Bad Bad Leroy Brown......



And just in case you can't quite recall them here are some of those famous lyrics........

Well the south side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named Leroy brown

Now Leroy more than trouble
You see he stand bout six foot four
All the downtown ladies call him treetop lover
All the mens just call him sir

And its bad, bad Leroy brown
The baddest man in the whole damn town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Thank you to our lady Blog reader from near Chicago who came up with this great name... you know who you are

(The reference to that famous suri herdsire King Kong in these lyrics is purely coincidental....)

Great weather on the farm today with the sun shining and the new born alpacas pronking about in the pastures...... its the best part of alpaca farming and that's for sure.

The end of the month is upon us once again so thanks for calling by I hope you enjoyed the Blog and I look forward to seeing again next month......tomorrow!

Adrian

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.
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Click here to find out about National Alpaca Farm Day 2007.

Decision time is almost upon us..

Some days ago I asked for your help to name this very cute little boy....



Well first off a big thank you to all those who e-mailed in suggestions....

The two finalists are:

Bad Bad Leroy Brown - from a lady near Chicago

and

Gordon Brown - from a lady near Daytona

Now I did say it had to be the title of a well known song so Gordon Brown is a bit of a cheat really. But it is the name of the new British Prime Minister and well we are British after all..
The final decision will be tonight and he will get his new name tomorrow.....



Although the longest day of the year (and my birthday) are gone, today is the latest sunset of the year so from here on in those evenings will ever so slightly start to draw in......but don't lets think about winter just yet.



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.

I just wanted to explain about some of the unforeseen consequences of spraying along fence lines with herbicide. Don't worry, its nothing drastic involving poisoned alpacas or any such thing ...so you can relax.



Spraying along the fence lines means you can mow close to the fence and without having to stoll up and down with the weed whacker achieve a tidy looking fence. It looks good and is cheaper than whacking the grass all summer long. So whats the problem?



Of course if you kill the grass along the fence line then you create a seed bed for local weeds and here you can see that a fence line we sprayed last year is now home to a very grateful weed colony. So in no time flat you have a bigger problem than the one you started with.



If the ground is very dry and clay like then even the weeds will pass you buy and the ground will dry out and start to crack just like this example here....as you can see these large deep tacks are now starting to compromise the integrity of the fence...I will have to keep a very close eye on this as the weather heats up.

Bottom line, spray your fence lines for that neat "country club" look, but remain vigilant for unplanned events...

The other development has been in what we call Home Field, the pasture nearest to the barn and house. This pasture was used extensively throughout the winter and when spring came the grass had been cropped quite short by the alpacas and was over taken by the local weeds and clovers in no time.



Tonight the sun will set at 9.03pm and that is the latest time of the year, so from here on in the nights will be growing ever shorter.

Keep the names coming for the brown alpaca boy its decision time this weekend.

As always thanks for calling by and I hope you are enjoying my story of life on the alpaca farm.


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.

Yesterday evening Jo and I took on the challenge of creating a web site over night.... I can already hear you saying why? Why would you do that?

Basically as I mentioned yesterday a local farmer has filed a measure 37 claim against the state. He wants to develop about 200 new homes on his farm everybody and I mean everybody is against this claim. So in order to spread the word far and wide we created www.ashlandacres.org

Now this site isn't going to win any awards but it is functional and will greatly accelerate the number of people who will write in to the state and protest the Measure 37 claim. So time will tell.

Meanwhile on the alpaca farm the temperature is in the high 80's and all the alpacas are sunbathing.

The delivery of the two fibre boys to their new home has been scheduled for the week commencing the 9th of July.

I also need to take Navidad up to NWA for a breeding sometime soon just not sure when exactly...how the months roll by.

The grass is growing fast at the moment and every day we are topping one of the alpaca pastures in order to keep the grass in its growth phase and as it happens the alpacas like the short fresh grass.....must be like asparagus I guess.

Well I better get cracking on my alpaca article for the UK magazine.....which is due shortly...time waits for no man, as you know.


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.

Today has just been a whirlwind of activity on board SS Alpaca....

Overnight the flood irrigation in the hay field spilt over into the road and started to wash away the surface..this really gets my neighbors hot under the collar so I was up at 5am to redirect water and grade the road.....it got worse before it got better but i just can't bring myself to tell you why... so you can use your imagination.

Quite a few suggestions arrived for names that we might use with our new alpaca boy..... I will wait a few more days before picking one.... we did have a very good one from Chicago today but I am not saying anymore just yet.

SOJAA the local affiliate of which I am president has sprung into life and I am trying to organise a marketing seminar if at all possible.....but still waiting for the green light from my board and some possible dates from the speakers.

At about the same time Greg Schneider called to talk about the Affiliate Congress meeting which is coming up in Nashville at the end of July....I think its going to be a crunch meeting between the AOBA board and Presidents of the various Affiliates....I will let you know what happens sometime in August..

Finally, some local has filed a Measure 37 claim to turn his 242 acres into 193 separate dwellings....and although we aren't affected in any major way....we have thrown our weight behind the campaign and started to put a web site together overnight...

So I better go as Jo is getting some sleep while I write content for her to load and format....
never a dull moment as they say...keep the alpaca names coming.

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.

okay we need some help .... we have a beautiful brown boy here on the farm and he still doesn't have a name....

usually we name our alpacas after well known songs so we have had Mr Bo Jangles, Evita, Sergeant Pepper, Mr Tambourine man and so forth. I am sure you get the idea.

This being a male alpaca we really want something macho...we have considered Brown Sugar and Donnie Darko as names but neither really hit the spot for us.



If you have a flash of inspiration then simply send me your ideas......

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.

Today being Sunday I took some time off and drove down to a lavender farm near Mt Shasta in California.

The town of Shasta is quite quaint and has a handful of well stocked independent shops selling books, hiking/skiing gear and a couple selling all things spiritual. Anyway I digress.

The lavender farm is a few miles north of Shasta town and up a long rough drive which all adds to the rustic appeal of the place.



The farm is owned by a husband and wife both of whom are practising psychologists and they have been putting it together for about 4 years now. All told they own 800 acres and I would guess less than 10 have been made into lavender fields.

As you can see from the picture it is a beautiful spot and the smell of lavender and sound of bees collecting nectar is pretty special. If you are ever heading up I-5 past this great venue I recommend you call in. It is only open at certain times of year for visitors to pick lavender but is available all year round as a venue for weddings or meetings.

I have to say lavender farming looks way more relaxing than alpaca farming so if you have the land and the inclination this looks like a pretty laid back lifestyle.


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.

National Alpaca Farm Day has motivated several affiliates to promote their member farms and ranches with group marketing ideas.

SoCAL (Alpaca Breeders of Southern California) has formed a National Alpaca Farm Day committee to place ads in local newspapers and share ideas for other group marketing strategies.

Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies (ABR) will present a proclamation at the State Capital complete with alpacas and their owners on the capital steps. Their committee will invite the press to participate in announcing National Alpaca Farm Day to their local community.

CABA (Columbia Alpaca Breeders Association) hosts “The Alpaca Country Faire” planned for August 11th. This event is an established event but the timing gives this affiliate a built in marketing opportunity to promote National Alpaca Farm Day. The event is held at a local historic farm and gives member farms an opportunity to invite visitors to their farm on the September weekend for a closer look at the alpaca lifestyle.

Looks like there is some activity but not as much as expected...... still there is still time...

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.

On the farm we use both gas and diesel. Either in one of the two tractors or in the gator or in either the chainsaw, weed whacker or lawn mower.

The gas and diesel are both stored in 5 gallon plastic cans which are then stored under a shelter outside.

With three and sometimes four of us using the fuel it is very easy to run out of fuel or to go into town not realizing that we need fuel.

So last week I built the wall mounted fuel gauge which shows exactly how many cans of gas we have and how many cans of diesel (oil).



In this case you can see there is about 10 gallons of gas available.

Talking of labor saving tips the water that overflows from the irrigation pond is used to water a dry grass covered slope at the side of the house.

To direct the water where we want it we use a simple T pipe.







Its a simple system and it was inexpensive and has saved me hours of work.

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.

Yes its me, today is the not only the longest day of the year it is also my birthday and I have now hit the big 51......

Masses to do on the farm as the sunshine is making everything grow...where do those star thistles come from?

But I will be having a day off to do some other stuff and get back to the farming tomorrow. i have been restoring an old east European hand cart for the last few weeks and today it finally saw light of day.



The official AOBA web site has finally overtaken me on Google when you search for National Alpaca Farm Day.... I guess it was inevitable and only right that the official site should be top...still it was fun while it lasted and who knows..... okay off to enjoy my birthday....enjoy your day.

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.

What’s happening to promote National Alpaca Farm Day?
AOBA will running nationwide television ads on Direct TV and Dish Network in July.

What are affiliates doing to promote National Alpaca Farm Day?
Several have presented a proclamation for their governor to sign, designating the last weekend in September as National Alpaca Farm Day.

Other Affiliates have plans to do group events to market their member farms using National Alpaca Farm Day advertising.



This is a national event with national advertising but so far the response from Alpaca farmers is at best limited..... go figure.

We are big fans of National Alpaca Farm Day and are looking forward to the last weekend in Spetember.... so please feel free to call in and say hi to the alpacas

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.

Okay its been a mixed day and I still don't know why...

On the farm everything is going well, the irrigation is doing its thing and the new PC is so much faster than the old one it has made some of the memory intensive tasks that I used to dread become a complete pleasure.... so thanks to Bill Gates and Michael Dell.

The latest edition of Hobby Farms magazine is now out and features the livestock profile which I wrote about alpacas called The Alpaca Advantage.



Hobby Farms has a pretty good circulation of over 80,000 and a readership of about three times that number.

Our improvement on the web ranking game known as Search Engine Optimisation in the trade is doing really well and the number of enquiries is increasing. So Tomorrow we have two farm visits all from our efforts with the web site....its been a long and winding road but in the end it has delivered for us...not so for everyone but then the one thing you do need in the web game is staying power.....

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.

The day has come at last and today I am transferring all my data to a new PC...wish me luck!
I have held out for 6 long years but the time has come.... Being cautious I have backed everything up to an external hard drive and to an internet based based system...just in case.

Hopefully I will be back on line later...in which case I will update the Blog for today....

Good news after 8 hours of trransferring data and installing software the system is up and running.....so the Blog will be back to full strength tomorrow....

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.

I am pretty sure that this time last year I wrote a piece on Godfather ....the famous alpaca father.... this year I am heading off to the Oregon Coast for the day.
Back on Monday.......

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.

I received the laboratory report on the first cutting of our hay today.

The cutting was our earliest ever and the crude protein percentage was 10.16% in the dry sample.

This compares to 11.75% in last years second cutting and 8.06% in last years first cutting. So I guess its an improvement when comparing like to like.

Intterestingly the copper has gone from 8 ppm to 64 ppm which is a massive change....that I cannot explain so on Monday I will call the lab and see what explanation they can offer.

The second cutting last year had nitrates (NO3) of 0.02% while the first cutting this year has elevated nitrates at .13% again quite an increase. However nitrates can be greatly influenced by the wether immeadiately before cutting. The nitoren was almost constant at 1.63%.

Well I could go oon but the phone just rang and some people would like to come and see some alpacas........so duty calls.

Back again tomorow for fathers day !.

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.