Yet another lesson in not making complete communication....
We kindly told a neighbour she could have some of last years hay for her horses. And sure enough she duly turned up and took away quite a few bales of the old stuff.
So far so good....

Then we take our second cutting of new hay....

We re stack the old hay and put the new hay in the barn.

The next time I go in the barn the new second cutting is all gone apart from three bales......disaster.....all I am left with is the old hay.

So there you go a lesson learned.

The neighbour is now mightily embarrassed and bringing the second cutting hay back...well all but the six bales which she has used already.....

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The day started off as usual for this time of year then at about 3.30pm suddenly the skies clouded over and the weather changed dramatically. Heavy rain followed by a violent electrical storm and a flash flood topped off with hail stones.....



By 7pm it was all over as quickly as it arrived several trees were down but not on our property fortunately.



Lets hope we are back to normal tomorrow..thank goodness we live on the top of a hill..

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I am getting too old to be doing 600 mile trips in one day with the trailer.....so just feeling a bit tired this morning after 12 hours of driving yesterday. I left home about 4.30 in the morning so just saw the end of the lunar eclipse which was pretty cool.



On the up side, I did get my two open females delivered for breeding and collected two of the four alpacas that were already up there for breeding.

Two female alpacas I had to leave behind, one because she is still open which is a bit of a puzzle and the other because the vet Dr Paul Jones thinks she may have a deformed fetus so he will do some more ultrasounds to determine if what he saw was an extra leg or if it was just the umbilical cord wrapped around the body. If it is an extra limb then we will terminate the pregnancy and breed her to a different male.

I had a good session with Mike Safley the owner of Northwest Alpacas and made a solid start on my project to try and forecast the national alpaca herd. I also spent time with Bill McAlister who handles the IT and internet side of the business which is always interesting.

Having spoken with a few of the larger farms there is definitely talk of the market being soft compared to this time last year. Which makes me wonder if there would be enough interest in creating a a simple quarterly survey that asks alpaca breeders if they think the economic climate is better or worse than the previous quarter and better or worse than the same quarter last year..... hmmm there is an idea.

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I am on the road today taking two open alpacas to NWA for breedings and bring back three or four pregnant females.

If you are on the I-5 in Oregon tomorrow and see my trailer give me a wave goodness knows I need something on that 700 mile round trip to boost my spirits.



Click here to take the Mulberry Alpacas survey.
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The AOBA board of directors met in Louisville Kentucky on May 16, 2007 and approved the Alpaca Emphasis Guide. The new guide will be used to train alpaca judges. The purpose of the guide is to help judges consistently prioritize placing points in the alpaca show ring.
The guide identifies the important alpaca traits and catalogues them into three classifications: 1) priority emphasis, 2) moderate emphasis and 3) lesser emphasis. Both fleece and conformation traits are addressed. The emphasis guide also takes into account whether the alpaca is male or female and their age: juvenile, yearling and adult.
The idea for the emphasis guide which has been three years in the making began at a meeting of judges, Amanda Van De Bosh, Jude Anderson, Cameron Holt, Julio Sumar, Cheryl Gehly, and Mike Safley. The idea was proposed as a means of augmenting the AOBA handbook which identifies positive and negative alpaca traits but does not give any guidelines as to their relative importance. The handbook also failed to distinguish the relative importance of traits between younger and older alpacas.

To see the full document on Mike Safley’s web site click here Alpaca Emphasis Guide.
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If you are a regular to my Blog you will know that I had an article on the joys of alpaca ownership in the last issue of Hobby Farm magazine complete with professional pictures by Rhoda Preacher

So there I am sitting reading the latest issue of Hobby Farms magazine and in particular an article on bee keeping, which is something I do badly.....and hey what a coincidence someone has their bee hives on concrete blocks just like me....and wow that bee suit is the same as mine.... a strange sense of deja vu comes over me...then at last the penny drops and I realise that the pictures are of me and my bees.



I then remember that Rhoda took some pictures of me doing the bee keeping thing when she was here to photograph the alpacas ...... duh!

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Well its that time of year again... and the geese are heading south.

Its a great sight and sound as they head over... they usual rest over somewhere on the property and hang around for a while. This year one of their number is an albino.



They landed on some range land next to ours this year and this is the best picture I could get of the all white goose.

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How many times have I seen that as the subject line on an e-mail in the last month or so?

Now what picture does it conjure up in your mind when you this kind of headline?

Alpaca Herd Dispersal

To my mind it is not a positive image. Now don't get me wrong there are many valid reasons for selling off your alpaca herd and doing something different. Because as those of us in the business realise alpaca breeding/ farming is not an easy life by any means its hard work and long hours...if you want to be successful that is.

So I can only assume that by using these words the sellers are trying to convey that there are bargains to be had.....now if they are bargains surely a few quiet words in the local AOBA alpaca affiliate network and they will be snapped up by some lucky local farmers......

My guess is that they are fairly run of the mill (a good old textile phrase) alpacas and nothing wrong with that. But are they any different to the other 10,000 run of the mill alpacas advertised on Alpacanation...? I doubt it.

Now the owners will no doubt think they are special in some way and to my way of thinking that is what they should be concentrating on...what makes them special.....not what makes them ordinary.

Well that's my thought!

and today I had an e-mail from Lazy J Alpacas which was entitled

NOT an alpaca herd dispersal
Wow, there sure have been a lot of "herd dispersal" deals and "going out of business" sales this year huh?
I'm not an economist or anything, but if the Alpaca industry as a whole keeps giving its money to those who have given up and are retiring and all that capital is leaving the industry never to return, isn't that a bad thing?
Why not help a new kid get started in this industry? My name is Jason Hughes and I'm 31 years old. I started Lazy J Alpacas in 2004 with my father Jim. I plan on being in this industry for the next 40 or 50 years...
If you're breeding for grey huacayas, this is the email you've been waiting for. Help a new operation get started at herd dispersal prices!

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Today we received the analysis on our second cutting of orchard grass.
The crude protein was lower than I expected at 11.27% but up on the first cutting which was 10.16% crude protein.

The nitrate (NO3) content had fallen from .13% to .06% which is good because we know nitrates can cause problems in camelids and this second cutting is what we will be feeding the alpacas this winter.

Crude fat had increased from 2.89% in the first cutting to 4.21% in the second cutting.

Everything else looked about as normal as it should be, but as usual the copper moves all over the place. I must discover why that is sometime.

The sun is shining and all is well on the farm.

Three of my girls that are in Portland for breeding's are now ready for collection so I must schedule a visit to go and spend some time with Mike Safely when i arrange to collect them.

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The weather started off quite overcast this morning but by midday it was clearing up very nicely.

Macario and I spent the morning moving some rocks from the last pasture that needs cleaning up. One rock was so big the tractor couldn't lift it so we had to drag it across the pasture to its final resting place...

Then I had a couple of vet trips the first was to take Gifford our Australian Shepherd to the the clinic for a check up as he is on a course of injections designed to desensitise him to the allergies he has.



The second trip was to take Tonks the Chesapeake bay retriever which Jo recently rescued to have his rabies shot and then to get a dog licence.

The alpacas still go into a mass panic whenever they see Tonks and put out and interminable steam of alarm calls....I guess over time they will just get used to him.

Masses of paperwork to do so better get on and clear up some more of the admin that accumulates when we turn our backs..
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"Quick, fetch me my abaya!" is a call that rings out around many an Arabian Gulf household on the arrival of an unexpected male guest, and women scramble for the formless black gown that confers instant anonymity.

But the plain robe intended to shield the female form from prying eyes and comply with Islam's requirement that women dress modestly, has become a fashion statement, with many bejeweled and gold-embroidered new designs.



Originally a baggy black cloth that covered a woman from head to toe, an increasing number of tight-fitting abayas in an array of eye-catching designs now fill the shops. One garment even sports a portrait of the Mona Lisa in Swarovski crystals.

Most abaya adornments are concentrated at the garment's hem, highlighting the hands and feet with a swatch of crystals, or gold or silver embroidery.

Javeed who sells abayas in the Gulf sold his most expensive abaya for 650 Bahrain dinars ($1,725), to a woman who ordered it for a party.
And women no longer buy just one garment to comply with Islamic mores, but now purchase abayas for weddings, parties, shopping, work and different seasons, abaya shop workers said.

So my question is....could there be an opportunity for alpaca here?


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Totally out of the blue we had two visitors arrive around noon to look at the alpacas and the alpaca farm.

It was very interesting visit as the gentleman who was interested had clearly done his homework and was able to ask some highly relevant questions.

Sometimes the more clued up visitors ask how do you know what an alpaca is worth?

Q. Whats an alpaca worth? A. What someone will pay.

I would put good money on the fact that most new buyers go shopping with a budget in mind say $25k they browse only the alpacas around that price, the unspoken assumption is that it’s a perfect market and that prices reflect quality. Not all buyers are this way by any means but a good many are.

What complicates this picture further is that many go shopping with a budget of $25k in mind to buy one alpaca then discover that with finance they can buy 3 or even 4 alpacas for that down payment... now there is an even bigger disconnect between price paid and perceived quality. The very offer of finance has value associated with it.

What people pay is largely driven by emotion and justified later by whatever objective measures are available. Overtime buyers become more astute....and I am sure those who read my alpaca Blog only every make rational buying decisions based on the hard facts .

However if you take the predicted growth in the national alpaca herd and make some assumptions about the typical growth of an existing alpaca farm and the typical size of a new farm, we will need to attract new breeders to the alpaca industry at an ever increasing rate......assuming of course that the National Herd continues to be bred at maximum capacity each year.....or maybe AOBA should pay subsidies to encourage breeders to leave 10% of their females open - only joking !

What this means is that we will always have a large number of new buyers who use price as a guide to quality...their experiences will vary depending who they buy from.

The price picture is a subtle one and much more complex than it would appear at first glance.

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All quiet on the alpaca farm today as we are out at the Vortx Summer Picnic.

We are taking along the cricket equipment and hoping to teach some of the employees how to play this mysterious game.

If you want to know more about cricket click here....

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Eglus is a word that was invented by combining igloo and egg.
Eglu is a small plastic building where chickens can live...



The Eglu acts as home for chickens or rabbits or guinea pigs. They come from the UK and are about to be sold in the US of A. I don't know where or when or even how much but you will no doubt be seeing them around in ordinary backyards.



I can see these little chicken houses taking off in a big way with people who aren't sure they can livestock on their property but would like something.

Now can you picture a bigger version of the Eglu for use by alpaca owners?

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PISCO, Peru, Aug. 17 — No area along the southern coast of Peru, which was ravaged by an earthquake that killed at least 510 people, appears to have been harder hit than this port city.
Most of the city’s homes and office buildings were destroyed, leaving survivors wandering the streets and mourning in the open air, surrounded by shards of adobe and cinderblocks.
Rescuers have been forced by the destruction to walk far out of their way as they carried bodies, sometimes in coffins on their shoulders, toward a makeshift morgue at the overwhelmed hospital. Coffins sat in front of many doorways in anticipation of the recovery of loved ones in the rubble.



At least 300 were killed in Pisco, according to local officials, including dozens inside the San Clemente cathedral, which was full for Mass when the quake caused it to cave in. Witnesses said the spire bell clanged horribly in the seconds before it tumbled down.
At least 17,000 people were displaced by the earthquake and wide areas are without power, telephone service or road access.
Just outside Pisco, mobs descended upon cars to loot food, water, lumber and other aid materials coming from Lima, the capital city about 125 miles to the north. Police seemed disoriented, but tried to disperse the crowds by shooting weapons into the air.
The road from Lima suffered serious damages in the earthquake and crevices in the pavement made passing difficult at several points.
Inside the city, power and water service were still out, and many residents slept outside again last night, afraid that aftershocks could topple more structures.

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