Inglefield Alpacas

Meet the new addition - Jacobi

What a long time since I have posted,How time flies!

Last Thursday , Winter Snow  had her cria. I had popped home ,and came back at 1230 to find a new addition. He was not yet on his feet, the placenta was out, and the others hadn't noticed the new arrival.

UP and strong, though with legs too long for his body! He was a little down on his pasterns , but that is improving. Weight 9.2 kg!

   

Thanks to Ray for the photos.  Jacobi also had some other visitors  -  who were staying at Brompton Lakes. I have 3 alpacas in the field up there. I think they enjoyed there visit. BArbilla was very friendly and came up for strokes which was good!

Back to Jacobi.

LAst year , Snow took about 2 weeks to accept him. This time, things were a lot quicker ( thank goodness!). I had already got colostrum from a local cow farm ( next year I will try and source goats colostrum, but all the kids had already been born when I rang around). Snow kept moving away, not letting him near her back end , so he go the colostrum from a  bottle instead. The next day I got the vet to come and check his blood  -  did serum proteins and the level showed the colostrum had done the trick.(Couldnt do camelid Ig G as he had had cows colostrum  -  but not sure if my vet can do the specific test)

Saturday morning and I went to give his bottle.Jacobi went straight to his mother, and she stood there making it really easy for him.Hurrah!

Fingers crossed

Today I went back to listen to Snow and Allie. And fingers crossed ,  heard much more in Allie this time,  and possibly a fetal heart.

One of the great things was how calm they were. I put the halterhelper on, and had the five of them in a small pen .

I shall recheck in a couple of days -    want to bring my stethoscope down and listen to the adult heart, and also find out the expected fetal heart rate. 

I rang up the vet, and cancelled looking into infertility for now.

A pregnancy detective!

I have been trying to find out whether one of my alpacas is pregnant. I think one is, though am unsure about the other  -  though she is temperamental enough to be!!

They were scanned at 80 plus days, but, it was a little of the bind leading the blind, as my vet is not experienced with scanning alpacas. Chatting to him today, we both agree that the scan may have been negative, ( even though we said yes at the time)

I have no male to do spitoffs,so have been debating my options.

I decided to go for a pregtector. This is basically very similar to the sonicaid we use to listen to fetal hearts in pregnant women  -  except a robust version , with headphones.

I had a go with my 2, but was not sure., so rang Debbie of Barnacre Alpacas to see if we could listen to a few of her females, That was great, and I first learnt that I was holding the probe too far back ,  when listening to my two.

My first initial attempts led me to categorise the following

very quiet -  these were the 2 non pregnant ones we listened too

"noisy) -  no specific maternal pulse heard, but a load of noise 

Maternal uterine artery heard  - a specific swoosh through the arteries.IN pigs the only arteries in that area are the uterine ones  -  not sure about alpacas ( whether you can pick up blood flow goin to the femoral arteries)

Fetal heart heard -  this is when we could hear 2 different beats  -  one quicker than the other.

The best thing wa that the one that Debbie was most unsure about ( negative scan, but she thought she was pregnant) was the one in whom we heard the best fetal heart.

So.... I need to do lots more pracice, go and revise some anatomy ( alpaca not human!), but this looks like being a really good tool. I also got a second headset which was really useful today.

here si an aricle by David Anderson about overdue pregancies. Main point for me is fetal heart s 1.5 to 2 times the maternal heart rate.

Overdue Pregnancies

11-18-04

Overdue Pregnancies in alpacas and llamas Overdue Pregnancies in alpacas and llamas

Overdue Females and Females with Problem Pregnancies

David E Anderson, D.V.M., MS, Diplomate ACVS

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Assessment of fetal well-being is an area of on-going research. We are

particularly interested in predicting or determining fetal stress so that

treatments aimed at preventing abortion or pre-mature birth. This

information would allow us to "prophylactically" apply these treatments

in females speculated to be "at risk".

Behavior of the Dam - The behavior of the dam must not be under emphasized.

If the dam is behaving normally, eating normally, and no changes in routine

have been observed, then most likely the fetus is fine. We consult with many

owners about "overdue" birthing. Many of these females ultimately are found

not to be pregnant. Occasionally, prolonged gestation does occur in llamas

and alpacas and the causes are not well understood. Our protocol for

evaluation of females that are 11.5 months or longer in gestation is to

perform a complete physical examination, rectal and vaginal examination,

ultrasound examination, and fetal heart rate assessment. If the dam and

fetus are normal in all respects, then the pregnancy is allowed to continue

undisturbed. Using this protocol, we have had excellent success with healthy

neonates being born. Occasionally, an abnormal or stillborn cria is born,

but these are far outnumbered by the problems caused by premature

termination of pregnancy. The problem is knowing what is "normal" with these

tests and how to conduct them.

 

Rectal, and Vaginal Examination - Rectal palpation is often difficult in

alpacas because of their small size, but most mature llamas can be palpated

if proper pre-cautions are observed. A solid sided llama or alpaca restraint

chute is important to allow easy and efficient reproductive examinations.

Performing these diagnostic tools on free-standing females or females

pressed against a wall are stressful for the patient, veterinarian, and

owner. Sedation should be used sparingly. When needed, butorphenol tartrate

(0.1 mg/kg IV or IM) provides excellent sedation with minimal to no untoward

effects on the fetus or dam. Before rectal palpation, I prefer to place 60

to 100 ml of lubricant into the lumen of the rectum. In small females, 10 ml

of lidocaine can be added to help relax the anal sphincter. Rectal palpation

should be performed with caution because rectal tears have been reported to

occur in llamas. The examiner should make the owner aware that bleeding from

the anal sphincter is common when rectal palpation is performed. This is

caused by over-stretching of the mucous membrane and sphincter muscle. This

does not pose a risk to the animal in most cases (I have never seen a

complication from mild anal sphincter bleeding). Rectal examination should

be used to assess fetal movement, uterine tone, position of the broad

ligaments (rule out uterine torsion), and the presence of adhesions or other

periuterine masses. An interesting observation is that we have found the

head and front limbs of the fetus within the pelvic canal up to 3 months

before parturition. Also, we have failed to find the head and feet of the

fetus within the pelvic canal as early as 3 days before parturition in

llamas and alpacas to whom the cria was ultimately delivered in a normal

anterior, longitudinal, dorsosacral position. Using these qualitative

methods, we can say that the fetus is alive, but no definitive comment can

be made concerning fetal stress. Vaginal examination will allow assessment

of the cervix for inflammation, discharge, and the presence of the mucous

plug. If the cervix is closed and no discharge is noted, then we can say

that all appears normal, but no definitive statement can be made concerning

fetal stress.

Hormonal Tests - Many owners and breeders have relied upon serum

progesterone concentration to assess pregnancy status. We have not found an

association between fetal stress and serum progesterone status, but we have

not had the opportunity to perform serial assays on "at risk" females. My

opinion is that a sudden decrease in serum progesterone would be found too

late for effective treatment to be initiated. No "llama or alpaca side"

progesterone test has been developed to date. However, we have conducted

research correlating serum progesterone assays with the commercial test kits

available for canine (Target Canine Ovulation Timing Kit, BioMetallics,

Princeton, NJ) and equine (Target Equine Breeding System, BioMetallics,

Princeton, NJ) progesterone (Table 1). In our study, we found the equine kit

was more consistently correctly interpreted, but the accuracy of the tests

is broad (C2/3 range = 1 to 5 ng/ml).

--------------------------------------------------------

Table 1. Serum progesterone concentration study comparing results of

laboratory RID with that of canine-side and equine-side test kits.

----------------

Camelid    Laboratory Assay    Canine Kit    Equine Kit

1                1.5                            C3*                  C2

2                1.42                          C2                    C2

3                1.4                            C2                    C2

4                0.33                          C2*                  C1

5                0.09                          C2*                  C1

6                0.04                          C2*                  C1

Target Equine Breeding System: C=0-1 ng/ml; C2/3= 1-5 ng/ml; C4= > 5ng/ml

Target Canine Ovulation Timing Kit: C1= 0-1 ng/ml; C2=1-2.5 ng/ml; C3= 2.5-5 ng/ml;

C4 = >5 ng/ml

* indicates false positive test result

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ultrasonography -  Ultrasonography is useful for non-invasive evaluation of

the intrauterine environment and fetus. This is the mainstay of our current

state-of-the-art evaluations. If the fetal thorax and heart can be seen, the

fetal heart rate (FHR) can be counted. I routinely use a 5 MHZ linear

transducer for evaluation of all stages of pregnancy (approximately 12 to 15

cm penetration of adequate resolution images). A 3.5 MHZ transducer can be

used for deeper penetration of the abdomen (up to 20 to 23 cm), but

significant loss of image resolution occurs at these depths. Most modern

ultrasound machines are equipped for simultaneous B- and M-Mode

ultrasonography. This allows assessment of fetal heart rate and some

quantitative estimates of cardiac contractility. If the uterine fluid

appears normal, then we would assume that the fetus-placenta-dam unit is

normal. The placenta can be evaluated to a certain extent and premature

separation of the placenta or placental edema may be found in females having

had a uterine torsion. These findings suggest that a C-section may be

necessary to save the life of the cria. If the FHR is normal, we would

assume that the fetus is normal (adequate oxygen supply and waste removal).

In our fetal stress research, we have determined that normal fetal heart

rate range for alpacas and llamas is 80 to 120 (fetal heart rate ranges from

1.5 to 2.0 x maternal heart rate (MHR)). The late gestation fetus (> 6 to 7

months) is positioned in the uterus with the fetal head and thorax located

near the maternal xiphoid bone just to the right of midline. Thus, the hair

may need to be clipped to allow ultrasonography of the fetal heart. Most

owners do not object to having this done because this region of hair removal

is not seen and is not economically important. Occasionally the fetal heart

can not be found because of fetal positioning (fetal backbone or maternal

viscera obstruction of ultrasound waves, positioning too deep in the abdomen

for viewing, etc). Also, we have seen fetal ultrasound examinations where

there was no apparent heart beat, but the fetus was alive and was normal at

birth. Thus, fetal heart ultrasound images must be interpreted with caution.

 

Fetal ECG - In our early research to establish a tool for assessment of

fetal stress, we attempted to perform fetal ECG. This technique has been

used successfully in horses to assess fetal heart rate and rhythm. We used

several models of ECG machines including a physiograph with high sensitivity

leads and were unable to consistently record fetal ECG patterns. In the

llamas and alpacas we tested, the fetal complexes were only intermittently

recorded and were usually buried within maternal complexes such that they

were unrecognizable. Rarely, we could obtain a clear ECG complex, but we

were not able to determine rate or rythm in any fetus. We concluded that

fetal ECG's are seldom successful because of the size of the abdomen,

position of the fetus, low magnitude of fetal complexes, and the

overwhelming ECG of the dam. To date, we have not been able to record any

diagnostic fetal ECG segment.

Fetal Cardiotocography - Recently, we have been investigating the use of

fetal Doppler ultrasound for assessment of fetal well-being (Fetal Monitor

155, Corometrics Medical Systems, Inc, Wallingford, Conn, USA). The Fetal

Heart Monitor records fetal heart rate and heart rate variability (external

Doppler probe), and uterine contractions (external probe with pressure

sensor). Jonker has published a text on cardiotocography in cattle. This

text is recommended reading for those interested in developing skills in

fetal heart monitoring. Rabello and Lapidus published a text on electronic

fetal monitoring in humans and this text is highly recommended for knowledge

of techniques for assessment of fetal stress. The Corometrics unit has the

ability to record FHR and uterine activity pressure waves in humans. To

date, we have not been able to successfully record diagnostic uterine

activity tracings because of interference by forestomach motility, maternal

movement, fetal movement, and the maternal abdomen geometry. However, we

have been able to consistently and reliably record fetal heart tracings to

assess rate and variability. Based on Doppler ultrasound recordings of fetal

heart rate, we determined that FHR is expected to be between 80 and 120

(roughly 1.5 to 2 times the MHR). However, the normal fetal heart rate is

not consistent from moment to moment. We have identified three fetal heart

rate patterns: 1) low frequency undulation, 2) sudden acceleration followed

by deceleration, 3) no undulation. Based on our clinical research, low

frequency undulations are the normal pattern for gestating fetuses of llamas

and alpacas. At this time, we are not certain about the significance of

rapid accelerations and decelerations or the absence of undulation. I feel

that the absence of undulation may represent periods of fetal quiescence and

are not abnormal unless they are associated with low heart rate (FHR < 60).

The only FHR's that we have seen that were consistently below 60 were in

dams with severe illness and the cria ultimately were delivered by C-section

or were aborted. Rapid acceleration and deceleration have been reported to

occur in cattle, but were uncommon. These periods may be associated with

sudden fetal movement, maternal excitation, uterine contraction, or unknown

stimuli. We have observed this pattern in only one alpaca and the recording

was obtained 2 days after non-surgical correction of a uterine torsion. In

that alpaca, we elected to perform a C-section because of concerns for fetal

stress. At surgery, premature separation of the placenta seemed to have

occurred but a live male cria was delivered. This episode of sudden FHR

acceleration was thought to have occurred because of developing fetal

hypoxia.

References

Jonker FH. Cardiotocographic monitoring of the bovine fetus. University of

Utrecht (ISBN 90-393-0425-4) 1993 (171 pages).

Rabello YA, Lapidus MR. Fundamentals of electronic fetal monitoring.

Corometrics Medical Systems, Inc, Wallingford, Conn. 1988 (162 pages).

Deans AC, Steer PJ. The use of the fetal electrocardiogram in labor. Br J

Obstetrics and Gynecology. 1994;101:9-17.

 

Jonker FH, van Oord HA, van Geijn HP, et al. Feasibility of continuous

recording of fetal heart rate in the near term bovine fetus by means of

transabdominal Doppler. Vet Quarterly 1994;16:165-168.

Jonker FH, van Geijn HP, Chan WW, et al. Characteristics of fetal heart rate

changes during the expulsive stage of bovine parturition in relation to

fetal outcome. Am J Vet Res 1996;57:1373-1381.

Cohen S, Mulder JH, van Oord HA, et al. Noninvasive monitoring of fetal

heart rate during the last ten days of gestation in sows. Am J Vet Res

1997;58:1285-1290.

 David E Anderson, DVM, MS

 The Ohio State University

         http://www.vet.ohio-state.edu/docs/ClinSci/camelid/index.html

         http://www.internationalcamelidinstitute.org

Knowing your animal's behaviour

I went to feed horses and alpacas on friday morning. The alpacas get camelibra, followed by Readi-grass in the morning. That morning, Snow came up to me , looking very bedraggled.It had rained heavily the night before. They do have a lovely shelter, but she is the one most likely to be outside of it. I stopped bringing them into the barn overnight as the weather warmed up  a couple of weeks ago.

So, dashed to work, to hopefully change some appointments, and found the new computer system was going in, so emergencies only ( I curse new computer systems-we are linking to the main army net  -  so it will likely crash loads over the next few weeks!). I arrived back to see Snow a couple of hours later, then called the vet after checking her temp. One of the farm vets came out ( I use the same vet as my horses, though really  only know the equine vets,) and she had some crackles, more pronounced on one side of her chest. So she has had antibiotics and nti-inflammatory, and is much improved. I did have  my Norm Evans field manual out for drug dosages ( he said they tended to use cow dosages but much better the camelid way!). She had a second injection today, and they have been back in overnight so she doesn't get wet like that again.

For me, it taught the importance of knowing routine behaviour , and taking note if it changes. I am glad I listened to Snow, when she "talked" to me at breakfast time.

My first cria of the year!

Millduck Gwenevieve, who is at Millduck Alpaca stud in Australia, has had a little boy. Up, and drinking within 20 minutes. 

Thanks to Pru for taking such great care of them

 

     

Another alpaca advert !

Hmm, this is so American somehow!  But good advertisement for alpacas!

https://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/money/video/how-can-i-get-paid-faster

Fleece, microns and crimp

When I went to visit, we looked at 2 great fleeces of her stud males ,  and talked a little about character, and microns... which got me thinking.

If someone asked me to define a micron , I couldn't, Very , very small. Here is a better answer, teken from www.microscopy-uk.org.uk

The micron (um)

Note: The 'u' would normally have a long tail in the left vertical bar, but for the sake of showing this character on all web browsers, we have used the character 'u' instead! The picture below shows the correct shorthand for the micron.

1 micron = 0.000001 metres (m) or 1 x (10 to the power of -6) metres.

The name 'micron' is actually derived from micrometre. It is very important to remember that there are 1000 microns to a millimetre! When you see the size of a microscopic subject quoted as, say - 800 microns in length and 500 microns in width, you can mentally realize this is nearly a millimetre long and half a millimetre across; if you look again at what a millimetre looks like on your ruler, you will see that a subject (or object) is still visible to the naked eye. However, something which is 10 microns x 10 microns could not be seen without a microscope.

So a micron is pretty darn small.

This This got me to thinking about the different things that judges require vs the requirementdsof handspinners.

Here is an article by Kate Peres of Mountairy alpacas

Got Fleece Buyers?"

Kate Perez wearing her hand spun alpaca vest

Most of the articles that I write about fleece are aimed at educating new breeders. There are times, however, when I feel that it is the more established breeders who should be having serious discussions about their fleeces and what they plan to do with them. If I had one main complaint to make about our alpaca industry it would be that we all keep selling "luxury fiber producing" animals but don't seem to have enough interest in what to do with that luxury fiber.

By now most of us have received our Winter, 2006 copy of Alpacas magazine and we have seen all the photos of beautiful alpaca clothing inside. How many of us wondered how much of that clothing came from fleeces produced here in the U.S.? I loved seeing the beautiful designs as much as anyone but I couldn't help noticing that the majority of the producers featured in the magazine are importing their products from Peru. I have no problem with imported clothing but I do want to know, will there ever be an issue of Alpacas Magazine featuring garments made using alpaca fleeces grown in the U.S.? While our breed organization and magazine works to increase demand for the Peruvian product, where is their interest in creating demand for the product that we are growing here in the U.S.?

I know that not everyone wants to be a hand spinner, knitter, felter or weaver but shouldn't we at least be using our own product? Sure, it's cheaper to buy a sweater from Peru than to pay someone to make you a sweater from one of your own animals but shouldn't we know just a little bit about what kind of product we, ourselves, are producing? Shouldn't we know HOW it is used and processed and how it compares to the products of other producers? I can't imagine buying dairy breeding cows from someone who has never tasted their milk and doesn't even sell it to anyone else to use. This person has no way to know if his product is useable much less of good quality, yet, many alpaca breeders never use their own fleeces much less wear them in the form of a garment.

Many of us like to go into the show ring and have a judge tell us whether our animal’s fleeces are great, need improvement, etc. but the show ring is just one indication of the quality of the fleece and only useful when the judge is truly knowledgeable. Most AOBA judges are not hand spinners or other types of fiber artists. They judge on a very narrow set of criteria and they are not immune to the subtle pressure of fads and politics. One of these fads is the current emphasis by some judges on "coverage." Is anyone using the fleece on the faces or lower legs of their alpacas? Doesn't this "coverage" make it hard for some alpacas to see and certainly makes shearing more difficult. Most sheep breeders consider "wool blindness" a grave problem that should be bred OUT of their stock. In our industry we are seeing animals rewarded in the show ring for this same trait.

No, I don't hate AOBA or its judges. They have a useful place in our business. However, I think that we, producers, should weigh show ring considerations against more practical considerations in order to produce the fleeces that are most desirable to our buyers. But, in order to let the marketplace decide what fleece qualities are desirable, first we need to establish a marketplace for the U.S.-grown product.

For this endeavor, we need actual knowledge of the processing of fleece and creating of useful garments from fleece. I don't pretend to know everything about fleece but here are some things that I have learned:

Super fine often equals super dirty.

I see many alpaca breeders trying for lower and lower micron counts in their breeding program but I know from experience that super fine fleeces are VERY difficult to get clean and prone to partial felting or cotting. If a 20 micron fleece feels plenty soft to almost all fleece buyers, and it's easier to clean and process, why breed for a micron count of 17 or 14?

Crimp versus Color 

To many hand spinners, crimp is crimp and they don't care if it is super well-defined or a little fuzzier and disorganized as long as it's fairly uniform. In the latests version of his famious, "The Alpaca Book", Eric Hoffman has presented new scientifically gathered data to show that many of the fleeces labeled "disorganized" by judges are turning out to have higher curvature (or crimp) than the type the judges prefer. A new light bouncing histogram technique shows some of these fleeces actually have crimp that is too high frequency to be measured by the human eye. This interested me because I had an alpaca whose fleece spun up to be so bouncy and a sweater I knitted from this seemingly disorganized fleece turned out to be the best fitting alpaca sweater I own. It didn't look as crimpy as it "acted." One more reason to judge our "product" by using it. 

In the show ring or fleece show, there is a lot of emphasis on producing fleeces with very well-defined crimp and a lot of meaningless arguments about whether it is preferable to have low amplitude crimp or high amplitude crimp. Some judges even claim that low amplitude crimp is a sign of fineness. Color would be a much more compelling factor to most buyers. And, there are many buyers who don't even want crimp because they are planning to spin a worsted* type yarn and use it for a drapey garment instead of a woolen-type one. That buyer would find crimp to be a non-desirable trait. Here's a thought: We don't all have to try to breed the exact same fleece as one another. If you have an alpaca with super fineness, great length and gorgeous color but the fleece is flat, sell that fleece to someone who wants to make a worsted garment.

Brightness in a Huacaya fleece is not as thrilling as you think.

While judges love "brightness" and there is even a special championship ribbon in most fleece shows for best brightness in the Huacaya fleeces, most fleece buyers don't care about it at all. I have never heard any buyer or hand spinner bring up the topic of brightness when talking about Huacaya alpaca fleece. I do think luster, brightness, sheen, or whatever name you want to use, matters if we are talking about Suri fleeces, mohair fleeces and silk caps, to name a few examples, but that is because all of those should be spun worsted rather than woolen and worsted yarns are supposed to be shiny. The above mentioned types of fiber are also valued for their ability to take dye well so as to create bright colors. There is a practical reason why these types of fiber should be bright but does that mean that every fleece should be bright? Maybe we need a fleece show ribbon for most appealing color because unusual, natural colors are very appealing to buyers.

Length matters a lot in fleece processing.

Length is not treated as very important in the show ring or fleece show as long as the fleece meets the minimum length required for the show, but it is super important to buyers. Short fleeces (less than 3 inches) are too challenging for many inexperienced spinners but long fleeces (5 inches or longer) can be just as hard to spin. Buyers should be asked about their experience and comfort level in this matter and the proper advice should be given. Short fleeces require the spinner to hold their hands closer together while spinning. Longer fleeces are very desirable to experienced spinners because less ends per inch means less "prickle factor" in the finished yarn. But, spinners who find long fleeces difficult to work with can be advised to try the "spinning from the fold" method to get better control. This method is discussed in many spinning books and videos but basically, it means that the spinner folds the lock over their index finger and spins the lock from the middle instead of the end.

I have gone to farmer's markets and seen that most of the food producers are full of advice on how to use their products. Many of them give out recipes and/or instructions on proper refrigeration and storage of their produce. There is no reason that fleece sellers could not give out a piece of paper offering their buyers tips on processing, spinning, washing and using their fleeces.

Above are just 4 examples of fleece qualities that may be desirable in the show but not the sale or vice versa. There are many more. I think that it is time for all of us to start thinking about what type of fleece buyers we want to attract and what fleece qualities those buyers truly want. I believe in the quality and uniqueness of my alpacas' fleeces. I spin, knit and wear garments from my own animals and I want to get their fleeces out there for others to use and enjoy as well. I'll take an ecstatically happy fleece buyer over a show ribbon any day. I have had the privilege of learning quite a bit from the expertise of some of my own fleece buyers. When these very knowledgeable customers come back to me year after year to buy their fleeces, that's the proof that I am producing winners.

*Worsted yarns are made from fleeces that are combed rather than carded and then spun in such a way as to squeeze air out and make a shiny, compressed yarn with little fuzziness. A wool suit would be made from a worsted yarn while a cabled, crew neck sweater would usually be made from a woolen yarn.

One point that Kate makes is why breed for 14 or 17 micron fleeces as opposed to 20 microns.

My answer to that is that I would love to have animals that retain their fineness of their fleeces till they are old, into their teens. So, if I aim low, but always looking for a low SD this may help me achieve my aim. So they may have lower microns for the first couple of years, but if they remained at 20 that would be great.I need to go and get my head round crimp now!

This article shows me how much more I have to learn!

Visit to Barnacre Alpacas

Today I went up the A1 to visit Debbie at Barnacre Alpacas. I have met Debbie and Paul  ( who was at work) at several shows/events before. Firstly, I better apologise  -  if Paul's dinner was delayed tonight it was because of me spending so much time talking , asking questions , and looking at alpacas . It was great to hear what Debbie was doing on the husbandry side. Even a simple question of how often you use Lambivac is not a simple question. Some say 6 months, others 12 months. I liked Debbie's vet's answer  -  it depends, pros and cons to both. That's what so many decisions boil down to - a risk assessment of one action vs another. 

It was great to see the boys, then the weanlings, and girls. Being able to compare one after the other was great  -  I am still very much in the learning phase. Discussing microns, S.D.'s, and how one makes breeding decisions enhanced the mix.

Having taken my camera. I completely forgot about it until we were walking back along the road. So a quick nip back to the weanlings and a couple of photos below :

And here is a little video - please excuse my voice  - my techie skills aren't yet able to get rid of it from the video!

A Small World!

Today made me realise how small the world is. I was speaking with a lady from Belgium  ( http://www.alpacalandgoed.be/ ) about alpacas from Australia. She gave me lots of useful information  to chew upon . Tonight I got an email as she had recognised my name from the camelidynamics site, and was interested in doing some training.

Julie Taylor- Browne is the one for that, but it got me remembering how that course made life so much easier last summer. I had it all planned -    alpacas to go to studs with their crias, I host Alex's courses ( horse clickertraining) in June, fencing all up in July, alpacas come in September.

The reality-   second maiden mum refuses to let her baby nurse . So she needs bottle feeding.

So,down I go with the trailer,after putting up temporary fencing and runway, and pick up 2 mums and crias , 2 days before I have 12 people and another 5 horses stating for a course in my field. I was hosting the course, had 3 people staying in my house, and was bottle feeding every 3 hours. Kind of in at the deep  end  -  I was SO glad I had done that 2 day course. 

Today was a gorgeous day -  and my poopicker was back on the road. So I cleaned all the paddocks, before going to work tonight,

A circle of alpacas

I went to get the alpacas in about 9 o'clock last night. Instead of going straight into their field I went up the track to close the gate at the top end, and then nipped over the fence   -  to find out I had dropped in on a poo and pee session ( please excuse the language , but defaecation and urination sounds a little formal!) . I really felt the odd one out, standing there, whilst they all did the necessary. Iolani also took the opportunity to have a quick feed from her mother.

As I only have 2 youngsters, and a total herd of five,. I have not weaned them over the winter, but kept an eye on all their weights, bringing them in each night means they can all get dry and comfortable  -  they certainly want to come in each night.