Kensmyth

wow – its May. Where did the first part of 2014 go?

our first female due to give birth on her 11.5 month last mating date is now two weeks overdue already and looks like the Michelin man! Bless!

its full on with spraying inbetween bouts of wet weather at the moment.

Few non farming folk realise that spraying cannot be done in the “too hot or too wet or too windy” phases of life. So trying to keep the nettles/thistles/buttercups to an acceptible or neglible level is even more difficult in the current weather conditions!

Bit like mating really – Alpaca dont when its too hot and slide off when its too wet!

likewise, the warm wet weather is bringing out the critters from midges to bumbles in force.

So IVOMEC jabs for the entire herd are a must – prevention rather than cure is the way forward sometimes when weather conditions are uncertain for a few weeks.

Galloping towards shearing now with the barns all clear for the girls

and hurdle pens ready for the boys!

my highlight this week was catching the cria in colour sequence when eating

with halter training and feet pick up training, spraying and strimming …

Strimming areas which need collecting with the G23 – not to be field tidy but because it will get in the soon to be shorn fleeces otherwise!

The funeral is next week and thank you to those of you writing in with your kind thoughts to the family.

humble apologies for so long since our last blog but sadly there was a very sudden death in the family and life goes on regardless in farming…

more matings

and watching the leaflife whilst mating…

and rummaging through fleeces in preparation for shearing…

and I cannot believe it is nearly May!

sometimes we forget about the beauty all around us

we can never underestimate the power of love of a parent and in the countryside around us …

we can see it in so many ways…

The HOE Show is this week end folks if you want to catch up on Alpaca latest

new website and new show format !!!

well it was also the turn of the wood this week end with a couple of little jobs needing doing to ensure safe Alpaca Events this year!

the Jetty was in a poor state after the floods and needed total refurbishment:

The Before!

the after!

and as he had saw and plane in his hand, hubby finally managed to finish my Alpaca wooden head. Bless.

You may recall when a neighbouring farms tree fell in the winter storms, I spotted that the rot in the neighbours tree looked like an Alpaca… well here it is varnished!

the before…

and the after…

you can sure see it now!

well more skirting fleeces in the rainy weather.

With the farm build and move, I had to store two years fleeces and do them in one lot

– it totalled some 45 fleeces to skirt and pick and numerous to keep and store for show – including the show winning ones and cria fleeces.

I had totally lost the will to live by the end of the week end but finally got the job done between husbandry jobs and paca birth watching!

and more mating – the boys were fab – halter training early really pays off!

well wow – that  was a busy day. Haylage for Alpaca – that we cut and wrapped last year –

literally flew through the door (well gate) when we advertised it for sale last week.

I was inundated with calls as small bale haylage is scarce to find these days.

We opened a few to check and off it all went.

Folk came from as far as Newbury and Reading to get it…

and the last lot we delivered ourselves.

Job done!

my faithful car again!

well we couldnt have a Happy Easter without a new Egg picture could we?

This is the most massive Muscovy egg ever!

well many of you will know that the Alpaca is an induced ovulator. This means that mating has to occur before an egg can be released for fertilisation. Which means in short that there is no “season” for mating as there is in other livestock, for example horses, sheep etc. No “tupping” season. No “cycle”. This means that the boys are always ready and so are the girls so they need to be seperated at all times to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

When the time comes, the Alpaca sings or “orgles” to the female and this can take from ten minutes to 45 minutes depending on the male.

It is not a quick process and the males need time to get everything functioning properly at the start of the season after a year off!.

Rarely will a male get a female to ovulate and this then fertilise resulting in a pregnancy on the first mating of the season.

The male has to be taken back to the female after 7 days to see if she needs remating. Some females can take numerous 7 day cycles of matings and checkings (called spitting off”) before they are pregnant and even then this needs confirmation by scanning.

Getting a whole herd of some 25 plus breeding females pregnant is a lengthy task and the boys need to be fit and keen.

The bad news is that Alpaca can reabsorb at any time in the cycle in the first three months or so and you will be back to the beginning with some females and have to start all over again. in the meantime the grass grows, cria are born and hay needs making!

this is the reason why you need to start mating early and often have to mate late into the season rather than leave a valuable female (asset) empty.

The longer a female is empty – the more it can effect their chances of getting pregnant again.

An occasional year off is okay with a late birthing but two years empty is never usually a good sign.

combine this with the fact that Alpaca gestation is nearly a year (11.2 months) and that they can give birth up to 6 weeks early or late – there is no time to lose and no “birthing season” – ever!

now then – last year the heatwave caused dire issues for all matings as the sperm count was effected by the heat and the animals just do not want to mate… this includes cows etc.

Alpaca struggle to mate in the heat in full fleece and slide off in the rain so… its up with the larks when dry and cool and the sooner the better!

I am to be seen bleary eyed most mornings as the sun comes up …

leading a keen male for a mating whereby the sun rises during…

I guess its romantic for them!

Spraying is something to be done annually and is a job to keep on top of…

Last year you may recall I had some help….

this year its “shank’s pony”… between other duties and birth watch….

only another ten fields to go!