Show Season Begins Again

Well, here we are, packing and preparing for our first alpaca show of the year. This year is already promising to be a busy one and one that will hopefully launch our breeding program up to the next level. The cria that were born to us this past summer have our hopes high and eyes to the sky! We're excited to show these little ones and to begin the push for breedings to our two herdisres. We have a spectacular beige suri male that is almost of age to becoming a herdsire and a tuxedeo grey huacaya male that is just waiting for his first date. Both of these boys will be shown at the A-OK Alpaca Blast Off show along with a our light fawn "Shady Creek's Show Me The Reverend" girl this weekend! She is just now 6 months old and the oldest of our cria born this summer so she's the first one of them out to the show ring. We can't wait to see how she competes with other females her age/color. Both her dam and sire are fantastic alpacas with highly sought after bloodlines. You can read more about our alpacas on our website.

The two "new" dogs that I've mentioned in earlier posts are turning out to be wonderful livestock guardians. Hooch enjoys his "job" and Gracie is in training. She still wants to play with the alapcas but I haven't been able to work with her as much as I need to because it's been too cold to do anything outdoors that isn't absolutely necessary! I'll be happy when the weather breaks so that it's more bearable being outdoors.

On a sad note, we had one of our alpacas miscarry last week. Our newest suri girl, Lady Di. Alpacas can be pretty sensitive to stress. This is why we go to great lengths to keep them calm and stress them as little as possible. Alpaca shows are mostly males, young females not breeding yet or females that can be but for some reason are not bred. A few weeks back, Lady Di got her head through a cattle panel that we were using as a haykeeper on top of their bale of hay to keep them from scattering it on the ground and wasting it. She stuck her head through one of the square openings and when she lifted her head, the panel came with her. This probably scared the dickens out of her and she ended up out in the pasture, in the snow, struggling to free herself. When all was said and done, she managed to get a front and back leg through the openings as well and struggled until she wore herself out. Jon happened to look out the window and saw her laying in the snow on her side (VERY unusual and most often a sign of trouble) with her leg in the air. He ran out to her, I ran for bolt cutters and we cut the wire away to free her! She was not injured in any way, just exhausted and scared. My guess is this amount of stress and the struggle is what caused her to slip her pregnancy. When Jon went out to feed one day last week, he found the placenta/fetus frozen in the shelter where she delivered it. These events, even though we are raising livestock technically, they sadden us deep in our hearts. We contacted our friends that we bought her from and who bred her and they have agreed to pick her up in March on their way through Missouri after the alpaca show in Springfield to have her bred again to the same male. She'll be on vacation in Colorado from March until probably sometime late June.

Well, it's time to feed alpacas and hit the road to Oklahoma. We're meeting two other couples from two other farms for lunch in Joplin, MO then we'll all caravan from there. I'll post again when we return and tell you all about our winnings!! Hopefully.

Until next time...

It's a New Year!

Happy New Year!

I hope this post finds you all healthy, happy and looking forward to what 2008 has in store for all of us! I know I am. I enjoy turning the pages of my calendar to a new year. I typically clean out old to make room for the new, like files and tax reciepts! It's a nice, fresh start. I don't know about you, but I can look forward and let the things of the past year that I'd rather forget about, just kind of disappear. Sometimes it works.

An update on Gracie and Hooch, our Great Pyrenees livestock guardians...they are settling in nicely and have gotten used to their new home. They've adequately chewed thier shelter and rendered it nearly useless. A piece of plywood had to be brought in by their two legged caretakers and provides a windbreak but they seem to be happy now with thier re-decorating activities and have it the way they like it as no further destruction has taken place. They are no longer digging under the fence to escape but I'm sure the bite of the hot wire helped to curb that behavior. Hooch is proving to be very smart and very eager to please. He's perfect with the alpacas and is quickly picking up on basic commands without any noteable time spent on training. It's been so bitter cold and snowy this winter that I haven't really made the time to work with either of them on formal training. I do intend to work with them soon though. Another reason to look ahead to a bit of warmer weather.

Until next time...