The weather is totally haywire this spring and the last few days have seen temperatures creeping into the 70’s and have lured me and the alpacas into a false sense of security. Today the temperature is down to 35 degrees and its snowing…..great! thank goodness that at this time of year the alpacas have a good amount of fleece growth to protect them.

Apparently the United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto. Often falsely cited as such, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is merely an inscription on the James Farley Post Office, so I think that we alpaca breeders should make it our creed it would be an inspiration on days like today.



Our alpaca veterinarian Dr. Leslie Richardson of Crater Animal Clinic is booked to come out to the farm on Friday and conduct ultrasound exams on three of our pregnant alpacas. While she is here she will also check out the three alpacas that were born last autumn and trim the teeth on Lucky Luciano. Lucky is one of those alpaca fibre boys that you just know will be around for many a long year!

Leslie has also been busy writing a pre-purchase vet exam check list for alpacas, the check list will be available on the Hobby Farms web site once they publish my alpacas livestock profile in the summer issue. Once the article is out there, I will post a link from the Blog and the main web site to the alpaca pre-purchase check list.

The Empire Alpaca Association sent out an e-mail earlier this week about a DVD they had produced on the subject of preparing for an alpaca show. I don’t know if you saw the e-mail but the DVD sounded pretty useful so I have ordered a copy and I will be reviewing it here in the Blog. If it proves as useful as I suspect then I will run one of my small alpaca competitions where by answering a simple alpaca question correctly you will go into a draw where you could just win a copy of the DVD.

Meanwhile some interesting alpaca news from back in the United Kingdom. Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of the Security Service better known as MI5, (the equivalent of the FBI) which is responsible for protecting the UK against threats to national security. Eliza has stepped down stating that she wants to spend more time with her husband and alpacas at their 70-acre farm. A very sensible decision don't you agree?

Adrian Stewart click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter - clcik here to sign up.