A Busy Enjoyable Day

National Alpaca Farm day for Windrush Alpacas is over.  Rosemary and I had a great day visiting with several people that came over to see our farm, visit with our very inquisitive males, and receive a sniff or two from the llamas. Most visitors took the time to look over our line of products that we relocated for the day from our downtown Clovis store.

The morning started out slower than expected but it was great to have some time to spend with a couple that drove nearly two hours to discuss their future expectations as they prepare to become involved in our alpaca industry.  Rosemary spent some time with other visitors while we were able to discuss many of the details of raising and caring for alpacas and what one can expect with this variety of livestock.  It was great to be able to have Rosemary join us for nearly an hour as we took the time to visit with the alpacas and give Farron and Patrick opportunity for some hands on time.

While the morning visitors were not as numerous as expected we did have several visitors in the afternoon.  It was an enjoyable day for the youngsters as they were able to get nose to nose with some of our crias as they playfully inspected the two legged little ones in their domain.

While we had full intentions of having our tables and brochures set up in the car port yesterday for the event, the weather dictated otherwise, with high winds forecast and close to 40mph gusts we decided (Rose insisted) it would be much wiser to set up our displays inside.  This was a cause for concern for me as we have been using our little studio building as a fleece sorting and skirting area.  The numerous fleeces that had not been prepared for shipment, skirting table, and a collection of boxes along with other supplies for shows and travel had found their way into this fairly small space.  I’m sure Rosemary was secretly conniving with the weatherman to make sure I would get inside and clear up the controlled chaos and turn the space into a tidy area to work and relax in.  She succeeded.  The room is now neatly set up with a tidy work area and hopefully we will soon be able to finish off the skirting of our show fleeces and prepare the rest of our animal harvest for shipment to the various mills we use for our product.

Rosemary is off to Oklahoma for the weekend and into Tuesday as she attends a much anticipated seminar by an esteemed expert on the intricacies of color checking animals prior to and during a show.  Rosemary and I have attended many shows during our years as alpaca owners and the common theme that runs into every show are the high number of show entries that are moved to different classes because of errors in the color verification of the animals.  The shows are getting larger every year as more alpacas are being shown around the country and accurate color verification will be gaining even more attention from show superintendents.

While Rosemary is enjoying her training I will be holding down the fort at home enjoying my time with the playful crias and watching over the rest of our herd.

 To our new friends, Patrick and Fallon,  I hope you enjoyed your visit with us as much as we enjoyed talking about our favorite subject.  Alpacas!

Ric

National Alpaca Farm Day is Here!

Well today is the day, we have the grass mown, the place tidy (well as tidy as we ever get), the alpacas instructed to be on their best behavior, the cookies made and the alpaca products ready to sell – it’s National Alpaca Farm Day. 

Our radio interview at KTQM on Friday went well, with Ric discovering that the microphone is not going to bite him – a big thank you to Grant and Misty at KTQM for allowing us airtime to promote our event. 

We are not sure how many people will attend today, the nearby air force base has a major change of command ceremony on Monday (not just a change of Wing Commander but the mark of the beginning of a new mission for Cannon Air Force Base) and many people from the base are involved in the preparations for that, there is an ethnic fair being held in downtown Clovis and the wind is forecast to be blowing hard! 

Even prior to the event the publicity already gained for National Alpaca Farm Day has been great and can only have raised public awareness of alpacas.   Some alpacas appeared on the Today Show (go to http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/16487590/ to view the footage), the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association have run ads on both cable and satellite TV and numerous newspapers have published press releases about the event. 

Here at the farm little Zeus finally gained 0.5 lbs yesterday, now if we can only get him to repeat that gain today.  I have got to the point that I hold my breath as I stand on the scale with him and hope that his weight has gone up and not down.  I am not sure which of the steps that we took is working, but something appears to be so for now we will carry on with all that we are doing.  Carissima is still growing by leaps and bounds and is one of the sweetest crias you could wish to meet; she knows her name and comes running over when I call her in the pasture. 

Carissima and Zeus have been having fun in the evenings chasing each other around the pasture and they have been great entertainment as they frolic around under the soft light of the beautiful harvest moon we have had the last couple of days.  I tried to capture pictures of them in the moonlight, but my photography skills are not up to the challenge of moonlight and fast moving crias. 

Immediately after our Open House I will be heading to Shawnee, Oklahoma for the Compliance Check Class and to volunteer at the Judges Training Clinic.  It is about a seven hour drive to Oklahoma City, where I am going to stop for the night, and I am sure I am going to be glad to see the hotel room after the long drive.  I am not sure of the Internet access availability over the weekend so if the blog is quiet it means I am unable to get online.  Then again I might just turn the blog over to Ric for a couple of days and see what he can come up with! 

Rosemary 

A Radio Appearance and More on Zeus

This morning we are off to a bright and early start as we are appearing on a local radio station KTQM at 7 a.m.  We will be talking to the Morning Show hosts Grant McGee and Misty Presley about our open house this Saturday in recognition of National Alpaca Farm Day.  I’m not sure what questions or comments Grant and Misty will have but I am sure it will be a fun experience.  

The impetus for National Alpaca Farm Day is certainly building with many farms opening their doors to the public on September 29.   We will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will have alpaca products available, tours of the alpaca farm and even some cookies and drinks for visitors. 

Immediately following our open house I am planning on driving to Oklahoma City and then onto Shawnee, Oklahoma on Sunday for an Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association Compliance Check Clinic.  The Compliance Check is a method used to accurately place alpacas in the correct classes at shows based on their fleece length and color.   Following the clinic there is a Judges Oral Reasoning Clinic, which I will probably stay and volunteer at until Tuesday when I will need to head home. 

At home young Zeus has again stopped gaining weight.  We were so thrilled when he gained for the one day, but then his weight stabilized and yesterday he lost weight.   We feel that while Zoie has some milk she may not have enough to allow Zeus to gain weight.  We are also wondering if the day he gained weight was as a result of Carina allowing him to nurse from her while she was distracted. 

In an effort to improve the situation with Zeus we have upped Zoies calorie intake by allowing Carina, Chai (who is in the last few weeks of her pregnancy) and Zoie to be in a pen with a flake of alfalfa hay between them.  We don’t usually feed our alpacas alfalfa as it is really too high in protein for them, but the girls we are giving it to have a need for it right now.  By penning the three girls up together with Zeus and Carissima it also allows Zeus to have a nurse off Carina who has plenty milk. 

We have also started Zoie on an extra ration of the herbal lactation stimulant and some of the MSE Probiotic Drench.  I will also give her a treatment with the photonic red light that is supposed to help milk production.  Fingers crossed something will work to help increase Zoie’s milk production. 

We did try Zeus with a bottle yesterday, but like many alpaca crias he did not want to have anything to do with it.  We tried both goats milk and whole cows milk without success.  Zeus seemed a little more comfortable with the whole cows milk (to which we have also added some whipping cream and full fat vanilla yoghurt) but he still was not at all cooperative about drinking from the bottle.  It may just be a case of being persistant in getting something in him. 

We will be holding our breath this morning as we weigh Zeus, I won’t feel comfortable leaving town if he does not start to gain weight soon.  Ric will be here to look after Zeus while I am gone, but I will still be reluctant to leave town if Zeus is not progressing in the right direction.   Let’s hope we can exhale with a sigh of relief once we have weighed the little guy! 

Rosemary  

Using Big Bales with Alpacas – Follow-up

It’s been a little while now since we started our experiment with using big bales of hay with the alpacas.  The girls have almost munched their way through two big bales, while the boys are just about finishing their first one. So what do we think of the big bale experiment so far?  There are definite pros and cons, lets start with the pros. 

1. Cuts down on chore time – using a big bale reduces one step from the daily chores as we do not have to put out as much hay into the individual feeders.
2. Hay price is cheaper – typically the price of a big bale is less than the price of the equivalent weight of small bales.
3. In a dry lot situation the alpacas have something to munch on all day.  Having a big bale of hay available 24/7 helps simulate the natural grazing habits of alpacas
4. They provide instant bedding for the alpacas – as the hay falls onto the floor it makes a nice layer of bedding for the alpacas that they love to lie on.
5. The crias love to play on the bales as they get smaller.  Our crias have certainly found the big bales fun to climb on as the bale gets smaller.

 So onto the cons. 

1. There is a lot of wastage.  As the bale is eaten down the hay falls down around the sides of the bale and gets stepped on and blown around in the wind.
2. Less exercise for the alpacas (and llamas!).  We are finding that instead of wandering from feeder to feeder the alpacas and llamas get stuck into eating the bale and there they stay until they are full.
3. Harder to monitor the daily consumption of hay by the alpacas.  The big bales we are using are lower protein hay that is suitable for all day feeding, however if the hay were higher in protein it could result in some chubby alpacas over time.
4. Certain alpacas can dominate feeding at the big bale.  Some of the alpacas are finding a position to eat the bale from and then not allowing the other alpacas into that spot.
5. Risk of spreading parasites is higher.  The alpacas stand on the hay that falls on the floor, they may have been standing on the poop pile a short while before standing on the hay and whatever is on their feet can easily transfer to the loose hay around the bale.
6. Harder to obtain hay for shows.  It really doesn’t work as well to fork some hay off the bale and take it with you to the show.  We got lucky this last show and had a small core of a bale left which we were able to place into a large hessian sack for transporting to the show.  If the bale had been bigger though it would have been more difficult to work with.
7. Crias love to play on the bales as they get smaller – fun for the crias, but also has a potential for one of them to get hurt jumping on and off the bale.

 So at the moment there are more cons than pros on using the big bales, however we haven’t given up on the idea yet.  

We feel that in order to successfully use big bales we are going to have to devise some sort of containment system for the big bale that will allow the alpacas to eat the bale, but also will contain the hay that drops off the side of the bale.  The containment system would need to be adjustable so that as the bale gets smaller the containment system can be adjusted to the size of the bale.  By containing the hay that falls off the bale we will hopefully also stop the alpacas from standing on the fallen hay and reduce the parasite contamination risk.  The other advantage of the containment system is that it will prevent the crias from jumping on top of the bale.  I hate to be a spoilsport, but there is a risk that one of them could get hurt jumping on and off the bale. 

For now we have the girls big bale in the large carport shelter in their pasture.  The shelter keeps the rain or wind off the bale, but still there is a mess of hay on the ground.  The problem I have with the position of that bale is that I cannot see what the girls are up to.  When you have alpacas due to have their cria it causes moments of concern when you can’t see that girl and so walk out to the pasture only to discover she is engrossed in eating a big bale.  Ideally I would like to have an open sided carport in the pasture where I could see the alpacas, yet which would still provide shelter to the alpacas and the big bale. 

So we will keep working with the big bales for now and see if we can reduce the cons and increase the pros. 

Rosemary

Re-Thinking Biosecurity

I received an informational email on Monday evening that detailed a BVDV exposure at a ranch in Colorado.  BVDV or Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus is a disease of cattle that has been around for many years, initially alpacas were thought not to be susceptible to the virus but over time it became apparent that alpacas could contract the disease.  BVDV can cause stillbirths, abortions, infertility and even death in alpacas.

In alpacas BVDV is usually contracted by exposure to a persistently infected (PI) cria.  A PI cria is created when the cria is exposed to the virus as a fetus during the first 18 – 120 days of pregnancy (some vets feel that exposure after the 120 day mark can still cause a PI cria).  The virus infects the fetus causing the immune system to fail to recognize the virus as foreign.  As the crias immune system fails to recognize BVDV as a virus the cria is born with an immune system that is tolerant to the virus allowing the virus to thrive, and for the rest of its life the PI cria sheds the virus in large amounts, thus putting the whole herd at risk to the virus.  BVDV can also be contracted by exposure to an adult alpaca that has been exposed to the virus, or even be from people’s shoes, clothing and equipment.

Steps were taken a couple of years ago to educate the alpaca community about BVDV and to prevent a BVDV epidemic among the alpaca population.  As a result of the information put out at that time many farms (ourselves included) developed stronger biosecurity policies. 

The sad and somewhat worrying fact about the current BVDV exposure in Colorado is that the farm involved had a good biosecurity plan in place and yet still the exposure to BVDV occurred and at least one alpaca has died as a result of the exposure.  It seems that some of the current testing for BVDV in alpacas can throw false negative results that can lead an alpaca farm to thinking that there is no risk of exposure to the virus when in fact there is. 

Thankfully the farm involved has chosen to share their experience with the alpaca community, and they are to be commended for doing so.   As a result of this farm’s unfortunate experience the alpaca community can consider further steps that should be taken to prevent the spread of this virus.

Since the initial information about alpacas and BVDV was released a couple of years ago we have had a biosecurity plan in place at our farm.   In view of the information on this most recent episode of BVDV we will now have to review our biosecurity plan and make it more stringent.

I have been concerned of late that something of this nature would happen, I was aware of several farms that were no longer practicing biosecurity plans as they felt it was too inconvenient and “a fuss about nothing”.  I felt it was only a matter of time before BVDV reared its ugly head again, but it seems so unfair it should do so in a farm that was careful in regards to biosecurity.  While I would not wish this disease on anyone’s farm I can only be grateful that the farm involved has been prepared to openly share their experience in an effort to educate alpaca breeders, there are some farms that probably would not have taken that path.

Disease and illness in livestock will always happen and being prepared to deal with situations such as preventing the spread of BVDV is part of being involved in a livestock business.  I sincerely hope that those alpaca breeders who had dropped their biosecurity procedures will now rethink their decision and understand that it is not only in their own interest but also in the interest of the alpaca industry as a whole to practice good biosecurity and be prepared to offer full disclosure when problems occur.

Rosemary  

            

Trailering Along – Zeus’s First Ride

I’m pleased to report that young Zeus gained 2/10 lb yesterday morning, not much of a gain, but it was a gain rather than a loss.  He also appeared more sturdy and lively throughout the day, exploring the pasture as a cria should and playing more with Carissima who is delighted to show him the ropes of life as an alpaca cria.

Usually we have blood drawn from our crias once they are 24 hours old to test for BVD and also to get an indication of their immune system levels through an IgG Test.  As Zeus was born on a Saturday we could not get the vet out on Sunday and so yesterday we called to make an appointment with the vet.

Mondays for vets are no different than Mondays for anyone else and our vet had a full appointment book.   We are fortunate that our vet will usually come out to the farm for blood draws on new crias, but as our vet had a tight schedule we arranged to take Zeus and his dam Zoie in to the vet’s office.

Traveling a very young cria can be a little precarious, firstly they tend to be a little less stable on their legs than an adult alpaca, they haven’t learned to cush when traveling so are more likely to fall over in the trailer.  Secondly any time you take them away from their home environment you are possibly exposing them to bacteria and subjecting them to stress.  If Zeus had gained weight from day one then I would have opted to have the blood draw done today and have the vet come out to the farm, but as I have been a little suspicious about Zoie’s colostrums and milk production I felt it best to get the IgG test run as soon as possible. 

Ric prepared our trailer for the journey, first ensuring it was clean and disinfected and then putting a deep layer of straw on the bed of the trailer to provide a soft safe surface for Zeus and Zoie to sit on.

We have two trailers at the farm, one is a 16ft stock trailer, the other is a two horse trailer.  We usually use the 16ft stock trailer, it is nice and airy and has a very smooth ride to it, but as we were only taking in Zoie and Zeus today we decided to use the two horse trailer, which is more solid on the sides and had less area for a cria to explore.

Zoie loaded easily into the trailer, and we carried Zeus into the trailer and placed him beside Zoie.  We took a gentle ride to the vets and the blood was drawn without a problem.  We also had our vet examine Zoie’s udder to check for milk and to get his opinion on what we could do to ease the rawness on her udder where Zeus has made it sore with his nursing.  Our vet said that Zoie has milk in her udder and that there really is not much we can do for the rawness.  If we put something on her udder it will be removed as Zeus nurses, and there is always the chance the taste will put Zeus off from nursing.  Fortunately Zoie’s udder looks less sore today so perhaps the problem is fixing itself already.

So young Zeus has now had his first trailer ride, by the time we arrived home he had figured out the cushing was the best position for traveling.  The results of the IgG test should be ready later today we are keeping our fingers crossed that they are good.

Rosemary 

On The Matter of Boys

The State Fair is now over and Ric and the alpacas have returned home.  All of the show alpacas will now be placed in quarantine for about three weeks just in case they picked something up at the show that could be transmitted to the rest of the herd.  We will also give them a preventative treatment for coccidia for the next five days, as that is a parasite that can sometimes make an appearance after shows.   

Having the Darts of Llano Soleado Alpacas so close to our farm works out great for both herds.  We each take one group of alpacas for quarantine – this time we will quarantine all of the show males from both farms and the Darts will quarantine all of the show females from both farms.  By doing this each farm only needs to provide one quarantine pasture, plus it means that there are no lone alpacas quarantine, as between us we always have more than one show alpaca of each sex.

Our boys did not do quite as well at the show as Shiimsa, but we still came home with some ribbons.  A fifth place for Rascal and a sixth place for Treasure with little Echo and Rian not placing.  All of the boys we took to the show were white and the white male classes are typically the most competitive classes in the show, so to even get a ribbon in a white class these days is something to be grateful for.

On the home front, Zoies cria now has a name; his owners are calling him Zeus.  It is a name that really suits him and follows the “Z” theme of his sire (Zindel) and dam (Zoie).  It also ties in with his grandsire Poseidon so all in all it is a good name for the little guy. 

Young Zeus had actually lost 1/10 of a lb. in weight when we weighed him yesterday morning, it is not unusual to have crias lose some weight on their first day but I am still a little concerned about Zoie’s ability to produce milk.  I feel she has some, but wonder if it is enough for her cria.

Signs that a cria may not be getting enough milk are lethargy, frequent nursing and a lack of a milk moustache when the cria comes away from nursing his dam.  Zeus trotted around a little yesterday, but I would like to see him a little more active, he is not nursing frequently but I did see Zoie walk away while he was nursing yesterday.  I went out and watched Zeus trying to nurse and noticed that Zoie’s teats each have a raw spot or two on them.  Either little Zeus has some sharp teeth, or he is sucking so hard on Zoie that he is irritating her udder.  When watching Zeus nurse I do not see a milk moustache on him when he comes away from nursing, milk moustaches are harder to see on white crias but I just don’t see any signs of milk on his lips.  He could well be fooling us as he did have a small frolic around the pasture with Carissima yesterday evening that shows that he at least has some energy.

So this morning we will see how much weight Zeus has gained, if it is very little or a weight loss I will introduce a supplemental bottle or two of goats’ milk and yoghurt.   Perhaps if Zeus felt fuller then he would not suck so hard on Zoie and her udder will get a chance to heal.   Actually Zeus has taken matters into his own hands (or feet!), I caught him earlier today stealing milk from Carina as Carissima was nursing.  If Carina had not been producing much milk I would have taken steps to stop Zeus from nursing her, but as she produces a lot of good milk I let him continue to nurse.  Hopefully as the days go by Zoie’s milk will really come into it’s own and we will not need to be so concerned about little Zeus.   Whether or not he stops stealing milk from Carina will be a different matter though, to quote my mother “it’s unusual for a man not to find his way to the pantry” and in Zeus’s case I think he has found a new pantry to visit in Carina!

Rosemary

Just Look At Those Curls

Well I’m glad I stayed home after all, as yesterday morning Zoie had her cria.  I noticed Zoie looking a little uncomfortable when I went out to do my morning check at 7 a.m., her udder had been a little enlarged the night before so I suspected that her cria could be born soon.   Zoie was in the early stages of labor and fluctuated between having contractions and walking around as usual, while doing a little hay eating.

By 10 a.m. Zoie was in the final stages of labor and I could see one little white foot.  I got closer to her to check that the other foot was not far behind and thankfully it wasn’t.  The second foot had a little nose pressed up against it and I could tell that things were a little tight.  I jiggled the two feet a little to get them into a better position and with the next contraction some more of the crias nose was presented.  By this time I could see that the crias head was quite large, and I hoped that with Zoie being a maiden dam that she would be able to push the head out without a lot of problems.  Zoie was a trooper though and after a few more contractions the crias head popped out (while I winced in sympathetic pain for Zoie – getting that head out had to hurt!).

After birthing the head Zoie was tired and lay down for a short while.  The cria was gasping and flapping as crias being born do.  Quite often at this stage in labor the dam will walk around with the cria flapping and even wander over to eat a little hay.  This “hanging period” gives the cria a chance to drain the birthing fluids from it’s nose and mouth, while giving the dam a short break from the pain of labor.  Once Zoie had recovered she gave a couple more contractions and the cria was born – a beautiful white boy!

This was one vigorous cria too, he literally took one look around him and then immediately cushed.  He tried to stand minutes after that, but his legs were just not keeping up with him.  The usual crowd of herd aunties had gathered and so I put Zoie and her little boy in a pen for a while to allow them to bond.  I also gave Zoie a well-deserved bucket of feed and hay and a fresh bucket of water.

The cria has nice heavy bone, shiny bright fleece and curls all over including his top knot and the sides of his face.  He has a great head, broad and well shaped, not that Zoie thought it was that great as she tried to deliver him!  I suspect this will be one good-looking boy as he matures.

Zoie is being a great, attentive dam and frets if she cannot see her cria.  Her cria has found a spot behind the large shelter which is shady and where he likes to lie, which drives Zoie crazy, as she cannot see him.  I have been trying to encourage the cria to lie in other shady spots so that Zoie can at least see him from the various hay feeders but he really likes that hidden spot.

My one concern for the cria is that Zoie has enough milk for him.  Shortly after giving birth I checked Zoie’s udder and had a hard time trying to get milk out of it.  The cria fortunately was determined to get some milk from Mom and nudged and sucked on Zoies udder until the milk started to flow.  I don’t see a big milk moustache on the cria when he comes away from nursing so I hope he is getting enough, but his energy levels have been good so when I weigh him this morning I hope that he shows good weight gain.  If not I will be tempted to give him some goats milk as a supplementary feed at least for a couple of days.  It is always difficult to know with maiden dams how there milk production will be.  Zoie’s dam always produced good milk and so I was hoping Zoie would follow in her footsteps.

Meantime Ric was busy at the New Mexico State Fair, our lovely black female Shiimsa took second in her class and our boys behaved well during the herdsire parade.  This morning Echo and Rascal are in the first class of the day, followed by Rian and Treasure and then Ric will be done.  Fingers crossed our boys will get ribbons tomorrow too.

So once again it was definitely worth my staying home, you just can’t beat watching a new little life enter the world!

Rosemary

It’s Show Time!

Ric and the alpacas traveled up to the New Mexico State Fair yesterday morning.  They all made it there safely and as of last night were settled in.  Shiimsa traveled up with Bob and Regina Dart of Llano Soleado Alpacas as she was the only female alpaca we were taking and we couldn’t travel her in the same trailer as the seven boys – especially as Miss Shiimsa is quite the flirt when it comes to male alpacas.

I have stayed home to keep an eye on Zoie who still has not delivered her cria that was due on September 20.  She is not far over her due date and as a maiden female she could easily go another two weeks before delivery.  As it turns out it is probably a good thing that I did stay home as one of our other girls Chai was limping yesterday morning.  We checked Chai’s footpad to make sure that she had not cut it and the footpad is intact and feels good.  As we examined Chai we discovered that she flinches if you put any pressure on her left knee, it had rained the night before and we wonder if Chai slipped on the mud and sprained her knee.

After a little water therapy, a shot of banamine to ease the pain and a photonic red light treatment Chai was walking much better.  As the day went on she favored the leg when she first got up from a cushed position but after a few steps she was using it fully.  If Chai is still favoring that leg this morning I will give her another dose of banamine and monitor her throughout the day.  If she gets any worse then we will need to call our vet to examine Chai to see what is going on with her.  Chai is due to have her cria at the end of October so we need to be mindful of that with any treatments we give her.

Having arrived at the Fair Ric had to unload all of the alpacas, the show supplies and our display booth.  I have always maintained that assembling the display booth is an exercise in communication, it is quite a quirky piece of equipment and can sometimes challenge our patience!  Ric always does a good job of decorating the booth with our show ribbons and banners and photos of our alpacas.  The picture at the top of this entry is of our booth set up at a different show.

So today Shiimsa will have her first time in the show ring.  I do hope she behaves well and does well at the show.  She is a beautiful solid black alpaca with a fine bright fleece, but you never know at a show how strong your competition will be, which of course is half the fun of the show.

It may well be that the boys do not show until Sunday.  The show order for an alpaca show is the dark alpacas first followed by the lighter color groups and quite often the white or light alpacas will not make it into the show ring until the second day of the show.

In the evening Regent, Zin and Treasure will be taking part in the herdsire parade that was developed to focus on the breeding male alpacas available in this area.  We hope that all three of our boys in the parade will show themselves off well and come back with full date books.

So for the rest of today I will be anxiously waiting to hear from Ric as to how our alpacas do at the show – good I hope!

Rosemary

Ignorance is no excuse

Yesterday evening I learnt of a sad situation involving four alpacas.  The alpacas had been listed for sale in a classified ad paper at a very low price, three males and one female for $6,500.  The female alone would usually be worth at least double that amount.

Fortunately someone called on the ad and went to visit the alpacas to see if they wanted to purchase them.  When the prospective buyer arrived they found the alpacas to be in terrible condition and standing in about 8 inches of poop.  The prospective buyer was fortunately someone with some gumption who was not afraid to confront the owner of the alpacas about their terrible condition.  The prospective buyer told the owner that it was going to take a lot to get these alpacas into good health and managed to persuade the owner that the alpacas should go with the prospective buyer with no money changing hands.  Fortunately the owner agreed and the alpacas are now in the hands of someone who is prepared to try and restore them to good health.

I understand that the alpacas are parasite laden and underweight.  Amazingly the female alpaca delivered a cria a couple of days ago.  The cria is alive but it obviously has a tremendous uphill battle ahead of it.

It saddens me immensely to hear of stories such as this.  I don’t know the circumstances of the owner of the alpacas and it would be harsh of me to criticize them without knowing what led to this situation.  Maybe they have experienced ill health or financial hardship; maybe they were sold the alpacas without any follow up support or being advised as to basic care for the alpacas.  Still if the alpacas are in as bad shape as I have been told, then at some stage that owner must have realized that he or she was not coping and that the alpacas were suffering.

When I think of my own herd, it makes me shudder to think that anyone of them could end up in circumstances such as these.  I would hope it would not happen, I keep in close contact with all of the people I sell alpacas to and also screen them thoroughly to make sure they are responsible caring people who will not treat the alpacas as “disposable”. 

To some it is all too easy to accept payment from someone willing to purchase an alpaca, typically that payment is going to be for a significant amount of money for alpacas are not cheap to buy.  Personally though unless I know that my alpaca is going to be cared for, loved and respected by its new owner that payment is not worth a penny to me.  I have been instrumental in bringing most of my herd into this world, and it is my responsibility to see that their time on earth is spent in a good and loving home.  Is it easy to turn down a sale?  In some ways not, income is a critical component to any business, but in other ways yes it is easy to turn down the sale if I know that the sale will result in the alpaca suffering.

As the alpaca population grows in the United States I fear that we will hear about more situations such as this.  The majority of alpaca owners are passionate about their alpacas and so hopefully will be particular as to new homes for members of their herd, but there will be some who do not care so much and are just in the alpaca business for the money.  I have always maintained that the true value of a successful alpaca business is not just a monetary one, it is the whole way of life that alpacas bring that makes this business so special.   Yes there are financial gains to be had, but not at the expense of ones conscience or the alpacas.

I was once told that the Peruvians believe that one of their gods gave them alpacas on the understanding that they were well cared for; otherwise the gods would remove the alpacas from the earth.  When you have spent some time around alpacas you come to realize what special and unique creatures they are and you can understand why the Peruvians and other South American cultures hold the alpaca in such high esteem. 

My heartfelt thanks goes to the person who went out and recovered these alpacas from such a terrible situation.  That person could have easily decided that it was not their business to intervene, but in the spirit of a true alpaca lover they could not walk away and leave those alpacas behind.  Hopefully with some loving care those alpacas will start the journey back to good health, imagine how those alpacas must feel right now to be standing in clean pastures, drinking clean water and eating good feed.

Rosemary