Dancing Elk's Platinum Karma

We have many outstanding tuxedo grey herdsires on our farm, but this one, who arrived spring 2017, has just rocketed himself to the top of the list. This is the one who was "meant to be."

I fell in love with Tabokia in early 2016, when I saw him, along with his 1/2 brother Al, on the website of Dancing Elk Alpacas while on a quest to add a son of Neversummer's US Steel -- hands-down one of the very best sons of .38 Special -- to our breeding program. Both had fiber stats that were absolutely fantastic -- the sort of sustained fineness and uniformity that is precisely what we are breeding for -- and Tab had the ultra-compact, super heavy, massive-boned build that we are breeding for as well. The only problem was that he wasn't yet for sale ... His brother was, but he was a somewhat taller animal.

I knew that Tab was perfect for us, so I waited ... And kept him in the back of my mind. And then --

When Kim Quesenberry contacted me asking if I was still interested in Tab, I had a feeling there was no way I could say "No" -- but it wasn't until I reviewed his pedigree again that I truly realized why.

Tab's sire, US Steel, has been producing some incredible offspring and dramatically improving the dams he is bred to. It also helps that, by and large, he has been bred to some amazing dams. When I first saw Granite Bay Royal Steel on Granite Bay's website, I could not believe him. He embodied everything I was looking for in an alpaca: conformation, breed type, absolutely unbelievable substance of bone -- and in clear silver grey. Of course, he wasn't for sale ... And since he went on to win Futurity R-Champ in 2016, it's no wonder.

Thus, when I looked at Tab's lineage and realized that he is 3/4 brother to Royal Steel, I knew it was truly meant to be. Tab and Royal share a maternal granddam, HVLA Sterling Silver. To say that Sterling is a power producer is an understatement: Her 2nd daughter, Silver Splash, produced Royal Steel; her 3rd daughter, Silver Sp