Are My Eyes Really Blue?

There has been much discussion in the alpaca world about blue-eyed white alpacas.  Some breeders believe that blue eyed white alpacas should not be allowed to reproduce, others feel that at least the female blue eyed white alpacas should be allowed to breed but that they should be bred to solid dark alpacas to reduce the risk of reproducing another blue-eyed white alpaca, and other breeders do not perceive blue-eyed alpacas as a problem and use them in their breeding program.

If you search for “blue eyed white alpaca” on the Internet your search terms will guide you to a few articles written on blue-eyed white alpacas.  One of the concerns with blue-eyed white alpacas is that they may be deaf, certainly it seems that some are but not all blue-eyed white alpacas are deaf.

One question I have is how much of the light blue or white pigmentation needs to be present in an alpaca’s eye to determine that a white-coated alpaca is a blue-eyed white?

We have two boys on our farm that have lighter coloring in the iris of their eye in addition to the darker coloring of the iris (I did discover during my research for this entry that the term for an iris that has greater than one color between and/or within each eye is called heterochromia).  One of the boys has a white fleece although it is more of a creamy white than a true white; he has a little under 25% of his iris as blue or white.  The other boy has white/light streaks over less than 10% of his eyes surface, his fleece is beige.  Both boys are out of the same dam but have different sires.

The dam of these two boys has a white fleece and very dark eyes; she has produced crias before ranging from medium fawn to white.

I would love to figure out what the genetic possibilities are for this dam in regards to fleece color and eye color.  After she produced the first boy with light blue in his eyes, we did some research and decided that we should breed her to a dark fleeced alpaca with dark eyes.  We did that and ended up with a beige alpaca with a little white/light blue in his eyes. 

So where do we go next with this girl if we wish to avoid the lighter coloring in her crias eyes?  I wanted to breed her to a fawn male to see what would the result would be but when we tried that breeding combination she repeatedly rejected that male, so we ended up breeding her to a different male who is white, but is out of a fawn dam.

I think while we are waiting for this girl to have her cria I will get in touch the authors of articles on blue-eyed white alpacas and seek their opinion on the best choice of herdsire for my girl.  I will also be asking if my two boys are really considered blue-eyed whites.  If I get a reply I will let you know what they say.

Rosemary       

Short and Sweet – People to Meet

As I write this it is 1:30 a.m., now I am somewhat of a night owl, but usually try and call it a night before this hour.  There are however special circumstances for my early morning writing; my friend Linda had a torturous journey from the U.K.   to the US.  Her initial flight was delayed, and then it was diverted to Austin, Texas due to weather.  After three hours of sitting on the tarmac at the airport the plane set off for Lubbock, Texas but had to turn back as someone on the plane had a panic attack and needed to be seem by paramedics.  Poor Linda’s journey seemed to be never ending, but by 11 p.m. we were back in Clovis, by which time Linda had been up for about 21 hours straight.

So this blog entry will be short and sweet, later today Linda will get acquainted with the alpacas, dogs, cats and horses and then it’s on to a lunch meeting with Bob and Regina Dart of Llano Soleado Alpacas.  We may do a little halter work with the crias later in the day and then there is always the fleece room to be tackled ………

Tomorrow I will write more and get back on subject, but for now it’s time to get a few hours rest before starting the routine for another day.

Rosemary

A Special Visitor Comes to Town

Later today I will be headed to Lubbock, Texas to pick up a very special visitor.  My dear friend Linda from England is coming to visit us for a couple of weeks.  Ric and I are so excited that Linda will soon be here, while we both saw her when we were in England for Laura’s visit, it will be wonderful to see her again – you can never have too much of a true and old friend.

Linda and I first met in 1980 when we both joined the Police Force.  Linda had been a police cadet and I had worked for a short time after leaving school before deciding to join the Police.  We went through our induction course together but were assigned different basic training courses.  Still we encountered each other on several occasions during our probationary period (the first two years) of being Police Officers.

Eventually we ended up working together in Major Crime Incident Rooms.  Incident Room work is intense and involves very long hours, especially during the first couple of weeks and you get to know your co-workers really well.    There is a special bond that is formed between people all working toward a common goal of solving a major crime, and perhaps to those who have never experienced that situation it is hard to imagine that working on something that is sometimes gruesome and exhausting can spark friendships that will last a lifetime.

Linda and I have seen each other through many good and bad times and have many memories together.

This is not Linda’s first visit to the US, she has been over a couple of times before, but it has been a few years since her last visit.  On her last visit she was here with her husband Dick, who we had both known for several years through our incident room work.  Dick was one of life’s true diamonds, who genuinely cared for people and had a knack of being able to talk to anyone and put them at ease.  None of us knew it at the time but that visit would be the last one for Dick who sadly died at the beginning of this year.

I am sure that there will be tears of joy and sadness during Linda’s visit, I also know that there will be much humor shared between us and that Linda will jump in and help out around the farm.  I have a couple of things planned for us to do, but I also know that part of Linda’s reason for coming here is to be able to kick back and recharge her batteries.  She has coped so admirably since Dick’s death and now it is time for her to take it easy and just enjoy the peace that our farm provides.   There is something indescribably soothing about watching the alpacas meander through their day, eating a little hay, stretching out in the sun for a nap, running to the gate in the hope that it is their turn to be let out to graze.  The alpacas are very grounding, bringing ones thoughts back to the basics of life; I know Linda will benefit from their special presence.

Rosemary

Checking Things Out

Yesterday Ric and I took a short trip to Logan, New Mexico to inspect a potential adoptive home for some llamas from Southwest Llama Rescue.

Whenever Southwest Llama Rescue considers adopting out llamas to a new home they like to have someone do a physical check of the property where the llamas will be kept to ensure it is a safe and caring environment.  The last thing any rescue operation wants to do is adopt out an animal to a home that is just not suitable for that particular animal.

It was a great day for driving out into the country; we went up through Broadview and Grady then over the caprock (complete with it’s energy producing wind turbines) to San Jon.  From San Jon it was a short drive to Logan and to the specific property we had been asked to inspect.

The home we visited was clean, tidy and well maintained and both Ric and I got a good feeling about the people who lived there.  The couple looking to adopt the llamas are quite, gentle people and it was obvious to us that they have a genuine love of animals.  All of their animals are in good condition and were very relaxed around us and the couple who own them.  The behavior of the animals around humans can tell you a lot about their owners, and this group of animals told us in their own way that they were well cared for, loved and enjoying life in general.

Our visit was just long enough for us to check out the pasture where the llamas will be kept, the fences around that pasture, the shelter available to the llamas and also to discuss a few general things that need to be considered when adopting a llama.

 We were very happy with what we saw and have recommended to Southwest Llama Rescue that they allow the adoption of the llamas to go ahead.

Southwest Llama Rescue has a large number of llamas available for adoption and it is encouraging when a good family like the one we visited today comes forward and applies to adopt a couple of llamas.  I suspect within a few weeks there will be a happy family and two happy llamas settling into a new loving home.

If you would like to learn more about how to adopt some llamas from Southwest Llama Rescue, please visit their website at http://www.southwestllamarescue.org/ 

Rosemary

Cria Watch is Coming!

It’s hard to imagine that the year has flown by so fast that we will soon be on cria watch again.  It barely seems like yesterday that we were anxiously awaiting the birth of Clarissa’s cria, White Blast, who was the last cria of the spring for us.  But here we are almost at September and preparing to go on cria watch again.

The first girl due is Zoie.  Zoie is a maiden female so we don’t have any prior pregnancies to gauge her gestation upon, her due date is September 20 but she is already showing signs of being close to term.  

As with all pregnant females I have been keeping Zoie under a watchful eye especially during the recent extreme heat.  Her “bump” has been growing and we see a very active cria kicking inside her on some days.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Zoie’s udder was starting to develop, she has wax caps on her teats and as of a couple of days ago her teats have filled out.  Some females do this weeks before birthing others just days before.  I have checked under Zoie’s tail and her vulva is not at all swollen so I think it will be a while before the cria arrives, still I will be keeping an even closer eye on Zoie than usual.

Another indication that Zoie is preparing for the birth of her cria is that she has started to isolate herself a little from the herd and can often be found at night sitting away from the main group – she also has an increased appetite as the cria grows and puts more of a strain on her system.

 We will not be going too far from home for the next few weeks, one of us will always need to be home just in case Zoie has her cria earlier than expected.  Zoie is bred to our male Windrush Jennifer’s Zindel and so far he has two daughters on the ground.  Zoie’s dam Alyssa only produced female crias during her life so we are keeping our fingers crossed that she has passed that trait onto Zoie –we will soon see.

Rosemary

Routine Maintenance – For Both Alpacas and Blogs!

If you have had difficulty accessing any WordPress blogs over the last day or so it is because WordPress has experienced some network problems with a couple of their bandwidth providers.  The system is now undergoing some routine maintenance to fix anything that was affected by the problem and is expected to be back up and running by 4 a.m. MST Sunday August 26.

With all things routine maintenance is necessary, and yesterday we spent some time performing routine maintenance on the alpacas.  We weighed all of the boys, trimmed their toenails, checked their teeth and treated them for ear ticks.  The girls we will try and do either today or Monday.   We also assessed the alpacas that will be going to the New Mexico State Fair Alpaca Show in September to see which ones need more halter work.  Zin and Treasure both walk and show like pros, Shiimsa did remarkably well today to say it is a while since she has been on a halter.  The State Fair will be Shiimsa’s first show so we want her to be very comfortable walking on the halter well prior to the show.  Rian walked well on the halter but was not too keen to have his fleece looked at so we will need to work on that with him.  Rascal and Echo, the youngest alpacas going to the show, definitely need more work, Rascal really doesn’t like walking on different floor surfaces and Echo just didn’t want to behave!  So the show string will be in for some regular practice between now and September.  

Regular routine maintenance helps us keep up with how each individual member of the herd is doing and can prevent small problems from growing into big ones.  By working and training our show string well in advance of the show they should all be more comfortable with their show experience.

 Whether your company runs blogs or raises alpacas, it’s important to do that routine maintenance work.

Rosemary  

The Meaning of Ma Cushla

I had someone contact me the other day with a question about a blog entry where I had mentioned our grey alpaca Ma Cushla.  The question was “What does Ma Cushla mean?”

Well Ma Cushla is an Irish term for “My Darling”.  Our Ma Cushla was the first female cria born to us and we were enchanted with her from the first time we saw her.  At that time our alpacas were agisted in Ruidoso, New Mexico and on the three hour drive home from our visit to see our alpacas Ric and I discussed what we would like to name our newest alpaca.  As we talked the name Ma Cushla came to mind.

When we named our farm we had chosen the name Windrush that has a connection to my father’s side of the family.  To make things even I wanted to somehow connect with my mother’s side of the family.  My great grand mother was Irish and my mother is proud of her Irish heritage.  My sister-in-law’s family are also of Irish decent, and we grew up attending the same schools and knew each other well before Roisin (my sister-in-law) married my brother John.  Roisin’s sister was always referred to as Ma Cushla and I grew up believing that was her name.  I believe I was in my early twenties when Roisin let me know that Ma Cushla’s name was not really Ma Cushla but that their father had always called her by that name, with the name meaning “My Darling”.

I thought the name Ma Cushla was unique and memorable, and decided to use it for our little cria (Roisin’s sister by the way was honored that we chose her “name” for our cria).

These days Ma Cushla is still our darling, but also is quite a character.  A striking silver grey female, she is always very much one of the guardians to the herd.  Before we owned guard llamas Ma Cushla was always on watch and alarmed if she saw something moving miles away.  While it was nice that Ma Cushla took on this duty we felt that it was causing her a lot of stress, and she was one of the reasons for us getting guard llamas.  Within a short while of introducing the llama ladies to the herd Ma Cushla realized that they would take on the responsibility of watching over the herd and relaxed considerably.

The name Ma Cushla received more publicity when the film Million Dollar Baby was released.  I remember a friend of ours telling us we simply must watch the movie as we were the only people she knew who would understand something at the end of the movie.  In the movie the name is spelt differently – “mo chuisle” and there seems to be much debate as to the correct spelling and the exact meaning of the words.

For us though Ma Cushla it will be and to us it will always mean “my darling” and bring to mind our beautiful silver grey girl.

Rosemary 

Building Fences (or to be correct replacing fences worn out by llamas!)

When we brought our first alpacas home we had one small pasture ready to take them.  That was a little bit of a mistake, within a short time the three of them had eaten the grass down completely and we did not have another pasture ready to rotate them onto.  Every new alpaca owner makes mistakes at some time or another and that was ours at that time, we should have prepared at least one other pasture before we brought the alpacas home.

So having discovered that alpacas eat grass a lot quicker than we had had anticipated Ric set to work setting up another pasture.  We were fortunate when we bought our house in that it already had several shelters and pens set up for keeping horses, however the fencing on a horse pasture is not secure enough to protect alpacas and so there was still plenty of work to do.

In front of the house at that time was a large open field and I had decided that field was where I wanted the girls pasture to be.  With the girls birthing cria and then the cria subsequently growing up I wanted to have them in the pasture that would be most visible from the house.  So we started to get the area fenced off and decided where the shelters would be.  The fence wire we used was a no-climb wire that is great for alpacas, it looked good when we set it up, but then once we moved the alpacas in we realized that a slightly heavier gauge of wire would have been better.  Jenny (my first alpaca) took great delight in rubbing against the fence and over time it started to bow out in the middle.  Still it wasn’t a bad fence and it was doing its job of keeping predators out and providing a boundary for the alpacas – and then came the llamas!

As our alpaca herd grew we decided that guard llamas would be a good idea.  Our initial thought was for one llama, but then we started talking to the enthusiastic volunteers at Southwest Llama Rescue and the next thing we knew we had decided to bring three llamas home.

The llamas ladies (as we like to call them) have worked out really well for us, they do an excellent job of guarding, they blend well with our alpaca herd and they are very entertaining, but being taller and stronger than the alpacas they soon made their mark on our fence – literally!

When the weeds are growing on the other side of a five-foot no climb fence the alpacas gently nibble at them through the fence, the llamas however know that they can gain much better access to the weeds by reaching over the fence and eating the weeds.  Now if our fence had been a stronger gauge or had a rigid top rail then this would not have been a problem, but as time ticked on and the llamas enjoyed the weeds the top of our fence gradually folded over.

A different llama trick that also does not do anything for our fence is the “lets use those convenient holes in the fence to climb up and reach the trees” trick.  The llamas have figured out that if they put their toes into the holes in the fence they can climb it at least a little way and reach the bottom limbs of the elm trees outside the pasture.

So with the passage of time and llama ingenuity our poor fence was starting to look a little wilted and in need of repair or replacement.

This week Ric discovered that a local hardware store is selling 10 foot x 6 foot pre-assembled chain link panels.  The price is not too bad, they are easy to put together and make a decent fence, and at 6 feet tall they should prevent the llamas from reaching over to get the weeds on the other side of the fence. 

It is going to be quite a long project, but the fence on the front pasture is going to be replaced.  It will also be a good opportunity to level off the dirt that the wind has kindly piled up against the fence line and Ric wants to try and have a least part of the pasture planted to grass or wheat for the alpacas to graze on.

So far we have one side of the pasture leveled and today the first panel went up.  It looks good and sturdy and should stand up better to the llamas, and the alpacas who love to rub against fences.  Of course the true test will be once we let the llamas back into that section of pasture, you never know what the llamas will think of next – I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

Rosemary    

Coming Soon – National Alpaca Farm Day!

A new event to the alpaca community takes place on September 29 and 30 2007 – National Alpaca Farm Day.  The National Alpaca Farm Day has been initiated by the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA), with the intention of raising public awareness of alpacas and also allowing the public to easily find an alpaca farm in their area to visit on September 29^th and/or 30^th.

 The local alpaca affiliates have been working with the Governors of their states to have proclamations made recognizing September 29 as National Alpaca Farm Day.  The proclamations will also recognize the alpaca as special livestock and will acknowledge the properties of alpaca fleece.  The proclamation for New Mexico is in the works if not already completed, and many other states already have their proclamation in place.

Advertising for National Alpaca Farm Day has already begun, with posters being put up and press releases being submitted to local and national press.   TV commercials will also run to advertise National Alpaca Farm Day.

A website has been developed specifically for this special day and can be found at http://www.alpacafarmday.com , at the moment the site is a static page but as the event draws nearer the site will become more interactive, allowing visitors to the site to search for a farm near them to visit.

While not every alpaca breeder in the country will be participating in National Alpaca Farm Day many will, us included.  Some farms will be open to the public on both September 29 and 30, others may open for only one of those days, so if you are looking to visit an alpaca farm during National Alpaca Farm Day it would be wise to call ahead to verify the which day(s) the farm will be open and the opening hours for that day.

It is great to see such initiatives in place, while alpaca awareness is much stronger than when we first started in the alpaca business, there are still many people who are unaware of what an alpaca is or what the purpose of an alpaca is.  Hopefully National Alpaca Farm Day will help raise alpaca awareness throughout the nation.

So mark your calendars and keep checking www.alpacafarmday.com to discover an alpaca farm near you. 

Rosemary

Come One Come All – It’s a Spin-Off Call!

With our two farms so close to each other, there is daily conversation between Bob and Regina Dart of Llano Soleado Alpacas and us.  We sometimes joke that Bob and Regina’s Farm is Windrush North and our farm is Llano Soleado South!  It’s a great benefit to have another alpaca farm so close to ours, from watching out for each other’s alpacas to purchasing joint equipment there are many advantages to combining resources with another alpaca farm.

Yesterday’s conversation covered the upcoming 2008 TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular Hand Crafters’ Spin-Off competition.  In 2007 the TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular held it’s first Hand Crafters’ Spin-Off, it was a last minute arrangement and even then with little publicity we managed to attract over 60 entries to the competition.  I took on the responsibility of putting together the 2007 Spin-Off and Regina Dart very kindly agreed to assist me.  Little did Regina know that I would be asked to be the fleece show superintendent for the 2008 TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular, which led me to nominate her to be the co-coordinator for the 2008 Spin-Off!

 A Hand Crafters Spin-Off is an interesting competition.  Each entrant selects 2 oz of prime fleece from a fleece shorn within 380 days of the show entry deadline.  That fleece sample is then submitted in a zipper type clear plastic bag, along with a photo of the alpaca that provided the fleece sample and a copy of the alpaca’s ARI Certificate.  The fleece samples are collected by the Spin-Off Coordinator and then sent to an experienced spinner for judging.

The Spin-Off judge examines and judges the fleece sample prior to carding and spinning it, the sample is then carded and then spun into a small skein of yarn.  The skein is then washed in soap and water and judged.  Because of the work involved in preparing, spinning and judging all of the samples and skeins the deadline for the Spin-Off is usually at least four months prior to the actual show.

Hand Crafters’ Spin-Offs are a fun competition to enter.  You may have a fleece that is not prepared enough to enter a fleece show, or you may have shown a fleece a few times and not feel it will hold up to another show, in both cases you could take a sample and send it in for the Spin-Off. 

 As Spin-Offs are mail in competitions there are no travel expenses involved, you just send in your sample and entry documents and then sit back and await the results.  Once the results are published (usually at the actual show) you hopefully get a ribbon, but if you don’t win a ribbon you will at least get a score card showing you how your sample scored and you get a nifty little skein of yarn which is a great tool for marketing your alpaca.

Last year while the number of entries for the Spin-Off was good (especially considering how late we announced the competition), both Regina and I felt we could have had a lot more entries, so this year we are on a mission to dramatically increase the number of entries.  So, if you are the owner of an ARI registered alpaca consider entering the 2008 TxOLAN Alpaca Spectacular Hand Crafters’ Spin Off.  Entry forms for the event are available at the TxOLAN Show Information Page  and the fleece tag to go with your fleece sample is available if you click here.    If you are unable to download the forms from that site drop Regina an email at Alpacas@llanocorp.com and she will be happy to email a copy of the forms to you.  Don’t delay though, the entry deadline is October 15, 2007 and as the saying goes “Due dates are closer than they appear”!

 Rosemary