In October, our local group, SWAG (South West Alpaca Group), held the second Craft and Fleece show - demonstrations of fibre crafts, stands with products for sale, a competition of crafted products, and some pens with alpacas and llamas for comparison, were all on show to educate and inspire breeders and members of the public, along with a well-supported fleece show. We were pleased that Apple Vale Jupiter came 3rd in a class of 9 with entries from across the country, with a great points score.
Joy, at our village craft sale. |
Early in November, I went to Buckinghamshire to attend the
Intermediate Alpaca Assessment course, run by The British Alpaca Society. It
was an opportunity to improve and refresh my experience of fleece and
conformation assessment - with a small herd, you have fewer opportunities of
hands-on experience- under expert guidance from BAS judges Liz Barlow and Nick
Harrington-Smith, we spent a day discussing comformation and assessing fleece
in the classroom, followed by a day at Alpaca Evolution farm, inspecting and
assessing groups of alpacas - it was a weekend well worth the cost and time
away from home and my own herd.
We had our pregnant females scanned recently, and those
confirmed pregnant are all due to birth around the weekend of our son's
wedding!
With the eldest cria reaching nearly six months old and well
over 25kg, we have begun weaning, by taking them as far away from their mums,
and for the first few days, out of sight of them, they are chaperoned by a
couple of mums with their own cria, too young to be weaned.
Finally, for some amusement, a selection of poo samples showing the variety you come across!!!:
Coffee beans |
Dumplings, or grenades. |
Mother and baby. |
Elephant? ! |
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