I am delighted to report that everything went to plan on shearing day and Allan Godsiff did his usual wonderful job. What a star that man is.....I would give you his contact details but then I would have to share him with you and he is already very, very busy so you will have to find someone else to do your shearing.

We took masses of 4" x 4" samples for the Ideal Alpaca Community EPD calculations and tomorrow I will be printing out the Yocom McColl paperwork and sending off the samples....
speaking of Yocom McColl ....Angus McColl has always liked a picture of a half shorn sheep which appeared in the National Geographic magazine back in 1984 so the following picture is for you Angus .



Today I am taking a group of female alpacas to Northwest Alpacas for breedings so there will be more about shearing later in the week.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.

Click here to register for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.

Click here to find out about National Alpaca Farm Day 2007.

Click here to see a very pregnant female that's available until May 15th 2007.

Today we are going to be very busy all day with our annual alpaca shearing.
I will write up the events of the day and post some photographs once I am back from my trip to Portland on Monday and Tuesday.


Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.

Click here to register for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.

Click here to find out about National Alpaca Farm Day 2007.

Click here to see a very pregnant female that's available until May 15th 2007.

Those of you familiar with the NWA web site may already have seen Mike Safleys latest article on the art of buying Very Pregnant Female alpacas. For those of you who haven't seen the article here is a brief summary. Its one of the best articles I have read in a good while and is great buying advice for anyone getting into the alpaca business. In fact I would say its in my Top Ten Tricks of the Trade.

Mike is often asked which alpacas are the best value.

His answer is simple; very pregnant females, the more pregnant the better.
His father and he built their herd by selecting very pregnant females beginning in 1984.

In those days no one was ultra sounding females but you could feel the body parts in a later term pregnancy. Mike would stand behind the dam and rub her belly, if he felt a body part they knew the female was due in less than 60 days.

Eric Hoffman was the head salesman for the importers in the late eighties and he held an import sale at his ranch in Santa Cruz, California. Eric controlled most of the market in those days and he had the biggest group of females for sale outside of South America. The sale format reflected his control, you needed an appointment to even go to the sale and he only allowed prospective purchasers 30 minutes to select their alpacas.

Mike and his father arrived at the appointed hour and waded into the available females. His father would hold the head and he would slip up behind them and massage the momma's belly. If he could feel a body part they bought the alpaca.

They purchased 7 females that day and they all had cria within 60 days. Lo and behold each was a female cria. But that was just beginners luck.....or was it ?

For anyone who wants to make a high value alpaca purchase, pregnant females are the best choice for several reasons:

1) They have a proven ability to conceive.
2) The shorter the due date, the higher the value of the Dam.
3) Pregnant females will have two or three cria before a six month old female cria might have one cria.

Now as Mike says this was in the days before ultrasound so being about to "guesstimate" when a dam was due to deliver was a very useful skill. None the less everything else Mike says is good advice.

Click here to see a very pregnant female that's available until May 15th 2007.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.

Click here to register for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.

Click here to go to the article written by Mike.

Sunday is turning into something of an event. The popularity of helping with alpaca shearing is growing each year and this year we will have the usual crew, including yours truly, plus some new faces.
Our local weaver and artist in residence is coming along together with another neighbour of ours Nathan B Gale DVM, Nathan is retired now but from 1968 until 1971 he was the Director of the Los Angeles Zoo.

Obviously the main purpose of shearing is to relieve the alpacas of their fleece for our commercial gain. But another very important part of shearing the alpacas at Mulberry Alpacas is to take fleece samples from all the alpacas for analysis by Yocom- McColl. We do a more sophisticated test than most farms because we are part of the Ideal Alpaca Community (IAC) .

Why do we do that?

Problem: In order to breed alpacas with better and better fleece traits, we want to choose superior alpacas for our herds. But how do we identify a “superior” alpaca? Genetic superiority cannot be reliably estimated just by measuring an animal’s fleece traits or even by pedigree!

Solution: A formal statistical estimate of genetic value, that is, its EPD (Expected Progeny Difference) is the best available way to predict whether an animal’s progeny are likely to be above or below average for each trait.

• You will know the genetic merit of each animal in your own herd, and it will be obtained through objective measurements and cutting-edge statistical methods.

• Knowing the EPDs allows you to make the most accurate decisions about what animals to buy and to breed in order to improve your herd to reach your breeding goals.

• You can use the EPDs to decide which animals to keep, which to sell, and which to geld.

• You can scientifically evaluate animals at all IAC farms that choose to publicly post or privately share their EPD results. This will make it possible for you to purchase animals and breedings that will improve your herd much more rapidly than if you were limited to only the animals you own for breeding.

• Above-average EPDs will be a strong selling point, and can be used to justify pricing. The large gains made in one generation in a “breed-up” program will be very evident from the EPDs of the progeny of an average or even below average female bred to a superior male. You can immediately show how rapid improvement can be made in just one generation. This makes even low EPDs valuable to your herd.


The IAC community as a whole will benefit from building a complete and
accurate database of EPD values. Using EPDs to make breeding decisions will accelerate the genetic improvement of the IAC virtual herd. Within 5 years, it may be clear that the average IAC animal exceeds the quality of the average individual in the national herd, in which breeding decisions have been made on the basis of phenotype and pedigree alone.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Click here to sign up for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter

Click here to check out the Ideal Alpaca Community

Bandelier a 6 month old male alpaca has gone off into the sunset...well New Mexico to be precise.



Randy and Barbara Coleman arrived as expected and it was only the matter of a few moments to load him into their alpaca trailer, top up the water bucket and say goodbye....



Randy checked Bandeliers microchip and the associated paperwork and off he went....I can't say he was exactly willing...but then a trailer full of strange female alpacas is a daunting sight when you are still a young lad. Especially when they are suri alpacas, and of course Bandelier has never seen a suri alpaca before, or been in a trailer for that matter.

Well lets look on the bright side that's one less alpaca to shear on Sunday.....

Adrian Stewart - click here for Mulberry Alpacas

Click here to sign up for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter

The AFCNA election results are in!

Today we heard from John Merrell the AFCNA President who had been elected to the AFCNA board.

Our new AFCNA directors are:

Wini Labreque - Owner of Star Weaver Farm, Wini brings a wealth of knowledge about fiber and yarns to the Board.

Greg Schneider - Owner of Sylvan Skies Alpacas, Greg has a strong background as an organizer, working to build and improve volunteer organizations, and has a strong commitment to cooperative principles.

Kathy Vitcak - Owner of Jackpot! Alpacas, Kathy has an honors degree in Marketing and Textiles and many years of working in the fashion industry.

These new appointments will build the momentum that is already developing at the coop and ensure the eventual success of the alpaca industry.

Meanwhile back on the farm we are preparing for shearing this Sunday and already have a good stock of volunteers. You can never have enough volunteers on shearing day is my motto.

The weather has been warm and sunny so the alpacas fleeces will be dry and clean which makes a huge difference.

Thinking about shearing and the trouble we go to to weigh the alpacas before giving injections it does make me realise that right now the bigger animals are carrying about an extra 10 lbs in weight. So my weights are at least 6% out..... just an interesting observation.

This afternoon the transport company will arrive to collect Bandelier. All the paperwork is in order and he has packed his toothbrush and pyjamas.......

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Click here to sign up for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.

If you haven't heard of "topping" before then read on and learn....

During the late fifties, an Australian livestock specialist summarized the results of a multi-year pasture study involving three cattle ranches.
The weaning weight of the calves on one ranch had consistently outweighed those from adjacent ranches by 70 to 100 pounds per head.

The differences in weaning weights could not be explained by variability associated with breeds, dates of calving, soil types, forage species, and so forth.

However, the rancher with the heavier calves practiced "topping" his pastures. This practice was the only variable identified that might explain the variation in weaning weights.

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Topping was explained as clipping the pasture with a rotary mower at early heading to prevent further flower stalk development. If flowering stems are not consumed prior to seed head emergence, they become woody and unpalatable. With timely clipping, while the grass is still palatable, livestock will readily consume the residues.

So how does topping relate to the variation in weaning weight?

Grass physiologists have shown that disruption of seed head development triggers production of new shoots (aftermath) from basal buds in crown tissue. Timely, topping of pastures results in earlier aftermath production.

Now weaning weights may not be an issue with alpacas but we all know that they enjoy those fresh young grass shoots much more than the taller grasses.

Adrian Stewart - cleck here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Click here to sign up for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.

Alpaca Event Rush....doesn't really mean anything...

..unless that is you have ever done any sky diving in which case you will know that for most of the journey down you feel like you are floating as light as a feather then suddenly your eyes achieve some perspective and it appears as if the very earth is rushing up to greet you...an effect know as "ground rush".

In the alpaca breeding and farming world you will sometime experience the same effect...not as the ground rushes towards you...but as a small group of alpaca events appear to rush towards you in the calendar.

Namely....in 4 days time we will be shearing all the alpacas and in 5 days time I will be driving the female alpacas north to Portland for breedings. On this coming Saturday we will be in a mass panic trying to get all the photographs that we need while the alpaca girls and boys are still in full fleece. What wonderful fun and games.....

Sadly a neighbouring alpaca farm lost one of their new cria today. The poor little creature had been born blind, not long after birth she caught pneumonia and despite having a transfusion to boost her IGg she was dead the following morning. All very sad.

The sun is shining and its a glorious 77 degrees outside which is very pleasant...but you knew that anyway didn't you?

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mullberry Alpacas

Click here to sign up for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.

I wonder if every alpaca farmer can remember the very first time they heard about alpacas? I certainly can and it would make a great collection of stories if someone took the time to put them all down on paper (or hard drive) ...well its a project for next winter.

The concrete drain pipes under the drive had separated and the drive was slowly falling into the drain and being washed away....so today we dug out the offending pipes and reconnected them which was a simple task...and I suspect a case of "a stitch in time saves nine".

After that I have been very busy completing various pieces of alpaca related paperwork including the insurance claim for Felina....quite a good deal of documented evidence is required and I think it would be very useful if this were known from the outset.

But enough whining - the sun is shining and the alpacas are enjoying their last full week in fleece before shearing on Sunday...

The necropsy on Felina didn't reveal any clear cause of death other than congestive heart failure. However, I intend to scour the pastures this week in search of any unknown plants or weeds.

Well that's about all for today as usual there is masses of paperwork and not enough time with the alpacas.


Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Click here to sign up for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter

By chance I discovered the following website which AOBA (the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association) have registered and contains an image of the 16" x 20" poster which will be printed and distributed to promote National Alpaca Farm Day.

The site is apparently going to list all participating farms from August 15th




National Alpaca Farm Day in the USA

September 29th and 30th, 2007

The Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA) has designated the last weekend in September 2007 as National Alpaca Farm Day in America. This is the time of year a lot of farms and ranches invite the public to get acquainted with alpacas anyway, so we have decided to make it a national event.

To promote the weekend the AOBA marketing committee is hard at work on this project supported by AOBA's PR firm who is developing media programs, slogans, banners, and other advertising material.

Within each state, the various regional affiliates of AOBA will be approaching the State Governor to request for a proclamation that the last weekend in September be declared Alpaca Farm Day in Oregon, for example.

In the Pacific Northwest the following AOBA regional affiliates will be coordinating their efforts on National Alpaca Farm Day.

Those affiliates are:

State of Jefferson Alpaca Association. www.soja.org

Willamette Alpaca Breeders Association www.alpacas-waba.org

Pacific Northwest Alpaca Association www.pnaa.org

Emerald Valley Alpaca Association www.emerald-alpacas.com

Future dates will be:

National Alpaca Farm Day 2008 - September 27th and 28th

National Alpaca Farm Day 2009 - September 26th and 27th

National Alpaca Farm Day 2010 - September 25th and 26th


Adrian Stewart - Click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Today the new version of the Destron microchips arrived. There are two main differences.

Firstly, the new chip has a 15 digit numerical code so it takes quite a bit of writing down and we all know that the more you write........ well then the greater the chance of error.

Of course 15 digits is the new International Standard so I suspect we are stuck with that....



The second and much more exciting feature is that the chip also displays temperature (in both Fahrenheit and Celsius) this is a really neat feature and the chip is accurate to plus or minus 1/2 degree Fahrenheit.



The real benefit is that in most instances you are looking for the chip in order to ID the alpaca and to be able to pick up the temperature at the same time is really neat.

Now we all know that ID microchips in alpacas (bio-thermal or otherwise) can somehow "get lost" so correct placement and checking on a regular basis is pretty much essential. With the new bio-thermal chip there is now a good reason to read chips more frequently.

How the chips will perform long term in the alpaca herd is unknown at this time, so far I am very impressed. Being able to take a temperature single handed in about 3 seconds total time is really useful.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.

The whole herd received their oral drench for liver flukes this morning as planned.
Getting all the alpaca herd management tasks into a year planner is a vital task for me without the discipline of the year planner it is all too easy for the protocols to slip.

Sometimes it can be very tempting to put off essential herd management tasks, especially when the weather is cold and wet. The reality is often no where near as bad as we imagine and so experience tells me that you simply put it in the diary and then do it come hail, rain, snow or blow.

This morning I also collected fecal samples from both the male and female alpacas and took them to Crater Animal Clinic for anlaysis.

Today the sun is shining and you can almost see the grass growing as you watch....better plan on doing some mowing this weekend. Probably when Jo goes to cut here hair I will cut some of the grass in the alpaca pastures.

However, a quick glimpse at the weather forecast shows that there is an 80% chance of rain tomorrow and despite what I just said about herd management I am not mowing the alpaca pastures in the rain....

Well its coming up to 12.45 now so time to get some lunch before updating the alpaca herd health records to reflect the work we have done this morning.

The insurance claim on Ms Felina who died on Saturday of last week is slowly progressing and the loss adjuster has now received the contact details for Dr Leslie Richardson the vet in order to get details of the necropsy report. Some of the tissue reports are back from the lab ...but as often happens in these cases the results are not dreadfully conclusive...

Thank you o all my readers for reading and keeping abreast of life on the farm. And particular thank you to all those who sent their sympathies when Ms Felina passed away. Its much appreciated.

Adrian Stewart - Click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.

Liver Fluke is a parasite that is often over looked by alpaca breeders with disastrous results. Liver flukes are not affected by most of the worming medications routinely used on alpacas and therefore often can cause severe liver damage without being noticed.

Our protocol for liver flukes is Curatrem at 4cc for ever 100lbs administered as a drench.

This afternoon when we get back from California I am going to swing by the vet and collect some Curatrem which I will administer in the morning to the whole herd. While I was at the vets I also collected the vet certificate for Bandelier who will be going out on the 26th to the GWAS alpaca show in Denver before travelling on to his final destination in New Mexico.



We arrived back from our trip in California at about 3pm and everything was fine on the farm Mac had done an excellent job of taking care of the place and the alpacas, plus he had also completed all the chores on our list.

Having someone who can farm sit for a couple of days is an absolute must if you are going to farm alpacas and enables you to travel with complete peace of mind which is priceless.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Its great to be in the sunshine as we left Ashland this morning it was actually snowing and although the roads were all clear even over the pass from Oregon to California the trees were all covered with a fresh fall of snow and look like a scene the a box of Swiss chocolates.

Down here in California the growing season is underway and I saw two farms both taking their first cuttings of hay which just amazed me.



Back on the alpaca farm Macario is in charge and busy getting everything ready for the irrigation season.

One of the last tasks before I left the farm was to order 6 of the bio-thermal Destron ID chips and I am hoping they will arrive on Friday.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Dr Leslie Richardson was here again today to health check the open female alpacas before shearing on the 29th and then shipping to Portland on the 30th. Everything went to plan and they are all healthy and were determined to be open by ultrasound.

I ordered 6 of the bio-thermal microchips today and I am really looking forward to using them its going to be quite neat to scan a chip and see the alpacas temperature at the same time as the chip number. I will be doing some tests when they arrive so will keep you posted.

This afternoon I met the "Beetle Guy" at Crater Animal Clinic and gave him Felina's body so he can use his beetles to strip off the flesh and then I can reassemble her skeleton to be used as an educational aid. Should be an interesting project but nothing to report for some time as it will take the beetles 8 to 12 months to complete their work.



The day ended in a harsh snow storm that took us all by surprise and although most of it has now melted it was still pretty rough out there for a while.

Tomorrow I am heading into California for a couple of days so will be posting my Blog from the sunshine state.....

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas