The day started off well enough the weather was clear and it wasn't raining.
Mac hauled rocks out of the second pasture we are clearing and CJ arrived with his back hoe to cut some new trenches so I can lay more irrigation pipes.

CJ only broke one water pipe along the way and we fixed that .

The weather declined as the day wore on and by 1pm it was raining and just above freezing.

We eventually got everything dug out more or less and called it a day at 4.30.

By then the irrigation trenches were starting to look like a scene from World War One.




By Adrian Stewart

The latest version of the SOJAA (State of Jefferson Alpaca Association) web site went live today. New SOJAA Web Site

The site really is great, each member gets their own Blog and there are Forums where we can all post articles and swap ideas or sell and buy things.

All credit to John Merrell the SOJAA member who develops and maintains the site free of charge.



By Adrian Stewart

In January we give all the adult females alpacas Vitamin A and D shots. Plus all the cria born in the previous year who will all receive another shot in March.
Today was the day. We tend not to herd the alpacas in for something this simple so we just walk around and give the shots as they eat their feed supplement.
It creates a more relaxed atmosphere all round as the other girls eat away not really interested in what is going on until its their turn.

Just one tip the vitamin supplement goes like treacle in cold weather so warm it up to body temperature. That makes it much easier to draw into the syringe and much easier to push.


By Adrian Stewart

Today my eldest son Jamie is 19 years old. How the days and months fly by... He is in England right now, so if you read this Jamie ..Happy Birthday.






Adrian Stewart

Mac didn't come in today so the day started with some poop scooping.
At 9am the vet Dr Tara Timpson arrived with her assistant Anita.

Firstly we cut teeth on two boys that have overshot bottom jaws, a quick injection to calm them down then to work with the Dremel.

Next we scanned two females to ensure they were still holding their pregnancies.
Finally we chipped Buttercup who had just returned the day before and is in islolation with her mother for two weeks until we test for BVDV.

At midday Larry Vellozi arrived from Adorabella Alpacas .

We spent some time looking round the barn and some of the pastures, which just look dreadful at this time of year. Then we had lunch and discussed the future of the fibre market and whether a local fibre mill would be succesful....

I don't know why but that reminds me I must get some more hay.

By Adrian Stewart

Today I went down to Derwydd Alpacas in Califirnia to collect Sopressa one of our female alpacas who has been for a breeding to Inta-Sapa a Derwydd junior herdsire. She has been down there with her cria Buttercup. Who is now ready to be weaned.

The journey was uneventful and the girls were all ready for collection when I arrived. By the time it came to bed time I did not need rocking to sleep after the 12 hour round trip. Maybe I am getting old but 12 hours on the interstate with a trailer is about my limit.

The two girls are now in isolation for two weeks, then we will draw blood and do a PCR test for BVDV before putting them back in the herd.

Inta -Sapa
His sire Ninaya was one of Julio Sumar?s top picks in the last importation and his dam is full Peruvian and also a Sumar top pick.
He has a 18.9 micron fleece in his 3nd year, a CV of 23 with only 1.4 % over 30 micron. His fleece is dense with a very high frequency and low amplitude crimp.
This Herdsire is a Derwydd next generation improvement. 8 First Place Ribbons!





By Adrian Stewart

Today we received the results on the rest of our herd and they were all negative for BVDV using the PCR test.

This is good news and from now on we will just have to be very careful about what comes on to the farm and where our girls go when they go off the farm.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding about BVDV and alpaca owners need to ensure they either spend some time with their vet and develop a plan for their own alpacas or attend one of the many courses that are being organised.

By Adrian Stewart

Today was the first meeting this year of SOJAA the local AOBA affiliate. This is my second year in office as president and the new board was meeting for the first time.
It was a pretty busy session as we agreed how to approach the local Type Conference which will help dettermine a national breed standard. We also started the ball rolling on our annual alpaca show AlpacaMania which takes place over the Columbus wekend.

Following the board meeting we had a social meeting of the whole membership and almost 50 members arrived to have lunch. The whole event was great success and the new members really had a good time.

There was lots of talk about the long wet winter and who was running out of hay and state of play on BVDV in alpacas. A few of us may be going to the Snowmass Auction next month and we debated the merits of various alpacas that are in the catalogue and decided what we would buy if we each had a million dollars to spend on alpacas......

By Adrian Stewart

An interesting story from the world of sheep farming, which I think you will enjoy.

Sam Wilkinson and sister Stacey are currently touring farms in Wales pregnancy testing thousands of ewes a week.
Sam and her sister know it's for their own good and stand no nonsense as they do 250 ultra-scan pregnancy tests an hour. (Thats right 250 an hour)
"Some of them jump around and kick, especially some of the youngsters who aren't used to being tickled underneath. You do get a bit battered and bruised sometimes," said Sam."They do get a bit rough, especially the Welsh, who tend to be a bit lively anyway."
There are more than nine million sheep in Wales on almost 15,500 farms.
The main lambing season is March and April, although some can be born as early as the end of January.


Unlike alpacas ewes are scanned halfway through their five-month pregnancy.
Expectant women must avoid contact with sheep and lambs at lambing time because some lambs are born carrying the germs that cause listeriosis, toxoplasmosis, and chlamydia. These can be passed on to the mother and her unborn baby and can cause a miscarriage.




One of the more bizarre things we do with sheep back in the UK is have sheep races! Miniature jockeys, made from knitting wool of course, are fastened on the sheeps back and ...oh well, a picture is worth a whole lot of words so look at this.


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By Adrian Stewart

Spent the morning preparing pastures that we are going to reseed this spring. Basically that means hauling out rocks so we can spray the star thistles and fox tails then disk the fields.

Gifford our Australian Shepherd thought it was great opportunity to get some exercise now that he is fully recovered. So spent the day retrieving his tennis ball.




By Adrian Stewart

Just after midday, our vet Tara Timpson and her technician Anita arrived to draw blood on the remainder of the alpaca herd and microchip a handful of castrated alpaca fibre boys.

Everything went smoothly and we drew blood on 20 animals. Which has now gone off to OSU Vet college for BVDV testing using the PCR test. We should get the results in a few days.

The five female alpacas we have "off farm" for breeding will have to go into quarantine and be tested when they return. They will then have to remain in quarantine until we get the results.

Quite a pain but the only way to ensure we are under control.

I do not believe any other farms in the area are testing at the moment but there is some talk of testing becoming compulsory for some shows. So time will tell. Having been through a foot and mouth epidemic in the UK I know that standards are currently way too relaxed for testing alone to be effective. The BVD Virus can remain active for up to 72 hours on the floor so there is real risk of transmission from faeces and urine on boots and shoes even the tires of trucks.

Interestingly the vet and her technician had previously been working on Angus cattle before coming to our farm so took the precaution of changing their clothes and shoes before coming onto the farm. A sign of things to come maybe.

By Adrian Stewart

Well Dante arrived and the girls have gone to their new home in New Mexico.

Here is an interesting BVDV e-mail I received today:

As noted by Pat Long in an earlier e-mail, the Alpaca Research
Foundation (ARF) is funding two studies to look at BVDV along with some
financial help from the Mid-Atlantic Alpaca Association (MAPACA). These
studies will go a long way to define the epidemiology of BVDV in
alpacas, but they will not answer the question you are asking. That
being said there is a lot more to this than is generally appreciated. I
am in the fortuitous (or not) position of being in the cross-fire of all
the BVD goings-on, because I am responsible for keeping the confidential
census of documented PI's on the ARF website and mine is the only name,
e-mail address, and phone number attached to that page on the site. At
this instant there are 11 PI's listed. That number will increase to 14
as soon as the website is updated. However, I know of TWENTY more
cases which I cannot add to the census because I do not have permission
from the owners to do so. The states that have had documented PI's
include California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan,
Illinois,
New York, New Jersey, and Maine. There have also been PI's documented
in Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick. I know this is going to be
long-winded, but it is important to emphasize the scope of the problem,
and the best way to do that is to describe some clinical,
epidemiological, and psychological cases.
A New Jersey alpaca breeder bought a female alpaca with a cria by
her side at an auction in California. The cria failed to thrive, was
found to be a PI (documented by Ed Dubovi at Cornell), and was
euthenized. The original owner denies to this day that there could have
been a problem and the auction management just doesn't want to know
about it.
A Wisconsin alpaca breeder who has many animals boarding on his
farm sold a boarder (cria) to another Wisconsin farm for the owner and
got a phone call telling him that the cria had just been put down
because it was a PI. Before the PI status was discovered the cria had
been hospitalized at the University of Wisconsin vet school for
pneumonia, but was not checked for BVDV. When the animal got home it
did worse, was discovered to be a PI, and put down. On the boarding
farm every female on the farm except one is antibody positve. Of six
animals delivered in Sept 2005 five moms and their five crias are all
antibody positive. One antibody negative mom had an antibody negative
cria and both were PCR negative as well. Nine other pregnant females
were antibody positive. Four were aborted and the other five will be
watched very carefully, isolated at delivery and the crias will be
tested at birth (before nursing).
In September of 2004 a new breeder had her first delivery of a mom
who was pregnant when she bought her. The cria had agenesis of the
lung and a two-chambered heart and died instantly upon delivery
(obviously). The vet at the time stated that this looked like a BVDV
problem but at that time no one knew anything about this in alpacas. The
mom has recently been tested and is antibody positive. Subsequently
there have been two PI's at the farm where she bought her animals and
the entire herd at that farm is antibody positive. The cria with the
multiple malformations was no longer available for further analysis.
The biggest problem I see here is a willingness on the part of
breeders to confront this situation. Without co-operation from the
owners and breeders there is no way of defining the scope of the problem
or its significance. The oldest documented alpaca PI was 30 months and
was euthenized two months ago. We, therefore, have a problem that is at
least 44 months old. In that period of time with alpacas crossing back
and forth across the country for breeding, shows, and auctions there
could potentially be a huge number of PI's out there. This problem can
be eradicated by testing and biosecurity measures, but this will take a
concerted effort by the alpaca industry to do it. I'm sure the animals
will co-operate. The alternative is to become the mirror image of the
cattle industry with similar consequences. " THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST
ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT."

Alan A. Rosenbloom, MD, FACP, FACE
Grants Administrator, Alpaca Research Foundation
Black Tulip Farms Alpacas
Siler City, NC


Posted by Adrian Stewart

Gifford our Australian Shepherd and Phoebe our Golden Retreiver both take a trip to the vet for their annual medical, rabies shots and distemper booster. The main purpose for the medical is to get the prescrition for Heartgard. Although Ivernectin can't be given to Border Collies and Australian Shepherds I am told that the amounts in Heartgard have been tested and are quite safe.

Both dogs check out fine except that Phoebe has an ear infection so needs a short course of treatment.

Now just need to send of the forms for the new dog licences......does it ever end?

By Adrian Stewart

There has been some discussion to and fro about which are the best alpacas in the Snowmass Catalogue. (see the Blog for January 13th 2006).

Well I am no alpaca judge so I don't know which the best are, but here are my favourites.

(1) Top pick would be 6Peruvian Hallmark (lot 36).

(2) Snowmass Victoria (lot 160).

(3) Nova's Ubisoft (lot 24).

(4) Snowmass Legacy (lot 4).

(5) Golden Legacy (lot 10).

It will be interesting for me to see what prices they fetch at the auction.

By Adrian Stewart

I agree with Dr Timpson, our vet, that we will draw blood from the rest of the alpacas on Wednesday the 18th and test for BVDV. We will also microchip the last few boys on that day. We debated about castrating the one complete boy who obviously isn't going to be herd sire quality but decide to leave him a while longer. Castrating too soon can adversley affect his bone development.

The 21st is the next meeting of SOJAA (State of Jefferson Alpaca Association) its the first meeting of the new board and then a social event for all our members. We have several new members thanks mainly to the alpaca conference we are hosting on March 11th.
All things Considered; Steve Hull, Ph.D. & Tom Cameron, Ph.D. present a day packed with vital information and presented with their unique brand of humor. The seminar covers a large variety of issues.

The catalogue arrives for the Snowmass Alpacas Auction to be held on February 25th officially called The Making Of Champions Private Selection Sale 2006 There are 69 alpacas entered into the sale and some are truly superb.




By Adrian Stewart