We have had a busy March with the Llama walks, the Futurity as well as everyday stuff. April has been such a wet month but we have managed to harrow and roll the fields, move the Alpacas onto fresh Grass after they had been wormed and fluked, so it is not that bad.
We had a couple of days at Alpaca 2012 AKA Swag Show and very enjoyable it was too, having the Alpacas in the main building was much better then last year. We spent more time watching the judging then we did at the Futurity. We had five animals in our Show team, mainly because we couldn't leave a single animal in the paddock at home. Any way the competition was tough with some very big breeders from the other side of the country entering. First up was Caramel she was in a very tough class of 12 with 3 entries from one very big breeder, we were the only small breeder in that class so I was absolutely amazed to get a 5th place ribbon, now usually I would have been very disappointed with this but it was pointed out that I needed to look at who we had beaten to realise that we had done very well. Caramel is out of our oldest Female, a 96 import and her sire is Catons Golden Nugget, she is the image of her dad.
I am afraid that the rest crashed and burned but I did come away laughing at the judges comment when he judge Ivory who is just 12months old and huge, we were 4th in the line up of four when the Judge came to summing up he said that "This Alpaca has never missed a meal" it made me and everyone else laugh, ironic really as Ivory very rarely eats concentrate and was over 50 kgs when she was weaned ! he also commended her for the amount of fleece she had and the length of the staple. so not all bad.
To sum it up we had a great weekend, we had one result and we had a laugh, I would much sooner come 5th in a class of 12 then 4th out of 4th.
On a sadder note, we went to feed up this morning and found a cria dead in the field, we are not sure who's it is year as we have nothing due for another month and those three suspects still look OK, we brought a couple of females last year which due dates later this summer but we can't be sure it wasn't one of them as when I looked at one she looks like she has a udder. We will get them in tonight and check them all over, none of them seemed distressed and the cria looks full term, it was a huge black girl, such a shame and we would have been moving the females back to the birthing paddocks this weekend and we would have had the camera on them there. So disappointing but there is nothing we can do about it now.
I am determined to finish on a happier note Congratulations to Andy and Sue at Pippin Alpacas on their first cria, so glad everything went well, good to talk to you this morning.
Well done on your ribbon, I heard that one breeder had entered more than many people have in their herd!
ReplyDeleteIts such a shame about the cria, don't you find it odd how some mums don'e leave the side of a lost cria and others don't give it a second look.