Training Alpaca to go into trailers is something folk often dread but it is easy if the Alpaca have been handled all their lives.

Keep the trailer light and airy, put straw on the ramp, hurdle the sides and let them walk in themselves…

simples!

in my last post I went off on a tangent about Fly Strike in Alpacas but meant to talk about shearing… related of course because when cuts occur during shearing (inevitable but not often) folk often think that being shorn means Alpaca cannot get Fly Strike. WRONG, they are actually more vulnerable when shorn where a nick or cut might have been missed.

meantime, this little black beauty clearly needs a hair cut!!

Crazy busy here with so much going on I do not know where to start. The ground had dried out so relevant ground work completed, including topping to prevent the grass “getting away” from us. It is feast or famine in the Cotswolds with the warm wet weather and the Buttercups have gone bananas. I am hearing it all over the country along with FLY STRIKE so caution – YES Alpaca get it too folks!

meantime, our Willow Whips planted are doing well and blue skies appear…

Every year around about now we load up our trusty 1996 Landcruiser (well mine and what would I do without her) and take our straw off in bags and a few cable ties (no 50 shades whatsoever) to a local pony charity.

nothing is wasted at Kensmyth – see for yourself…

here at Kensmyth we planted Scots Pine nearly 4 years ago and at last we have our own …

cones…

but do you know how they grow?

the beauty of the blossom on the fruit trees planted nearly 4 years ago… Spring 2016

I think some of the Alpaca are overdue for their shearing this year?

well we have been beavering away as usual and I have been chastised for my absence. There are reasons which will no doubt be divulged in the fullness of time… meantime, before the wet warm weather hit we were hard at it with the flail topper leaving our Wildlife strips so that the Bees can still enjoy their life too… anyone remember these?

ok – its not that new. it is true we reviewed it a few years ago but our land was so overgrown and clumpy and the weather so wet, we stuck with our faithful Kubota G23 high dump (2008 to date) and our Muck Truck paddock hoover, likewise.

it was with interest that I visited a Gloucestershire Alpaca farm and had a look at theirs a while ago but he needed a quick decision and that is not my way. I needed to assure myself that I did not need the bigger version or that I was doubling up on machinery to do the same job… so I let his super second hand one go.

Weeks later after much deliberation because it is for dry ground and shorter grass use only (just does not do as good a job otherwise) we bit the bullet and here it is… waiting for short grass and dry ground!

unused as yet but cannot wait to try – the Tow and Collect.

First Rhubarb crop of the year!

and the first new machine of the year… what can it be?