Groveland Farm Llamas

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GROVELAND FARM LLAMAS
The Best-Kept Secret in Northern Wisconsin

Llamas have been a part of the landscape at Groveland Farm since 1988. We fell in love with these wide-eyed, woolly creatures early on, but it is only recently that our numbers have grown to the extent that we are able to offer some of them for sale. See our Females for Sale page or our Stud Prospects and Geldings for Sale page!

Our breeding program is geared toward producing well-balanced, conformationally correct llamas with even temperaments and sound genetics. Our females are good mothers who produce plenty of milk and no birthing problems. (See our Dam page.) We are also breeding for a variety of fiber types, suitable for blending with wool or other fibers, or hand-spinning into yarn. For those who are new to llamas, you may not know that there are trends and fashions in llamas. When we first bought, about all you could find was white llamas, so people started breeding for dark colored fleeces. Then, after there were lots of dark llamas, you heard, "Oh, another brown llama", with the yawn implicit in their tone of voice. These days, ringlets are all the rage.

Well, a person can try to chase those fashions or set their own fashions. I want a good, strong animal who isn't too extreme in any way. I want straight legs, strong toplines, good tailset, and athletic animals with good dispositions. There *is* a 'look' I like, which you can see from the photos on our site. To the right is Ace's Mi Amigo, who you'll find for sale on our Stud Prospects and Geldings for Sale page.

Our bloodlines include English, Canadian, Chilean and North American genetics; good, proven, solid breeding stock which has stood the test of time. I don't have anything against the folks who are breeding or buying the Peruvian or Bolivian South American imports, but you won't find me standing in that line. I like to have some track record behind the animals and some of the imports have been so recent that they don't have any provenance. Speaking my mind this way may make some folks mad at me, but I do want people who do business with us to know our philosophy.

Embarcadero, our senior stud

Our senior herdsire is Embarcadero (Deacon's White Knight x Sable of Tunitas Creek). We had known Embarcadero for years; bred to him, and bought his daughters from Loren Hoppe. Barco has been my heart throb ever since I first met him. In 1998, I was able to convince Loren to sell Barco to us. He continues to produce great tempered crias and we love him to pieces. He is half Chilean and came from the fabled Tunitas Creek ranch at Half Moon Bay (now sold).

Barco has a most regal carriage and moves beautifully; he also has fabulous soft fiber. He is a breeder's dream, as he is extremely easy to work with, knows his business and gets the job done. We have several Embarcadero daughters and their offspring in our herd, so we needed a boy to breed to them. We have been doing 'outsides' for several years. Now we have a new strong herdsire prospect that we believe will cross well with the Embarcadero lines.

This is Rizado, an Embarcadero son born in May 03 at JoAnn Pottebaum's. He is typical of the flashy kids with great ears that Embarcadero sires.

We added an exciting young male over a year ago. When Wintery Wind's Ovation's Applause was born April 23, 2000, I knew he was "the one" I wanted to breed to our Embarcadero daughters. His sire is a gorgeous golden llama named Golden Ovation, a Maverick son. His dam is beautiful gray appy Equinox daughter named Wintersquies. Applause was born with ringlets all over his body, and today has heavy wool and tight little curls on his face.

Applause is super silky soft with very wavy fiber that floats when he moves. He's got that conformation, bone and presence we look for in a stud. And a disposition that is heaven. I can walk up to him to halter him. Temperament like this is extremely important to us in our breeding decisions! We love him a lot, and look forward to his crias in 2003.

Wintery Wind's Ovation's Applause

Knight Charmer

       His registered name is Knight Charmer, but I started calling him Boobala, Boo, and Boo-Boo and it seems to have stuck. He is a RAR Chilean Magnet grandson on his sire side, and a MCF Cashmir grandson through his dam. He's also a great grandson of Embarcadero, whom he resembles quite a bit.
       Sired by Aspen Hills Magentar (RAR Chilean Magnet X Aspen Hills Lyric) out of Prairie Llake's Cachet (MCF Cashmir X Nordic's Bella).
       His momma had black fiber like his, which is silky soft and shimmery. The fiber on his body stays black after he's shorn, and doesn't sunburn to red. It was love at first sight for me, and it's been the same ever since.
       His personality is kissy without being pushy - a perfect combination, I think. He's another one I can walk up to and halter. Boo is DNA tested and ready to start breeding in the fall of 2002. We're excited about his crias-to-be.

Over 10 years of breeding and acquisitions have provided us with females who are joys to be around. We don't want a really large herd, so the time has come to part with some of them. (You can imagine Rusty wiping the sweat off his forehead - "Whew"). I do most of the llama work myself, including the breeding, so I need a group that is manageable for me, and I want to keep it fun. When there are too many animals for me to cope with adequately, I get all stressed out, and what's the point of THAT? I can go to the office and get that for no charge! So here at home, especially since I've gotten sick, we want a nice manageable number. To see the gals I'm letting go, visit our Females for Sale page.

This charcoal grey 'wylde chylde' is pictured here at 12 hours old, born August 28, 2001. We're letting her run free for now; her brother from last year was always off like a rocket (why we named him Rocket Man) but turned into the sweetest, most amiable boy. If it works, don't fix it? Her sire is BLC's Aces High and her dam is Lauren Hope. Her name will be Lauren's High Hopes. (There's even a llama named High Hopes on her momma's side.)

We plan for High Hopes to remain in our herd and eventually be bred to Applause. Lauren Hope has given us, in addition to Rocket Man, 3 beautiful girls who mirror, to a large extent, their sires. Groveland's Goldilocks is one of them, and available on our Females for Sale page.

Lauren's High Hopes

Since we have sheep as well as llamas, many people have asked if we use our llamas as 'Guard Llamas'. This would be a good place to address that issue. Llamas are prey animals, the same as sheep are. My main gripe with the concept of putting llamas with a flock of sheep is the idea that the llamas can 'guard' the sheep. I would much prefer to have them referred to as "Watch Llamas". I think that fits the function that they perform much better. From a perusal of our site, you can see that we also raise and train livestock guardian dogs (LGD), and we have seen that llamas in the same pasture with a LGD will often see a potential problem sooner than the dog. Used this way, I have no problem condoning this use for llamas. It takes a special type of personality in a llama to be 'guardy' and this is often inconsistent with the way I want my llamas to behave around me and my other animals. I think that a llama purchased as a 'watch' llama should be physically and emotionally mature, be gelded, and preferably be used in pairs, with one or 2 LGDs, if predation consists of wolves, bear or large cats. Even coyotes now hunt in packs (they are usually hybrids) and a lone llama is simply no match for a pack of ANYthing. To be frank, an awful lot of llama and alpaca breeders have bought livestock guardian dogs from us.

Crystal's Krystal Reflection GE

After the tragic events of September 11, we decided to try to do everything we could to show our patriotic spirit. This involved a hat for the llama, and a sweatshirt for Mare.

So, enough from the soap-box! If you are looking for quality animals and like our 'look', please visit our Females for Sale page or our Stud Prospects and Geldings for Sale page to see who we have available. Or email us and arrange to visit in person!

Groveland Farm
Mare & Rusty Jarvis
2862 South Peterson Road
Poplar, WI 54864
Email grovelandfarm@supwi.com

www.all-animals.com/groveland/llamas.html