Marmite for alpacas?

Sunday is alfalfa day, and it's been a beautiful day here, so it was 'high tea' in the field, which had been completely cleaned for the week ahead. Bramley is having a roll in front of Autumn in the picture. This morning we collected a trailer load of hay, which, with our current stock, should see us through to the middle of April, and we hope to secure another batch to see us through to summer. I gave all the alpacas a drench dose of mineral supplement (marmite for alpacas).
When asked whether she knew anything about some straw going missing from the shelter, Moira had more urgent feeding to attend to rather than own up!

Michael Stipe breeding alpacas?

Well we've only had a dusting of snow, last thursday, and as it is what I call, 'face-grippingly' cold, it is still hanging around, though you'll need to look very closely - but it sounds like most of you don't need to see any more. To supplement the feed, we've made a corral on the lawn to give a weekend treat of lush grass - like all cria, Bramley gets so excited by the change of surroundings, she managed to levitate this aftenoon:


Then after charging around for a bit...
She asked Mum to join in...
"Darling, I'm stocking up to make more milk for you, run along and play"...

We were very lucky in travelling to Scotland last weekend, with good weather, and the highlight of the journey being a break at Beckbrow Service Station -Barbara kindly took a large chunk out of her day to introduce us to her lovely herd, the farm and the charming canines, and also to 're-fuel' us - the 'royal' couple didn't arrive until wednesday, so at least there was no distraction from the core herd - thanks again Barbara.

I was privately amused (and I have to say, thrilled) at another service station, when drying my hands under a hot air blower, and looking at my reflection (always have been vain) in the stainless steel casing, it caused a 'hall-of-mirrors' distortion, and I got Michael Stipe from REM looking back at me! The thing is, if he looked in the same machine, would he see me, and would he know it was me? ...somehow think not.

Mrs. Smallholder held a fleecce and fibre product evening for a lot of girl-friends from the village and surrounds, with wine, nibbles and home-made cake - yours truly was engaged to answer the door, take coats, serve wine and be hospitable - it seemed very successful ( a bitterly cold night helps, though of course the products are excellent) and she's got orders so the spinning wheel is notching up the miles.

I've been at the computer drawing a sketch design for a project which can't be revealed yet, so more on that hopefully in a month or two.

Animal Madhouse.

No, not here! It was a programme on Channel 4 tonight, and featured a couple of alpacas having trouble getting pregnant - the programmes vets refer to Claire Whitehead for advice. Fellow bloggers may find it interesting. Try www.4od.com to watch again, it was on at 8 o'clock.

Small is beautiful.

Like a toddler sucking a piece of spaghetti...
Bramley persists in eating leaves and stems all the way...
Going, going...
Almost gone...

While we search for more grazing, I content myself with the advantage of a small-holding of knowing every square inch of our land and being able to check it for hazards and grass condition daily.

Faecal testing is progressing with comforting results - with hand-clearing latrines I think I can clear 95%, and I'd be interested to know whether 'poovers' can achieve the same level of clearing (poo-pickers elbow excepted).

There is a Eucalyptas tree adjacent to our alpaca shelter, and the girls love the leaves - it's not on the hazardous plant list, and knowing the medicinal qualities of Eucalyptus for humans, I'm assuming the alpacas recognize it too.

Of course, while I comfort myself with the Small is Beautiful mantra, and its benefits, really I'd love to be expanding the herd more quickly, but for now I'll content myself with the intimacy of our small, but beautifully formed (in my opinion) herd.

All clear on the western front.

Autumn Gold in the morning light.
Is that a camel through the eye of a needle?
All together now - munch.
Bramley in the morning light.


With the bright crisp start to the day, it was good to start with the camera, which usually comes out in the evening when the light is fading and the sun at the opposite side of the field. So as I'd cleaned the field and we'd vaccinated and pedicured the girls yesterday, I indulged myself with an hour or so with the camera. It was so clear that shots from the near-by clay pigeon shoot echoed around the hills - with scarcely a breeze, the silence was staggering, a day to just soak in...and then get on with important things... like organizing the new Olympic event: the Individual Faecal Sample Collecting Persuit - where you sprint, keeping a sharp eye on the deposited sample in the grass so that you can sample for parasites and know how each animal is doing...

Toilet training?

Now it's not really for me to query ladies' bathroom habits, however, we only have just over an acre, and my girls have created seven latrines. The biggest problem with that, is that they appear to be growing in size, and we have to maximise the quality (to minimise parasites) and quantity (to cope with drought periods) of available grazing. They have been depositing around the edges of some latrines, hence they've got larger, so this weekend I took advantage of the weather, and after clearing them, I mowed them (by hand mower!) and cleared all the clippings for maximum hygene. Hopefully, they will feel able to go back to the middle, and contaminate a smaller area - time will tell...

I feel we are at the stage of herd development, where a poover and sit/ride mower are becoming necessities. The irony is, that the catalyst for starting a herd of alpacas was the suggestion by one of our sons and daughter, that I buy a sit and ride mower to cut the grass in the field so they could use a mountain board! Meantime, we've been hooked by the wonderful world of alpacas, who now require pastures of the quality that a mower will help improve - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Scan-scratch-scraps...

Enjoying a treat of Alfalfa.



We transplanted some Lleylandii that were in pots when we moved here, intending to let them grow into a supply of firewood. The alpacas love to have a good scratch on them.




Colin Ottery came on friday to scan Minnie, and with his Top Gun / Back to the Future glasses and scanner confirmed a pregnancy - hooray.

Bramley got ear-tagged and micro-chipped, a health check for insurance and weighed-in at 18kg, now 6 weeks old. Her she is, trying the tree scratch-post:








Sunday morning was pouring, and blowing a 'hooley', I went to the shelter to find all six alpacas keeping out of the rain, and in the corner trying to go un-noticed, were twelve chickens huddled together!

We took all the fleece scraps from shearing with two other breeders this year, and put them into bin bags for insulating the roof of the house - we have an old cottage, with part sloped ceilings (skeilings) which had no insulation - so I spent a horrendous 2 hours lying on my side in the tiny attic space stuffing the fleece into the gaps - pot-holing is much more enjoyable, but doesn't keep the house warm...

It's the time of year for catching up with admin', so I've been sorting out invoices and registered Bramley with the BAS. I'm wondering which software other breeders find suits their herd management?

Now, I wonder if Mum has got my milk ready for bed.....................................