the kitchen refrigerator, with
all the past gestational lengths written under each females
current due date. Seeing this information in print is very
helpful in assessing your pregnant dams!
Here's what we've learned by tracking camelid gestational
lengths over the last twenty plus years, and how you can use
this information to help your daily herd management.
- Not all crias who are significantly early are premature.
Once in a while a female, particularly a younger one or one
new to the farm, will kush for a male and allow him to breed
her, when she has actually conceived from an earlier breeding.
By carefully recording each breeding, you can help assess
if a cria is indeed premature or if the female conceived on
an earlier date. Flag any female who had delivered early in
the past to be moved to the maternity pen earlier. TIP: To
determine if the cria is premature, check to see if the cria's
teeth have broken through the gum line.
- Not all dams that are significantly overdue are pregnant.
Design your reproductive protocol to maximize cria production
so that each female produces one cria per year. Your overall
nutrition and management program can easily support this goal,
so your females deliver healthy crias and maintain good condition.
We ultrasound each female to confirm pregnancy and behavior
test each female for the first 100 days to insure the pregnancy
is being maintained. TIP: When females are beyond two weeks
overdue, check the female for current pregnancy status by
weighing her, behavior testing her or asking your veterinarian
to "ballot" the female.
- Some females deliver on schedule like clockwork.
Detailed gestational records make your daily job easier.
Also track time of birth. Some females are very predictable
in one or both of these parameters. TIP: Before you hit the
snooze button on cold days when your predictable dam that
routinely births at 7:00 a.m. is still a few days away from
giving birth, check for udder development! Look for clues
that a birth may be imminent. They may spend more time on
the dung pile, separate themselves a little from the herd,
and roll more than usual, acting very lethargic.
Next time you visit WoodsEdge, be sure to ask for our
gestational charts to post at your farm and to provide to
your customers.
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