Breeding Contracts NZ Style

By Julie Insley

         To find the standard breeding practice concerning outside stud services here in New Zealand, I did a survey of 15 breeders that I knew offered outside stud services. 

         Overwhelmingly Breeders (owner of stud) and Owners (owner of female to be mated) relied on verbal contracts, only one of the respondents has a written contract.  Depending on what has been negotiated, payment ranged from: up front; after three months; on confirmation of pregnancy, either with a vet check or spit off; and not uncommonly, until the birth of a live cria.  All the Breeders guaranteed a live cria, this was generally considered to be if the cria lived longer than three days. Unanimously, Breeders preferred to give a re-mating rather than the money back, although most stated in the interests of goodwill, they would be willing to negotiate within reason. Females are cared for by the Breeder on an "all care - no responsibility" basis.  Veterinarian attention or pregnancy testing by blood test or ultrasound are considered at Owners’ cost. Grazing was considered by the majority of Breeders as part of stud fee unless previously negotiated. The only example I was given of grazing fees was that after 3 cycles (about two months) the Owner pays grazing at $10.00 per week. 

Although the Breeder stated that customers of theirs probably do not pay this. The Breeders I surveyed talked about the trust, goodwill involved and of looking after their customers (Owners who had
purchased females from them). 

Breeding Contracts in NZ have been traditionally done on a very informal basis.  But maybe with the increase in owners and breeders, the time has come to take a more professional approach as verbal understandings can easily turn into verbal misunderstandings, and years of friendship can go down the drain where things have been interpreted differently.

Written contracts can be as simple or as complex as you like, it should be stated as briefly as possible, between both parties in an understandable and consistent manner. The contract will contain the terms and conditions under which the seller offers the service and the buyer accepts the service.

A brief version may just consist of:

Name and contact details of the Breeder and Owner.

Name of Stud and Female. 

Price of stud fee, deposit required, and when it is payable.

Date & location of breeding.

Dated and signed by both parties.

A more inclusive version will cover such things as:

A request that you have a recent veterinary certificate of health for your female and that she is current with her vaccinations, worming and has been recently deloused. 

It should include the method of determining a positive pregnancy and who pays for it.

It should specify a boarding fee, if there is one. 

Also, who will pay any veterinary bills that arise.

It should state the Breeder’s guarantee, if there is one. For example, a live birth. It should also indicate what the options are if the baby is aborted or stillborn.

Contact details of both parties’ veterinarians should also be included.

The pedigree & a photo of both animals could be swapped.

Also, a declaration of any known genetic defects of offspring, and the female’s history of prior pregnancies and births.

It can be quite complicated to come up with a simple document that covers all the different scenarios, but it’s important to cover the situation of ‘what if it doesn’t go to plan.' In general, the more agreement that can be put in writing, means all the more chance of success for all parties even if the situation changes.

Think of it as ‘pre-nuptials for llamas!’

FROM THE LLAMA’S LIPS

By Percy Llama

PercyLlama@xtra.co.nz

It’s interesting that this is the herd sire issue of the NZLA Newsletter, as just the other day my boys and I were whiling away some time flicking through old llama magazines featuring various ‘superboys’ of the mid-nineties.  Wow, have the styles of fleece-cuts changed since then! There were none of the jazzy cuts of today, you know the kind of thing, short over the saddle and big fluffy bouffants left fore and aft.  No, in those days stud boys were real macho llamas, regal ‘fresh from the Alti Plano’ types.  It’s certainly hard to imagine any of these boys strutting their stuff for girls whilst wearing one of the fancy cuts you see today.  Still, that’s fashion I guess and even llamas must move with the times.

Anyway, fashion aside, herd sires are without doubt majestic lads, the crème de la crème of llamadom. Just look at those boys on the covers! They must be some of the elite of the New Zealand llama world, a selection of the chosen ones, our herd sires, who are entrusted with the maintenance and development of our breed in this country.   What a responsibility they bear!  What a life they must have!  Nice work if you can get it, and it’s a very important job they do.  So remember members, you must cherish them.

Usually herd sires get paddocks all to themselves, which means that they should get plenty to eat, but my lads wondered if it is sometimes a lonely and frustrating life.  Glimpses of girls, though more than we get at our place, must be tantalising and keep you on your toes.  As one herd sire told me a while back, you need to be constantly prepared, as you never know when you might get the call.  Often as not, though, he reckoned when he did get the call his minders were just using him as a pregnancy test kit and he ended up with gunk all over his face from a positive reading on the girl in question.  So, we know that this job is not all a bed of roses, yet it’s a position we boys mostly covet to greater or lesser degrees.

So how come more male llamas don’t get a chance to trial as a herd sire?  It’s no longer a question of taking on the incumbent and trying your luck.  No, herd sires these days are selected from on high by the two-leggeds.  You either make it or you don’t and you rarely get a chance to show your worth.  If you aren’t selected then you may join a bachelor herd, just as in pre-domestication days.  Sadly if you aren’t head-hunted from there before you get too old, in the interests of so-called herd harmony, they often see to it that you’re decommissioned and all prospects fade.   I reckon that there is a lot of luck involved in being fast-tracked to siring.  As I said to my boys the other day as we chewed cud over photos of Hinterland hunks in that old magazine, "there, but for fortune, go you or I!"

After much soul-searching, the Boys and I have concluded that, with regard to herd siring, young male llamas think of themselves as being in one of three main categories:  the ‘should ‘ave bins’, the ‘could ‘ave bins’ and the ‘tucker bins’.  Each category is nicely exemplified within my herd (though I will preserve their anonymity).

The “should have been” herd sires are guys who, from a very young age, think it their divine right to lay siege to any female llama irrespective of age.  No one is safe from these pests; aunts, sisters, or even anyone who sits around is fair game.  These males are born sires, compulsive maters, but unfortunately they often lack what the humans consider the “ideal pedigree”, or perhaps they do not conform to their ideals in conformation or temperament and so are denied access to this career path.   With these guys all llamas must always keep an eye in their rear view mirrors and preferably have a cold shower facility on the property.  Can you imagine our embarrassment when my mate in this category leapt over the fence and bolted up slope when two new young boys arrived to join us?  With these guys, hope rules eternal.

The “could have been” herd sires are dependable and mature, all round good guys who through chance and circumstance are not given the opportunity they so clearly deserve.  Personally, I think that I am of this type (I’ll forsake anonymity in this case!). As a fine-looking, highly intelligent male llama, it is not entirely obvious to me why I have been restricted to life as the leader of a herd of other boys and so have missed out on those fun occasions that would allow me to perpetuate my genes.  I am sweet-tempered, stately in carriage and with a massive presence (others around here talk of ‘ego’ but they misunderstand me).  I have concluded that my non-selection is totally serendipitous and is certainly unjust.   Why, I wasn’t even short-listed for heaven sake!

The trouble was my dad hadn’t passed his sell by date and consequently there were no vacancies at home, so I was sold on.  Also, I had a grandparent who was a bit of a rebel so my strong character as a young boy was (mistakenly, I think) interpreted as an indication of this trait.  Ancestors have a lot to answer for!  My crime was being too confident in front of humans.  So siring was not for me and I came instead to an ace place where the prestigious job of herd leader was vacant. Better to take charge of a posse of sex-starved boys than mope around dreaming of what might have been with the ladies.  I have never looked back.  I love my job.  It gives me more control than most herds sires will ever have.

The final group are the “tucker bin” males.  These are a diverse group of boys some of whom are so far away in never-never land that they don’t know what siring entails, or they do but they take solace in eating.  Either way food becomes the centre of their lives and stimulus derives from containers and bales rather than glimpses of girls. These are often pretty boys and strict control by the minders is needed to prevent them deteriorating into obesity.  My mate in this group looks utterly bewildered when the compulsive maters get up steam and start orgling.  He usually plods off to kick over the pellet containers, which is his idea of a good time.  There are, of course, other types such as the downright ugly or loony, whom none of us would want to breed, but fortunately there are very few of these in the llama world.

So let’s toast our magnificent herd sires and glory in their deeds.  But let’s not forget the masses of ‘also rans’, the non-siring males who are the friends and loved ones of so many llama lovers.  All their dads were herd sires, so if they were good enough for the job then these guys should all have had at least a half chance of achieving the same status.  Think on it.