Well we are now a protection zone and will soon be getting a call from the vets to say our vaccine is ready for collection. This thought does concern me as the reports doing the rounds are not encouraging, the latest was from Dawn Macormick who brought an alpaca here for mating yesterday. One of her females became very poorly shortly after the vaccine was administered and hasn’t really recovered fully yet.

On the face of it we have obviously got to go ahead and vaccinate, as the BAS say “don’t hesitate, vaccinate”, but I suspect I’ll have a few sleepless nights.

We weighed Georgina’s cria again today and unfortunately he has not gained at all, even though we have seen him regularly feeding from mother. Felicia deciced he can’t suck properly and on close examination we have found out why. He has the most undersot jaw we have ever seen. It must be 2cm undershot and obviously this is causing him difficulty when trying to hold onto the teat. so we will continue with the supplementary feeding as much as possible and hope he makes it. This again makes you question the value of outside matings, especially to unproven show winners!!

All is well with the crias. Josh’s foot has healed well, though he does look a bit strange with one purple foot. My attempts at a hernia correction have failed dismally. we’ll just have to make sure it sorts itself out otherwise it might be a job for the vet. We’ve stopped giving supplementary feeds to Georgina’s cria and he is holding his weight. Probably give him a name now which hopefully won’t be the kiss of death!!

Chica is still holding on to her pregnancy, 11 months 3 weeks now, she is such a tiny thing you begin to wonder if there is enough room.

We have got a few empty females running around now. We plan to start mating in mid-July. This is the first time we have delayed things like this. The idea is to free up the period over spring and early summer so that we can both enjoy the shows etc. The stud males are sitting in their field looking across at the females and wondering whats happened. They’ll soon be busy enough. This is the first year we are going to have Alamo and Verdello cria from quality females in a large enough number to make real comparisons. The Alamo cria so far look the best we’ve had to date but the next few due are Verdello cria so it should be interesting. The outside mating results have so far been very poor, infact the worst in the paddock. I guess the lesson is don’t go chasing show winners, wait for their progeny!!

Victoria, our daughter is home from Med school having passed her second year with flying colours. As with all students, she is broke and therefore helping out around the farm and started cheerfully at 8am this morning. Lets see how long this lasts. No more cria to report. We have been treating Josh for an infected foot, a sort of digital dermatitis which they all seem to get occassionally. I think shepherds call it strip. It’s very infectious so you must keep an eye on the others. Georginas’ cria is still taking milk occassionally. Till he starts putting on weight satisfactorally we will keep perservering. She does have milk, he just seems a bit dim!!

Young farmers are visting this evening, last time we had over 20 of them and I ran out of beer so had better stock up.

Finally managed to get a couple of shots of some cicuit training. Only two of the cria would oblige, I’ll have my camera with me one day when they are all doing it. Chica is still holding on, I was sure she would have her cria while I was away over the weekend but not to be.

Eric, to answer your query, the weaners mother is a Saddleback and the sire a cross Landrace/Duroc.

Chica is still holding on, otherwise all is well with the cria. I keep trying to get a picture of them doing their circuit training in the evening. This is the best time with the cria as they charge around the fields for ten minutes or so. The theory is that this warms them up before nightfall. However, every time I arrive with my camera they become very camera shy!!

Tom and Julie from Llama Land have invited our alpacas to their Open Day on Sunday the 6th July. We shall be there with our stand and some of the younger boys so please if you are in the Truro area on that day come and see us.

Visit Tom and Julie’s website at www.llamalland.com. (Please remember the two l’s in lland). The site will give loads of information on llamas and also a location map for the day.

See you there.

Well the weaners are finally settled into there new home but not without any hitches. The male weaner managed to escape whilst I was moving them from the stables to the pig pen. Fortunately he turned left and ran into the garden and not right which would have taken him down the drive onto the road.

He set off through the garden with me in pursuit with a bucket of food. He is a lot quicker than me and in no time had disappeared into the woods and long grass. Eventually he appeared next to the pig pen where his sister had been calling to him. Now the fun began as we chased each other around the pen but I am pleased to say that human intelligence prevailed, only just, and I finally trapped him. I have called him Houdini. I’m not sure i am going to give the other one a name, I don’t want to get too attached!

Senara from Hendra Alpacas came by with two of her females to leave them here for breeding. Her large mid brown girl is going to Little Legend and her smaller dark brown girl to Alamo which might result in a fancy cria. She’s of the same mind as me regarding multi coloured animals in that there is a place for them as pet animals and fleece producers for the cottage industry. With her background in showing horses she has seen a similar change occur in the horsey world where in the past any kind of multi was shunned. Now Appaloosas are all the rage. I hope she’s right!!

Chica, our first ever bottle fed cria is expecting. She is the family favorite and at almost at 11 and a half months pregnant we are all biting our fingernails and imagining the worst. She was Brown champion at Devon County as a Junior and mated to Verdello so we are hoping for a stunner which doesn’t help the fingernails either.

My first attempt at a hernia repair worked brilliantly till Fame, the fawn cria rolled in the roll pit and managed to remove it. I’ll make a few adjustments and try again.

Came home last night with our two weaners. They are 2 months old and locked away in the stables at the moment so pictures wouldn’t be very good. I’m going to move them to the pig run later where hopefully they won’t escape. I’ll get some shots of them in there.

Meanwhile this one very nearly escaped from the makeshift container on the journey home yesterday. I’ve got to think of some names for them. A boy and a girl.