Our latest cria which arrived last Thursday certainly behaves like she has far too go.
Dr Leslie Richardson our new vet arrived this afternoon to give her a full examination and draw blood so that we can get an IgG level, complete the DNA registration card and test for BVDV all in one go.



Dr Richardson, who I have known for almost two years now, was very thorough and checked all the vital functions, temperature, breathing, heartbeat, eyes, ears, bite and general conformation. She reported everything was in good shape.

We drew blood as planned and will have the IgG count tomorrow and the BVDV result sometime next week.



This morning we had a visit from a local fibre artist that is very keen to work with alpaca fibre. She is currently spinning using spindles which is pretty much the traditional method in Peru. However, she has ordered a large wheeled spinning wheel that will be ready in 9 months time then she can spin finer and more consistently.

She was very taken by a dark fleece from a female alpaca called Southern Cross and as she runs a catering business we agreed to swap the fleece for pies....which was a fun thing to do.

I must remind her to enter our upcoming fibre arts competition in early October.

Adrian Stewart

This morning saw us heading North up I-5 to Grants Pass and the home of Larry and Paula Vellozzi of Adorabella Alpacas. We had arranged to visit so that Gaia could see their wonderful ranch and talk about all things Italian... we also needed to collect a white huacaya fleece which they were donating to the alpaca fibre arts competition which SOJAA are organising at the same time as our alpaca show AlpacaMania.

Adorabella Alpacas is nestled between the Rogue and Applegate rivers in
Southern Oregon's Rogue Valley.



Time flew by, as it does when you are having fun and before we knew it we had been talking, drinking coffee and looking around the farm for almost two hours.

Time to head home and do some work with the alpacas at Mulberry in preparation for the vet arriving tomorrow afternoon to draw blood from our latest cria.

Tomorrow morning at 10am we have a visit from a fibre artist who wants to see the alpacas and talk about the fibre which should be interesting.


Adrian Stewart

Today I went to Happy Valley Alpacas to collect one of our female alpacas, Mia Sorella. We took her up there for a breeding to their award winning male SRR's Khasino.

Happy Valley is owned and operated by Al and Jan Vizina they are a truly lovely couple and if you are ever in the area I suggest you give them a call then swing by and say hello.

We spent a good hour or so chatting about the alpaca business. In his previous life Al was an animal nutritionist so has some thoughts on what to do and what not do to when it comes to feeding.
Currently he is feeding some of The Dr Norm Evans supplement and is very pleased with the results. He also puts out mineral blocks for his alpacas which is pretty unusual but he swears by it.

His best piece of advice regarding nutrition was to be consistently consistent...that is to say don't keep swapping feeds every 2 or 3 months as it is all but impossible to determine the benefits or otherwise if you change feeds so frequently.







She has "spit off" on 7 different occasions and is now expecting her cria on May 27th 2007.

Adrian Stewart

Today I was up at 3.30 am to catch the first possible plane back to the west coast from Nashville.

I couldn't wait to see our new cria and just how much she had grown in the last three days.



Here she is only 3 days old and full of beans....jumping beans by the looks!






Adrian Stewart

Today I am in Nashville attending the AOBA Affiliates Congress on behalf of SOJAA.
This is the first meeting of all the AOBA Affiliate Presidents and the AOBA board.
At the end of the day we went over to the AOBA head office which is located in Nashville and had a guided tour.







When people phone in as a result of AOBA Marketing campaigns this is where the Farm and Ranch Guide is mailed from. We (AOBA) had been charging $9.95 for copies of the Farm and Ranch Guide but the price has been reduced to $4.95 and as a result the number of people odrering a copy has doubled. Which has to be good news for all of us.

The meeting has been very productive and really positive. It wouldn't be fair for me to discuss the content here but my expectations are high.

Adrian Stewart

I am in transit to Nashville and as we have just been placed on Orange Alert and all liquids are banned from the aircraft the journey is an adventure in itself.....but trust me its not one you want to read about here.

Adrian Stewart

Well isn't it always the way, just as I am about to head off to catch a plane to Nashville a cria decides its time to arrive.

Divinity is a lovely white female and last year we bred her to the Studmaster male Tequilla.
Since then she has been bought by another alpaca breeder but was staying on our farm to give birth.



Everybody wants to check out the beautiful white female cria that just arrived..



I know it sounds corny but I really do never ever get tired of watching the miracle of birth. Its moments like this that take my breath away and make all the effort and care worthwhile.

Adrian Stewart

Well it was with a heavy heart that I welcomed Dr Timpson to the farm today. She is moving to Utah with her husband Josh.

We will certainly miss her in the Rogue Valley where her camelid skills have been put to good use by many of the alpaca breeders.

She was on the farm to conduct health checks on two intact male alpacas that are heading off to their new home in California.



While she was here she also drew blood from three females to conduct BVDV tests. They had already tested negative but unfortunately the test results did not include their microchip number or ARI number so are not that useful. Hence having to repeat the tests.



Finally, Dr Timpson says good bye to Lucky Luciano her favourite alpaca on the farm. Lucky belongs to Dr Timpson however he will be staying with us and not moving to Utah just yet....

Good bye, thank you and good luck in Utah we will be coming to visit sometime soon.....



Adrian Stewart

Some time ago I started to feed wet COB (corn, oats and barley in molasses) a couple of people e-mailed in and pointed out that molasses was bad for teeth and that the cob can cause gum infections. I had heard about both of these conditions but decided the risk on this occasion was worth it. As I was trying to get some weight onto one of my females.

Anyway when Dr Tara Timpson arrived and we talked about it she told me the story of the black pearl!

Apparently the worst downside of COB is that the small particles can actually fall into the small sacks at the bottom of the second stomach (compartment two) once in there they cannot come out and slowly become coated until they fill the small fermentation sack. If this continues the animals digestion fails and they eventually die.

Here is the picture of a black pearl taken out during a necropsy.



Adrian Stewart

When we took our first cutting of hay I selected what I took to be the best hay and the worst hay and took samples from each for analysis.



The two sets of results are now back from the lab and the difference is quite marked. Each sample was obtained by driling about 6 or 7 different bales.

What I thought was the poor sample had 8.06% protein while the better looking hale had 9.5% protein which is 18% more protein (always tricky thinking about percentages of percentages).

The other variables were pretty similar.

So I guess the conclusion is that in any given hay field there will be a variation and that the bales that look and smell better will actually be better but not by a huge amount.

Wherever and whenever you buy your hay make sure you have it tested or better still sample it yourself and make sure you buy the bales that are similar to the ones you tested.

Let the buyer beware.

Adrian Stewart

Gaia who is an alpaca farmer from Italy and currently staying with us is something of an expert on Camelid Dynamics. However there is nothing Gaia likes more than driving the John Deere Gator. She has renamed the Gator the "Pope Mobile" after the special vehicle that is used to transport the Pope at public events.

So when it comes to checking how far the irrigation water has spread across the hay field then she uses the Pope Mobile!









Adrian Stewart

Today we were in Bend, Oregon for the birthday party of Marty McGee Bennett.
Marty is the founder of Camelid Dynamics and has done a great deal over the last 20 years to promote and encourage the correct handling of alpacas.






Camelidynamics is based on TTEAM (Tellington Touch Every Animal Method), the equine handling system developed by Linda Tellington Jones. Marty has been studying with Linda since 1987 applying TTEAM techniques and concepts to llamas and alpacas. Camelidynamics evolved from TTEAM and Marty is the ONLY TTEAM-certified Instructor for camelids.


Adrian Stewart

Well as promised here are the pictures of the new irrigation box.
Its just a simple concrete structure but makes the redirection of the irrigation water from one side of the hay field to the other much easier.







Okay so its not exactly the Hoover Dam but it was inexpensive and simple to build and will save a great deal of time and effort and anything that is labour saving is desirable on a farm.

Adrian Stewart

While doing some research into sheep and alpaca fibre recently I came across this article based on a study of Merino sheep in Australia.


The article talks about "part records". This is the first paragraph:

"Fibre diameter can vary dramatically along a wool staple,
especially in the Mediterranean environment of southern Australia
with its dry summers and abundance of green feed in spring. Other
research results have shown a very low phenotypic correlation
between fibre diameter grown between seasons. Many breeders use
short staples to measure fibre diameter for breeding purposes and
also to promote animals for sale. The effectiveness of this practice
is determined by the relative response to selection by measuring
fibre traits on a full 12 months wool staple as compared to
measuring them only on part of a staple."

Using alpaca fibre histograms from analysis by Yocom-McColl is pretty much standard practice in our industry. What this study suggests is that in certain variable climates when you look at Merino sheep you can get some variations along the length of the staple.

So I guess its reasonable to assume the same may be true of alpacas, but we all know that diet has as much impact as weather conditions (in particular drought in Australia) on fibre diameter, so I don't believe this report really raises anything that new.

The bottom line as always is not to become obsessed with fineness on its own but to consider uniformity throughout the fleece followed by finess. I don't think taking several reading along the staple and producing an average would add a great deal to what we are already doing.

Well those are my thoughts, If you have different thoughts drop me a line at Mulberry Alpacas
Adrian@mulberryalpacas.com.

Adrian Stewart

Well we (SOJAA) have now received accreditation from AOBA for our annual alpaca show called AlpacaMania.

The AlpacaMania show features Halter and Fleece plus new for this year Skein & Fiber Arts

The show takes place at Jackson County Fairground in Central Point, OR.

For full details and entry forms please visit Show Website: http://www.alpacamania.net

This year the dates of the Show are October 6-8, 2006

In the halter class we will have:

Full Fleece; Color Championships (if minimums are met); Shorn;
Get of Sire; Produce of Dam; Breeders Best Group of Three;
Bred & Owned Yearling

This year the judges will be Wade Gease judging the Halter Classes and Robyn Houts judging the fleeces. We expect about 200 alpacas to be entered and about 150 fleeces.
This will be the first year we have a fibre arts show and we have set ourselves a huge target from a standing start. I won't say exactly what the target is but if we get there it will make us the largest alpaca fibre arts show in the world!



One of the popular features at the show is the silent auction which always includes a number of breedings donated by the owners of some special herdsires. The highlight of this years is going to be Snowmass Perfection. His breedings normally sell for $5,000 so I expect there will be several breeders interested in getting his genetics into their herds.

The breeding to Snowmass Perfection has been generously donated by Al Cousill and Jude Anderson of Pucara Alpacas in Oregon.



Adrian Stewart