Yesterday did not end well when one of our fiber alpacas jumped out of the barn and somehow injured his back. The good news was that the vet was already here and she administered torb. and a steroid. By the following morning he was much better. But last night he was almost walking entirely on his front legs quite amazing to see and so stoic never once crying out with the pain.
Alpacas never cease to amaze me.
This morning the results of the fiber samples were returned and there were some real surprises in there I can tell you.
A new male cria which I didn't rate too highly has a sub 20 micron fleece while a very nice looking female who won a blue ribbon at AWE a couple of years back now has an average fiber diameter of 33.8 microns !!!
Which is up almost 7 microns on last year.....now something like that really warrants further investigation.
Currently she is bred to a male with a 17 micron fleece so we will have to wait and see what she produces from that breeding.
This alpaca breeding game can be very cruel when you have a small herd and the percentages run against you. This is one of the key advantages of a larger herd in that you are much more likely to generate enough good alpacas in order to win blue ribbons.
Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.
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