At Autumn Sun Alpacas, we know that is no secret that this true black herdsire is an all-around package that you will want to cover any dam, light or dark colored! Secret is a black that had no fading at his tips or interspersed white fibers when he was showing (he's getting a few 'old man' white hairs now). This isn't surprising with a lineage that includes notable black sires like Othello, recently deceased, and Snowmass Nova's Dark Quest.
With his distinctive head and leg coverage, along with his inky black fiber, many stopped and stared at Secret the ring. And worthy of that attention, his fiber has extreme density, bright shine, bundled crimp, and soft handle. These are traits that you want to add or amplify in your breeding program!
This is obvious in the 10x champion true black son, AutumnSun's Black Maelstrom. We were fortunate to have had our program benefit from such an exceptional offspring, especially as he was just one of only six breedings we have performed to Secret ( four are sold; some as crias)! And, Maelstrom is a precocious stud just as his sire, as both started breeding under 2 years old!
But Secret was exposed across all color females from many outside farms, and this is his "log"...... As his breakout breeding at just over 2 years old, he was bred to just a few girls , and this "sneak peak" his first year resulted in a dark silver grey girl from a dark silver grey dam at our farm (Serenade) and a black girl from a black dam at a neighboring farm. Bred to dams of several colors and produced 75% Dark or grey (DB/BB/TB/DSG) from 16 of the 19 crias we polled for data:
[Dam ==> cria color / sex]
100% w/ DSG (2x): 2 DSG girls -- One has made her own DSG girl for her new owners!
100% w/ MSG (1x): 1 TB girl -- her owners wrote to say they were thrilled!
100% w/ WH (2x): 2 boys - one TB and one DB -- Amazing! Dark crias from white dams!
100% w/ TB (4x): 3 TB girls and 1 DB male. One girl is our very own Fascination, now sold