Skirting table

As you can tell, I've figured out how to post photos to this blog.

Above is a shot of my skirting table in our embarrassing skirting room (a.k.a. spare bedroom). Notice the TV where I can watch my "stories" as I mindlessly pick poop, vegetation and bib hair out of fleeces.

The skirting table is made out of hardware cloth and plastic pipe. I can send the plans along to anyone who wants a copy.

That's Milhouse's fleece on the table there (the naked critter in the previous blog). That is his blanket fiber, which we are entering in this weekend's Willamette Valley Alpaca Fleece Show http://www.sciolambfair.org/alpacashow.htm

It is associated with the Scio Lamb and Wool Festival, which has a sheepdog trial, too. I'll be there with a booth with other fleeces for sale and some yarn.

I am entering El Barto's, Duffman's and Milhouse's fleeces for this year. Since we only had them sheared on 5/6, I've been picking these three fleeces pretty furiously. I should estimate how long it takes me to pick a show fleece someday. Usually, I spend a couple hours on each before I get disgusted and give up.

I've only got three more days (two really) before I have to turn the fleeces in.
back to work.

m

why shearing day is funny

Milhouse before,




and Milhouse after being shorn.

:)

maren

shearing

Oh, my.

Alpacas do look silly when they've been shorn. Milhouse in particular looks ridiculous without his fluff.

It's a good thing their feelings aren't hurt when you laugh at them.

Or maybe they are hurt. They just look so sad when they are naked that it is difficult to tell how they feel.

hee hee hee
maren

Shearing in a week!

We have two shearing dates this year: May 5, and June something. This happened for a couple reasons:

1. Cabernet will be too close to her due-date to shear in June. She is due in August, and has had a history of having trouble in late-term pregnancy. We will be far more comfortable shearing her three months out than two months.

2. There is a fleece show in Scio, OR, the third week of May. I'd like to have the boys' fleeces for the show, but our original shear date wasn't until June. Polly is going to bring her boy over to be shorn for the show as well.

The bad news is that I haven't been working with Duffy on the halter nearly enough. I put one on him for the first time today. He was pretty good about it (Barto was, too, when he was a baby), but I need to work on Milhouse as well, especially since he was such a stinker at the show.

It will be a very interesting shearing because the shearer is going to use a table: This thing swings up vertically, then you strap the alpaca to it, then you flip it horizontal, then you shear them lying down. None of the animals have seen one of these before, I think. It will be weird. :)

m

Heart of the Valley wrap-up

We didn't win any ribbons at the HOTV show.

However, we did have some good times, make a movie, and sell an alpaca. I have to say that it was a successful show!

Some friends of mine (all college professors or librarians) decided to enter a documentary film contest (I'll add the URL to the contest soon). The contest allowed competitions 4 1/2 days to make a 4-8 minute documentary, but they would give us a topic and a "theme" at the beginning of the contest to keep people from starting early. We brainstormed ideas before the contest, and I brought up the alpaca show. My friends love our critters, and we decided that, if we could, we would shoot the documentary at the HOTV show.

The topic turned out to be "sports" (if dog shows are a sport, so are alpaca shows!) and our theme was "freedom" (so we shot pictures of the critters running "free" across the field). The crew shot some footage at our farm the day before the show, took shots of us loading the boys up in the trailer and shots of the show set-up on Friday, and then spent most of Saturday at the show filming and interviewing people. They spent Sunday editing. I was still at the show.

They finished the film and mailed it off on Monday. I have a copy for ETF and one for WABA. I think the film is great. They focused on the fact that alpacas are "flight animals," and so this whole show thing is a little bit of a strain for them, and unnatural. I'll be showing the film at our WABA meeting on Thursday.

The other good news from the show is that we have sold Tony! If you remember, Tony is the replacement alpaca that the previous owners of Cabernet gave us when her baby died last year. Actually, we picked him up at last year's HOTV show! Anyway, the people who have bought him bought another male from another farm, too. They just wanted some pets for their kids. They have some land outside of Corvallis, and four little red-headed children. I think Tony made the sale when he let each of the kids (except the 2 year old) lead him around on a halter. He was so curious about them and gentle. I suspect he is going to be a 4-H project or something someday.

We didn't get as much money as we wanted for Tony, but I agreed to the price on the condition that we get this year's fiber off of him. They were perfectly happy to do that. The yarn we had made from last year's fleece was so nice that I have been looking forward to this year's fleece for a while.

So, it was a good show. Tony's sale just about covered our costs if we don't look at them too closely. Yay!

The Show List

We are preparing for the Heart of the Valley Show which begins on Friday. Just so you all know what's involved, here is my list of to-do's and don't-forgets for the show:

• feed--hay, pellets, water bucket
• grooming--whack-it
• poop--small broom (better on the mats than a rake)
• fiber for fleece show--picked and bagged
• halters and leads
• yarn (if it is back from the mill)--lables, reciepts, display, sacks
• fiber for sale--lables
• folding chairs, snacks, photo/ribbon album, corkboard (for display)
• sheet protectors, information sheets on animals, zipties, banner, cards
• showbooks (I made them this year)
• decorations

We also have to arrange with another alpaca owner to take our alpacas to the show because both of us have final exams to give on Friday. Oh well.

Gotta go!

too much to do

m

new WABA website

Charles and I are members of the Willamette Alpaca Breeders' Association or WABA. For the past six months or so, we have been members of the committed created to re-vamp the WABA website. We launched the new site on February 16. Take a look!

http://www.alpacas-waba.org/

It was a lot of work, but I think the site looks really good. Also, check out the sales pages and herdsire pages. WABA members get to post their animals on these pages for no charge (beyond membership dues). Sweet deal, huh?

m

An Escape!

We have New Zealand fencing (posts with high-tension wires strung between) on our ranch for a couple reasons. First it is quite cheap compared to woven-wire fences and easy to install. Second, it was recommended to us by a large alpaca ranch. It can be electrified and is quite adequate for animals like alpacas which don't challenge fencing. It does come with a couple risks, however.

First, it is not for horses because they can get tangled in the wires, freak out, and do serious damage to themselves.

Second, alpacas can escape.

We have seen this escape three times, but I am convinced all three were accidental, and none of the alpacas involved actually know what happened. This is what I think has happened: The alpacas love to roll in the dirt (or mud, whatever), and in their vigorous rolling, they get their feet, then their heads outside of the fence so that when they stand, they are on the other side! They always seem as surprised as the rest of us when this happens.

Our biggest alpaca, Cabernet, has done this twice, and both times I'm sure it was accidental. The most recent escape was on SuperBowl Sunday, when Charles, my mother and I went outside during a commercial to put the alpacas to bed quickly. Naturally, that was when we discovered Cabernet on the wrong side of the fence, very much wanting to go into the barn to get her treats. We are fortunate that alpacas are very herd-oriented because I have no idea how long Cabernet had been outside the fence before we found her. If she were a horse, she could have been miles away by the time we noticed.

We finally caught her and put her away after only about ten minutes of chasing. Thank goodness we took the time to halter-train her!

We had heard stories about cria accidentally rolling out of New Zealand fencing, so our maternity pasture has 2x4 woven wire fencing. But we never thought a big alpaca could pull the same stunt!

This probably won't be a problem once we get the fence electrified. I suspect it will only take a couple zaps before all the alpacas avoid the fence completely. But take it from me, New Zealand fencing is not secure for alpacas. They can get out, and I wouldn't put it past a smart one to figure out how to do it if it happens to him once or twice.

That's all!
m

We're famous, and we're upgrading

I am featured in this issue of the Mount Holyoke Quarterly with El Barto, our ribbon-winning alpaca! This is the link to the magazine, but the online version does not have the sidebars with the class notes, which is where my part is. http://www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/quarterly/current.php

The sidebar feature talks about our little farm and how we became involved in alpacas. I was interviewed last September for this, but the magazine has only just come out. I have to say that I now hate the picture I sent them, but what are you going to do? Anway, I have had two responses since the magazine was mailed yesterday from other Holyokers who have alpacas or are going to get some soon! How fun!

In addition, I am finally upgrading our website so that it looks more professional. Partly this is because there will be more traffic on the site now that we have been featured in a national magaizne, partly because I am done tweaking it. If any of you find mistakes, please let me know a.s.a.p. I think I have checked all of the links, but I may have missed something. Check us out again at http://www.et-farms.com.

ta

maren

Wetness

This is about the 40th day of straight rain here in Western Oregon. This means that the barn and pastures are simply flowing with water. The alpacas seem unaffected except that they spend more time in the barn when the rain is really coming down, and their fleece is simply a mess. The barn is flooded, so cleaning it is a soupy chore. We really really need to put a drain around the barn in the spring or summer to keep this from happening again.

Other than that, we are gearing up for the show coming in March. I am putting together the showbook for the Heart of the Valley Show on March 25 and 26, which happens to be the weekend after finals week this year. At least the show will be over before spring break so we could actually relax a little. We are taking Barto and Milhouse, but we may also bring Duffman, who will just be old enough to compete. I don't have his registration yet, and I can't enter him until I do, so we'll see. He has such gorgeous fleece.

Finally, I am finally putting together a lot of fleeces to be spun by Starcastle mill in Washington. I am picking the last of the fleeces, and I'll throw them into the mail when it is done. I am hoping to have the yarn back before the HOTV show! Wouldn't that be great? I am very very excited. :)

ta
maren

Quarantine is over!

We have spent the last several weeks keeping the girls and the little boys separated from the big boys so that we can treat the recent additions for coccidia. We know that the places where the girls spent the fall had coccidia infections because either other animals were sick or Dawn was sick. On the advice of our vet, we kept a strict quarantine for two weeks (no sniffing, even) and treated for the coccidia for three.

Now everyone is well and we can put them into adjoining pens again. They like to sniff and say hi.

The stall the girls are in is still a soupy mess, but it is better than last winter. Also, they now have two stalls to roam in, so there is a dry spot for everyone to sleep on.

In other news, I am in the process of taking all the entries from 2005 and re-writing them into a book. That is a big enough project to keep me off of the streets for a while. :)

m

The Alpaca Breed Standard

I’m going to give my two cents about the idea of an American Alpaca Breed Standard. I’ve done a little research, and these are the conclusions I’ve come to.

First of all, I’m not sure that we need a breed standard. Breed standards are useful in dog shows because they need to ensure that their animals are pure. ARI registered alpacas in this country are all DNA tested and their parents are registered and have been DNA tested. There is no reason to question the “purity” of registered American alpacas.

Second, if we accept that the ultimate goal of alpaca breeding is to create animals that are conformationally healthy and will produce ample commercially viable fiber. It has been shown that great fiber can come from any phenotype. That is, some very ugly alpacas can produce some very great fiber. What this means is that a breed standard which focuses too much on aesthetics may not contribute to the breeding of great fiber animals.

Third, let’s say that AOBA adopts a breed standard that favors a certain phenotype: for giggles, let’s say that the alpaca standard calls for a long, goat-like beard. Very few alpacas would show this trait, but those that did would instantly increase in value. In addition, everyone would want to breed to these animals in order to get the genes for this beard-trait into his or her own herd. What this means is that, because of the demand for the genes of these rare animals, many animals would be born that would be very closely related to each other. Alpacas have a limited gene pool in the first place compared to say sheep or cattle, and further limited their genes would make them far more susceptible to disease. Cheetahs have been held up as and example of what can happen to species with limited gene pools. With our closed registry, it seems like a very bad idea to further limit our animals’ genetic diversity for purely aesthetic reasons.

Some breed standards that are based on aesthetics are harmful to breeds. Take, for instance, English bulldogs. English bulldogs have been bred to have such big heads that the animals cannot give birth naturally; they must have Caesarian sections. These animals cannot reproduce naturally because of an aesthetic trait that humans appreciate. This is a not-so-extreme example of how aesthetics can overshadow the useful traits of the animals involved.

Part of the fear that small farms have expressed about the breed standard is that large farms who have a “trademark” phenotype will try to get that phenotype written into the breed standard. All joking aside, let’s take the Accoyo head as an example. I must admit, I love the look of the Accoyo head, with the fuzzy cheeks and fluffy topknot. However, this is a phenotype. Don Carlos calls it his “trademark.” The fuzzy cheeks and fluffy topknot are not the sole indicators of an animal with dense, fine fleece. This is an aesthetic characteristic. Period. There are people who breed almost exclusively for this type-y head. But because their animals have fuzzy cheeks does not mean that they have animals with great fleece. If an Accoyo head become part of the breed standard, though, then those animals become more valuable, and other breeders are left out in the cold.

I have identified two pros. First, an alpaca breed standard could make judging at shows more uniform. With a clearly-written standard, animals would be judged based on the standard, not just compared to other animals in the ring. Also, a breed standard could be used as a tool for breeders to evaluate their own animals, or for buyers to evaluate animals they are considering buying.

Second, if we accept the thought that the goal of alpaca breeders is to create animals that have good, healthy conformation and can grow abundant fiber, then we can design an American Alpaca Breed Standard that is reasonable. The Canadian Alpaca Breed Standard is pretty bare-bones, but it is a good start. It simply gives a description of correct confirmation and fleece type. There are no aesthetic attributes.

All in all, I am opposed to any but the most basic of breed standards. We don’t need to define different breeds since we have only two very distinct varieties of animals, I think there is a high probability that aesthetic characteristics will become the focus of the standard, and limiting the already small gene-pool that we have is a dangerous thing. Those are my thoughts. Please see the websites listed below for further information on the Alpaca Breed Standard.


References:

Canadian Breed Standard: http://www.wakefieldalpacas.com/Breed%20Standard/breedingstand.htm
Comparative Analysis of Breed Standards: http://www.alpacas.com/AlpacaLibrary/ComparAnalyssBreedStandard.aspx
Tears of an Alpaca: http://www.gateway-alpacas.com/alpaca-breed-standard.php

Everybody is home!

We brought Dawn, Duffy, and Consuella home on Friday, December 23 from Nortwest Alpacas where they have been for many months for breeding. In addition, NWA "lent" us another baby alpaca! When Steve heard that Duffy would have no one to play with on our farm, he let us take one of their orphans home as a buddy. So now we have a little white male suri named Kapono on our ranch. We call him "Snowball One" to keep with the Simpson's theme. Eventually, we'll either give him back to NWA, or buy him for ourselves. Snowball is small for his size because his mother died when he was three months old, and he missed out on some good milk. He is the same size as our three-month-old Duffy, and he is extra sweet because of his contact with humans.

On Christmas Eve we went to our neighbor Polly's place (Fernhill Ranch Alpacas) to pick up Cabernet, who has been there since October because she was lonely at our ranch without her friends. She seems glad to be home with her girlfriends.

We have quarantined all of the returnees in a stall out of spitting distance from the boys because all of them have come back from farms with known coccidia problems. Even though only Dawn was ill with it at NWA, we are treating all of them on the recommendation of our vet. This is because coccidia establishes itself in the soil and then becomes a recurring problem. We hope by treating them all, we can keep this parasite off of our ranch. At the moment we are treating their water, but once we get some minerals delivered, we'll treat that as well.

One difficulty with our quarantine plan is that the far stall where the girls are is wet. We have had a lot of soaking rain in the past couple weeks, and that stall is the lowest point in the barn. Even though we put gutters up this summer, the stall is still a muddy wet mess. It breaks our hearts to put them in there every night, but we're stuck for another week of quarantine. After that, we can move them into stall #2, which doesn't have the wetness problem. Next year we ARE going to put in a drain around that side of the barn; the gutters are obviously not the solution to this problem.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmahanakwanza, and a Happy New Year!

maren

Everybody’s Preggers!

I am astonished.

Not only is Consuella pregnant, but she’s been pregnant for 75 days! Yes, that means that she has been pregnant since approximate September 30. She’s acted pregnant because she HAS been pregnant. I do not know how to explain the inconclusive ultrasounds, or the negative progesterone, but the veterinarian saw a 2 1/2 month-old cria when he ultrasounded her on December 12. So, she knew all along, and kept telling us.

So, we will go pick up the three of them (Dawn, Duffy and Consuella) sometime before the first of the year since we are on break. Then we can bring Cabernet home as well.

First, however, we have an appointment with Dr. MacGuire tomorrow to talk about quarantining them once they are back on the farm. Dawn’s bout with coccidia during her stay at NWA makes it necessary for us to keep her separate, but we are going to keep everyone that’s been off the farm separate d for a while. Cabernet is currently on a farm where a young cria seems to be battling coccida , too. Dr. MacGuire will help us make up a solitary confinement plan.

It will be so nice to have the girls back on the farm! I am looking forward to having a full barn again. Plus, we haven’t seen Duffy since he was three weeks old! He is now three months old, nearly the same age as Bart when we brought him home! We’ll have to start working with him on halter training. If he’s nice enough, we’ll take him to Heart of the Valley with the other boys.

Awesome news.

We’re pregnant!

Well, actually, Dawn is confirmed pregnant, and due around 9/13/06. Dawn is Duffy’s (Mr. “Let’s come into the world head first, not feet first”) mother. We’re glad to hear it. She is bred to Pachacuti, one of Mike Safely’s Studmaster studs. His babies win ribbons. More importantly, he shears many pounds of fiber a year, whereas Dawn shears around two pounds. She needs his density to pass on to her crias. She is ready to come home now.

We think Consuella is pregnant as well. She finally settled for Haldane last month (see the previous blog entry). If she is pregnant, we can get her the week after Christmas. If not, we may have to hold her over until spring. I really don’t want to do that, but having babies in November is not such a good idea, first from a weather standpoint, and second from a last-four-weeks-of-the-term standpoint. If we hold her over, though, she will have been open for a year. That’s a huge waste of money (a whole cria could have been made in that time).

If Consuella is pregnant, we’ll probably get the two girls at the same time at the end of December. If she isn’t, then we may get both of them anyway to take them home for the winter.

Keep your fingers crossed.

The other news is that while I was sick for two weeks this month, Charles taught Milhouse how to eat pellets! This means that we no longer have to give him a daily dose of carrot toothpaste, which is what I called the vitamin paste we were giving him. It’s kind of a shame because he was beginning to enjoy the contact (I think). However, he LOVES his pellets now. He’s like a little Hoover. Vrooom. Now we’ll see if the added nutrition straightens his legs out any.

Breeding updates

Hi Everyone--

Well, the good news is that Consuella, who has not bred properly since August, was observed breeding this week (finally)! Her reproductive workup proved normal, so I hope that the male was to blame. She might just be particular about whom she "sleeps" with, so to speak. Anyway, we should know in a week or two whether she is pregnant this time. This means we'll have an October baby, which I don't really want, but it's better than no baby.

Dawn recovered from a bout with a light case of coccidia last month, which seemed to mostly give her gas. She ought to be ready to come home around Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to having all the girls home, but we won't be seeing Consuella until nearly cruising.

Cabernet is doing fine at Polly's ranch. She'll stay there until Dawn comes home. They aren't the best of friends, but they will do for company for each other. By the first of the year, the whole happy herd will be back!

This experience makes me feverently hope that we get a stud out of one of our boys soon. At the very least, I'm sorely tempted to use local studs next year. I want my critters on my farm. I bought them because I like them, and I like taking care of them.

The boys are fun, though, and can be challenging. For instance, for some reason, Tony has become a bully. Even though we had two food dishes and two buckets of hay, he still had to harass Bart and Milhouse while they tried to eat. We now separate Tony from them at night by putting him in an ajoining stall. Everyone seems happier for it, and the hay buckets aren't overturned in the mornings.

It is now officially cold here, with the temp this morning a chilly 28 degrees. The alpacas love it.

m

Cabernet at camp

Hi!

briefly, Cabernet was unhappy at home in a field by herself. Even though she could see the boys, she would pace unhappily at the fence when they weren't near. When they were near, she would spit at them. We have taken her to Polly's alpaca farm (Fern Hill Farm) to spend some time with lots of alpacas until Dawn and Consuella come home.

Consuella is having trouble getting pregnant. More on that later.

Dawn had a mild case of coccidiae at NWA, and they took her to the vet and treated her. She is apparently bred, and just needs a few weeks for the pregnancy to set. Duffy seems to be in fine form.

I'll go into details later, but I wanted to report that we are again down to three alpacas on the farm. Ah, the drama!
maren

Milhouse's paste

Hi Everyone!

We are going to start giving Milhouse vitamin paste to try to treat his crooked front knees. Because he has never tried to eat pellets, his nutrition is dependent on the hay and forage we've had him on, so we are worried that he has rickets. Because alpacas are native to the Andes mountains, they are designed to get their vitamin D from sunlight through a very thin atmosphere above 10,000 feet. We are at 400 feet. Maybe you can see the problem.

Anyway, the pellets designed by WABA breeders makes up for the sunlight deficiency by adding the vitamins to the feed. This usually works for all those alpacas that actually eat them. I am sure that all of us (Charles, me and Milhouse) will soon be very tired of a daily dose of paste vitamins, so I am devising plans on how to get Milhouse interested in eating them. Mostly I think he is just not interested in competing with the other alpacas for pellets (I think they are sweet because the alpacas will fight tooth and nail for them). One strategy I am considering is to lock him in the middle stall by himself (he will see the other alpacas) and leave him with only a little hay but a lot of pellets overnight. That might do the trick. I hope it is that easy.

Still no word on Consuella's progesterone, but at least Cabernet seems less stressed. We have put her into the antechamber, which used to be the boy's pasture. It is greening up nicely, and she has a little more room to pace around it.

maren

Cabernet is back

We picked up Cabernet in Albany. Richard and Renate of Alpacas of Lone Ranch were driving up to pick up an alpaca of theirs north of here, so we met up and took Cabernet home. It's nice having a girl at the ranch again.

Unfortunately, she is the only girl here, and she isn't very happy. She doesn't like to be in a pasture by herself, but she ignores the young male alpaca when we put him in with her. We can't let her out with the older male alpacas because we think they would harass her to distraction. So, she paces the fenceline and stares off into the distance, I think at the neighbor's dogs (which aren't out most of the day). I will be SO happy when we have a Consuella back for her to be with. I am so concerned about this, though, that I am considering asking another farm to loan us an female alpaca or gelding to put in with her so she won't act so weird. Either that, or I may ask another farm to baby-sit her until we get more of our own girls back.

Consuella has had two negative ultrasounds, but she spits off at teaser males. I have asked for a progesterone test, which should come back this week. If it is postitive, we will bring her home very soon for Cabernet, and give them both Ultrasounds at 90 days, when there might be more to see. If the test is negative, my options are to re-breed her to Canadar, or pick a different stud. I'm mulling that one right now.

Well, off to put the alpacas away!

maren

New Chicken Coop

The farm is still lonely with only the three boys. They are having a good time in Pasture One because, since it's been raining regularly, for a couple weeks now, the grass has begun to grow back.

Now that the boys are on P1, we have taken the chance to re-seed their pastures--the antechamber which will be re-fenced into runs to the new pastures in the spring. They have nibbled everything down so far that there isn't even any poison oak or blackberries left. We have also re-seeded P0, our maternity pasture/chicken run. We know that the chickens will help themselves to the grass seed, but they won't get all of it.

On the topic of chickens, we finally finished the chicken coop! It took us about three weeks of picking away at it to finish, but now we have moved the 1/2 grown hens outside. The roosters don't quite know what to do with them. They are like teenage boys with nine year old girls. We expect some scuffles in the future.

We are still waiting on word about Consuella's pregnancy status. I am a little annoyed that the vet has not performed a progesterone test on her yet, since that seems to be the next logical step if the ultrasounds are inconclusive. She ought to be nearly six weeks pregnant, and if she's not, I want her re-bred NOW. Dawn and Duffy are up there, and I'd like an update on them, too. I now sign my notes to them, "the squeaky wheel."

When you send your animals away to a big farm to be bred, you sometimes have to pester them to get information. Don't be afraid to be a squeaky wheel. It's better to be a bit of an annoyance than to miss out on an situation that needs to be taken care of sooner than later.

That's all for now!
m