Auravale Alpacas

23/01/2026

🌡️ With hot weather forecast for this weekend it's important your animals have access to shade and water.

Clean, cool water and shade is essential for animals in extreme heat.

✅ Check your animals regularly throughout the day for signs of heat stress, and water points to ensure access.

👉 For more information on caring for animals during extreme heat, please visit: go.vic.gov.au/3UvmQ2s

For the latest emergency information, visit emergency.vic.gov.au

If you have urgent animal welfare needs, please call the VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226.

21/01/2026

Inbreeding vs Line Breeding – Part 6
Bottlenecks, Blind Spots, and What We Actually Know

By Tim from Linessa Farms

If you’ve followed this series from the beginning, you may have noticed something uncomfortable by now:

Most genetic narrowing does not happen because someone intentionally set out to line breed aggressively.

It happens quietly.
It happens unintentionally.
And it often happens under good intentions.

That’s what this final article is about.

⸻

How most farms bottleneck without realizing it

You don’t need close matings to create inbreeding pressure.

It happens when
– the same ram is used too long
– replacement females all trace back to the same few animals
– outside genetics stop coming in
– selection focuses on a narrow set of visible traits
– culling pressure drops

No one calls this line breeding.
But biologically, it still increases genetic uniformity.

That’s why many people are already “under the umbrella” of inbreeding without ever putting their finger on it.

⸻

COI, pedigree, and the illusion of precision

Inbreeding coefficients (COI) are often treated like a safety score.

But COI only estimates probability, not outcome.

It does not tell us
– which genes became homozygous
– whether those genes matter
– how they interact with environment
– or what management is compensating for

COI is also only as reliable as the records behind it.
If pedigree assumptions are wrong, or someone “fudged” records, the math can be clean and the answer meaningless.

COI is a risk indicator, not a verdict.

⸻

Why some traits fade quietly

One pattern has repeated throughout this series:

– simple traits respond quickly
– complex traits degrade quietly

Traits like color, horn status, and body style stabilize fast.

Traits like
– fertility
– parasite resistance
– robustness
– longevity
– feed efficiency

are polygenic (multiple genes involved) and environment-dependent.

They don’t fail dramatically.
They lose margin.

And that loss often isn’t noticed until
– stress increases
– management slips
– animals move to a new environment

Nothing suddenly “went wrong.”
The system just ran out of room.

⸻

Phenotype tells the truth — just not the whole one

Phenotype reflects gene expression under a specific set of conditions.

Two animals can carry the same genes and express them very differently depending on
– environment
– nutrition
– stress
– disease pressure
– management

That’s why animals can perform exceptionally well in one system and struggle in another without anything “changing genetically.”

Phenotype tells us what worked here, now, under this system.
It does not guarantee transferability.

Consistency is not the same thing as resilience.

⸻

What responsible line breeding actually does

Responsible line breeding does not create universally superior animals.

It creates animals that fit a specific system very well — sometimes at the cost of flexibility outside that system.

Done well, it requires
– understanding which traits are simple vs complex
– constant, honest selection
– tracking fertility and longevity
– accepting culls when outcomes aren’t right
– recognizing that performance is system-specific

Done casually, it narrows genetics faster than people realize.

⸻

The real risk most people miss

The biggest risk in breeding isn’t inbreeding itself.

It’s mistaking consistency for margin.

Uniform animals can look stable right up until the moment pressure changes.

⸻

What I hope this series actually did

This series was never about telling anyone what they should do. Without trying to sound gruff, I could honestly care less if people choose to line breed or not. This is an education piece; that’s it. If you felt this was bashing your methods or promoting others, that’s just you projecting.

It was about
– cleaning up language
– removing false certainty
– separating probability from promise
– explaining why biology resists shortcuts

If this made breeding feel a little less tidy — and a little more honest — that’s a win.

⸻

What’s next?

I’ll be following this series with a short companion video using a simple parking garage analogy to visually explain genes, alleles, homozygosity, and why environment changes outcomes. This is the visual I use when teaching human genetics. It still applies and I think many of you who are visual learners will find it helpful. Look for that post in a few days.

Not to convince anyone — just to make the structure easier to see.

Because once the structure makes sense, the arguments mostly disappear.

⸻

Breeding isn’t about fixing genetics.
It’s about managing risk, margin, and reality.

Thanks to everyone who helped put these articles together! You are appreciated. I will be posting these articles together on our website as soon as I de-format them from Facebook to PDF.

21/01/2026

Today we had the opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to our vet of 18 years -John Hamilton of Avonsleigh Veterinary Clinic. Gayle, Jamie-Lee and I took the llamas to Avonsleigh to wish John all the best on his retirement. He will be greatly missed.

18/01/2026

Inbreeding vs Line Breeding – Part 3

Homozygosity, Uniformity, and Why “Looking Good” Isn’t the Goal

By Tim from Linessa Farms

In the first two articles, we established something important:

– Inbreeding and line breeding are not different biologically
– They differ by intent, records, selection, and management

Now we need to talk about the word that makes people uneasy — homozygosity — because without understanding it, nothing else in this discussion makes sense.

⸻

What homozygosity actually means (plain language)

Homozygosity simply means this:

– An animal carries two copies of the same gene at a given location

That’s it.

It does not automatically mean:
– bad genetics
– defects
– weak animals

It means consistency.

Homozygosity is how traits become predictable.

⸻

Why line breeding increases homozygosity

When you repeatedly use related animals — intentionally — you are doing two things at the same time:

– Increasing genetic uniformity
– Reducing genetic variability

That happens whether you call it line breeding or inbreeding.

The biology does not care what you name it.

⸻

Why this is both powerful and dangerous

Here’s the part people miss:

Homozygosity does not create traits.
It reveals them.

– Good traits become more consistent
– Bad traits stop hiding

This is why line breeding feels like it “works” at first.

You get:
– animals that look similar
– animals that perform similarly
– animals that feel predictable

But predictability cuts both ways.

⸻

The phenotype trap

This is where many programs quietly go wrong.

If selection is based mostly on phenotype — what you see — then homozygosity will lock in:

– size
– color
– muscling
– style

But it will also quietly lock in things you cannot see:

– fertility
– immune function
– longevity
– structural resilience

Those don’t show up in a sale photo.

They show up:
– 2–4 generations later
– under stress
– when management slips
– when conditions are less than ideal

⸻

Uniform does not mean improved

This is critical:

A more uniform flock is not automatically a better flock.

Uniformity just means the genetics are becoming narrower.

If the direction is correct, that can be useful.
If the direction is wrong, it accelerates decline.

This is why some people say:

“It looked great for a few generations… then things fell apart.”

Nothing suddenly broke.
The system just ran out of margin.

⸻

Why older programs sometimes got away with this

People will say:

“We line bred for decades before DNA testing.”

That’s true — but with conditions:

– large populations
– high cull rates
– ruthless selection
– animals that had to survive without modern intervention

Many modern programs don’t have those pressures.

They have:
– small populations
– emotional attachment
– low cull tolerance
– heavy management masking problems

Same biology.
Very different outcomes.

⸻

The uncomfortable truth

Line breeding without:
– records
– objective performance data
– fertility tracking
– health tracking
– willingness to cull

is not “advanced breeding”.

It’s just accelerated genetic narrowing.

Sometimes it narrows toward excellence.
Sometimes it narrows toward fragility.

You don’t know which — until later.

⸻

Where this is going next

In the next article, we are going to talk about:

– why some traits respond quickly to selection
– why others degrade quietly
– why fertility and robustness are usually the first casualties
– and why certain breeds with shallow gene pools are showing this right now

This is not an argument against line breeding.

It’s an argument against confusing appearance with progress.

⸻

Looks don’t tell the whole story.
They never have.

17/01/2026

Inbreeding vs Line Breeding

Same Biology, Different Intent

By Tim from Linessa Farms

In the first article, we talked about phenotype, genotype, and why appearance and pedigree distance often give people a false sense of security.

This is where the next misunderstanding usually shows up — the idea that inbreeding and line breeding are biologically different things.

They aren’t.

They are the same biology.
The difference is intent and management, not genetics.

⸻

What actually changes when related animals are bred
When related animals are bred, something specific happens at the genetic level.

The animal becomes more genetically uniform.

You’ll sometimes hear this called homozygosity, but all it really means is this — the animal is more likely to carry matching copies of the same genes, instead of mixed ones.

That matters because matching genes make traits more predictable — good and bad.

Hidden strengths show up.
Hidden weaknesses show up too.

Nothing new is created. What was already there becomes easier to see.

⸻

Inbreeding is not a moral failure
Inbreeding is simply the breeding of related animals.

That’s it.

It increases genetic uniformity and exposes recessive traits. It doesn’t “cause” defects — it reveals them.

This is true whether the animals are
– brother to sister
– father to daughter
– or more distantly related but repeatedly tied to the same ancestors

Biology does not care what we call it.

⸻

So what is line breeding, really?
Line breeding is intentional inbreeding with a goal.

The goal is not improvement by itself.
The goal is to concentrate the genetics of a specific ancestor and see what holds together — and what does not.

That means real line breeding requires
– records
– selection pressure
– replacement animals
– and a willingness to cull when outcomes aren’t what you hoped

Without those, it isn’t line breeding. It’s unmanaged inbreeding with a nicer name.

⸻

Why pedigree distance doesn’t protect you
A common belief is that inbreeding is defined by how close animals look on paper.

You’ll hear things like
– brother to sister is inbreeding
– father to daughter is inbreeding
– anything farther apart is line breeding

That feels intuitive. It’s also wrong.

What actually matters is
– how often the same ancestors appear
– how much genetic material they contribute
– and how frequently those genes are repeated

A pedigree can look distant and still be genetically tight. A close breeding followed by aggressive correction can be safer long-term.

Distance does not change the math.

⸻

Intent without discipline changes nothing
Calling something “line breeding” does not make it controlled.

Intent only matters if it’s followed by
– honest evaluation
– hard selection
– and the ability to reverse course

Without that, the outcome is the same — increased genetic uniformity and exposed weaknesses — just without the preparation to deal with them.

⸻

One last point before moving on
Line breeding isn’t the only pattern that sits under inbreeding. There are several ways genetic uniformity increases over time, and many happen quietly without anyone planning them.

Most people aren’t choosing between inbreeding and line breeding at all — they’re already somewhere under the umbrella without realizing it.

We’ll look at that next.

This is Part 2 of a longer series.
Next up — What Line Breeding Is Actually For (And What It Is Not).

17/01/2026

Words Matter

Phenotype, Genotype, and Why Distance Lies

By Tim from Linessa Farms

If we want an honest discussion about inbreeding and line breeding in sheep and goats, we have to start with language. Most of the arguments I see aren’t really about breeding — they’re about people using the same words to mean very different things.

Before we argue about whether line breeding is good or bad, we need to understand what we’re actually observing and what we’re actually selecting.

That starts with phenotype and genotype.

⸻

Phenotype — what you can see
Phenotype is the physical expression of genetics in the real world.

That includes things like
– size and frame
– structure and muscling
– coat and color
– body condition
– obvious defects

Phenotype matters — but it’s incomplete information.

Phenotype is genetics filtered through nutrition, management, environment, age, and health. Two animals can look identical and carry very different genetic risk. Phenotype tells you what showed up — not what’s hiding.

⸻

Genotype — what the animal carries
Genotype is the genetic information the animal has, whether it’s visible or not.

That includes
– recessive traits
– immune function
– fertility and longevity
– metabolic tendencies

Inbreeding and line breeding don’t create genetic problems.
They remove the mask.

If something shows up after related animals are bred, it didn’t suddenly appear — it was already there.

⸻

Recessive does not mean rare
This is one of the most misunderstood ideas in livestock genetics.

Recessive does not mean
– rare
– unnatural
– automatically bad

It simply means unexpressed unless paired.

An animal can quietly carry recessive traits for generations. Breeding related animals increases the chance those traits line up. That’s not opinion — it’s math.

⸻

Why phenotype-only selection fails
Many flocks stall or quietly decline because selection is based almost entirely on appearance.

Structure and coat stabilize quickly.
Health, fertility, and resilience do not.

You can end up with animals that
– look uniform
– breed “true”
– but grow smaller
– lose robustness
– and don’t last as long

Nothing looks obviously wrong — things just aren’t as good as they used to be. That’s one of the most dangerous failure modes in breeding.

⸻

Why pedigree distance lies
A common belief is that breeding safety is based on how closely related animals look on paper.

You’ll hear things like
– brother to sister is inbreeding
– father to daughter is inbreeding
– anything farther apart is line breeding

This is a very shallow view of genetics.

What actually matters is
– shared ancestors
– how often they repeat
– what genetic material they contributed

A “distant” pedigree can be genetically tight. A close breeding followed by aggressive selection and correction can be safer long-term.

Distance does not equal diversity.

⸻

Why this matters
Most arguments about line breeding aren’t really about genetics. They’re about uncertainty.

People want predictability, stability, and consistency. That’s reasonable. The mistake is thinking appearance alone can deliver it.

This post isn’t about telling anyone what to do. It’s about making sure we’re using the same language before we move on.

This is Part 1 of a series.

Next up — Inbreeding vs Line Breeding: Same Biology, Different Intent.

16/01/2026

🦙 Berwick Show 2026 🏆
📍 Akoonah Park, Princes Hwy, Berwick

Entries are now OPEN – don’t miss out!

🦙 Fleece Show: 20 February 2026
🦙 Halter Show: 21 February 2026
⏰ Entries close 8 February 2026

👩‍⚖️ Judges (Fleece & Halter):
Natasha Clark & Apprentice Judge Sophie Stacey (Jackson)

✨ Event Type: Age Championship

🦙 Halter Day Schedule – 21/02/2026
• Penning from 7:30am
• Judging starts 8:30am

📦 Fleece Delivery Due: By 15 February 2026

We look forward to seeing you and your animals at Berwick Show 2026!

12/01/2026

Emergency fodder is being made available for farmers in fire-affected areas.

To request fodder, contact the Victorian Farmers Federation on 1300 882 833 or visit vff.org.au.

If you have urgent animal welfare needs, please call the VicEmergency Hotline on 1800 226 226.

10/01/2026

Emergency relief payments are now available for eligible people impacted by the bushfires.

If you have immediate relief needs, check the VicEmergency website to see if you are eligible 👉 emergency.vic.gov.au/relief/

07/01/2026

Ensure your livestock is taken care off during extreme heat.

☀️Extreme temperatures are expected over the coming days.

Ensure your animals have access to sufficient shade🌳and lots of cool water💧to avoid heat stress.

Stay safe and follow VicEmergency for updates.

🐄More information for caring for animals during extreme heat is available at go.vic.gov.au/3UvmQ2s

05/01/2026

Helpful post re looking after Alpacas’s in the heat

CARING FOR ALPACAS & LLAMAS IN HOT WEATHER ☀️

Temperatures are forecast to reach high 30s and 40s°C across Victoria this week. Many worried alpaca owners are contacting me for advice on shearers (if their animals haven't been shorn yet) and how to keep their animals cool.

My top tips for keeping alpacas and llamas cool:

1️⃣ Provide shade
Ensure access to good shade at all times
Natural trees, open-sided shelters or shade cloth all work well
If you can, move your animals to a shadier paddock

2️⃣ Keep water fresh and plentiful
Supply clean, cool water at all times
Check troughs more than once a day
Lactating females and growing animals need extra water
Make sure crias can safely reach troughs

3️⃣ Help them cool down
Alpacas and llamas lose heat best through their legs, belly and underside
Hose or mist the ground so they can lie on cool, damp soil
You can gently wet legs and bellies if needed
⚠️ Avoid hosing their backs — wet fleece can trap heat and make things worse
Not all animals like water, but many appreciate a cooler surface to rest on

4️⃣ Feed during cool hours
Feed early morning or late evening
Digestion creates heat — avoid feeding during the hottest part of the day

5️⃣ Watch closely for heat stress. Look out for:
Rapid or open-mouth breathing, panting
Drooling, lethargy or reluctance to move
Animals separating themselves from the herd

FINDING AN ALPACA/LLAMA SHEARER - the reality
☀️Alpacas need shearing annually.
☀️ Woolly-type llamas also require annual shearing.
☀️ Alpaca shearers are in short supply across Australia.
☀️ Many owners have been left stranded when shearers are injured or retire

If shearing isn’t possible:
🌳 Focus on shade, airflow, water and cooling strategies
🌳 Monitor animals closely during heatwaves
🌳 Manage what you can control to support welfare

Further reading: https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/livestock-and-animals/livestock-health-and-welfare/caring-for-animals-during-extreme-heat