At this quite nerve wracking time of year most alpaca farms will be on what is known in the trade as "cria watch".

Basically this means making sure your expectant alpacas are in a pasture where you can easily see them throughout the day and keep a watchful eye out for any signs of birthing...

You may well remember all those cliched scenes in older movies where the father paces up and down, waiting for news of his pregnant wife from the delivery room.....well this is essentially the livestock equivalent of that little routine, I am sure you get the picture.....

Now when we started out in alpaca farming our land was about one mile from the house...as the crow flies. So we were on to our second cria before we even saw one being born.
Therefore we grew up in this business not really getting too concerned about what happens...of course over the months we have changed since arriving in Oregon and now we pace about looking in the neonatal books and trying very hard not to assist with the birthing process....but after paying out all that money to attend the neonatal courses and hands on workshops it feels like a waste not to at least do something.



Well for now we sit and we wait and we watch.......

a href="http://www.mulberryalpacas.com">Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.
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