The weather has certainly taken a turn for the colder this week and the trees are starting to change color. I am still optimistic about getting a third cutting of hay but that is based on the weather warming up one more time before the cold weather truly arrives.

Our pregnant girl is hanging on on there so now the doubts start creeping in about breeding dates and that is followed by a frantic review of records to see just how far out we might be..

Meanwhile we are busy topping the pastures one last time as the grass has become quite long in places and there are three main reasons for topping;
First it keeps the grass in the growth stage and so stops goodness going into the seed head.
Second alpacas do not like eating long grass for some reason
Third its much easier to collect the poop from short grass than long grass.

And if you didn't know collecting up the poop goes along way to controlling the parasite burden your alpacas are tolerating. You can't eliminate parasites in alpacas or any other livestock for that matter. But what you can do is reduce the parasite burden to a point where it has no impact on the alpacas well being.

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