Those of you familiar with the NWA web site may already have seen Mike Safleys latest article on the art of buying Very Pregnant Female alpacas. For those of you who haven't seen the article here is a brief summary. Its one of the best articles I have read in a good while and is great buying advice for anyone getting into the alpaca business. In fact I would say its in my Top Ten Tricks of the Trade.

Mike is often asked which alpacas are the best value.

His answer is simple; very pregnant females, the more pregnant the better.
His father and he built their herd by selecting very pregnant females beginning in 1984.

In those days no one was ultra sounding females but you could feel the body parts in a later term pregnancy. Mike would stand behind the dam and rub her belly, if he felt a body part they knew the female was due in less than 60 days.

Eric Hoffman was the head salesman for the importers in the late eighties and he held an import sale at his ranch in Santa Cruz, California. Eric controlled most of the market in those days and he had the biggest group of females for sale outside of South America. The sale format reflected his control, you needed an appointment to even go to the sale and he only allowed prospective purchasers 30 minutes to select their alpacas.

Mike and his father arrived at the appointed hour and waded into the available females. His father would hold the head and he would slip up behind them and massage the momma's belly. If he could feel a body part they bought the alpaca.

They purchased 7 females that day and they all had cria within 60 days. Lo and behold each was a female cria. But that was just beginners luck.....or was it ?

For anyone who wants to make a high value alpaca purchase, pregnant females are the best choice for several reasons:

1) They have a proven ability to conceive.
2) The shorter the due date, the higher the value of the Dam.
3) Pregnant females will have two or three cria before a six month old female cria might have one cria.

Now as Mike says this was in the days before ultrasound so being about to "guesstimate" when a dam was due to deliver was a very useful skill. None the less everything else Mike says is good advice.

Click here to see a very pregnant female that's available until May 15th 2007.

Adrian Stewart - click here to go to Mulberry Alpacas.

Click here to register for the Mulberry Alpacas Newsletter.

Click here to go to the article written by Mike.

Never underestimate the reach of the internet.
Yesterday we had a farm visit from a local family interested in alpacas and this morning I was swapping e-mails with a family in France who are thinking of buying alpacas and wanted to know how they would cope with the heat and humidity of Southern France.

As you will know the accepted wisdom is to take the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit and add it to the relative humidity index.

Anything over 120 and your alpacas may become heat stressed.

For example 80 degrees F and 30% humidity would give you a score of 110 which is acceptable for alpacas.

There are things you can do to mitigate the likely hood of heat stress.
Shear your alpacas before it gets very hot.
Provide shade for your alpacas.
Spray their chests with water on hot afternoons.
Install electric fans at floor level in the barn.

My French contact visited Beauvaitrait Alpacas (Andy and Nicki Spillane) yesterday morning. They have one of the three biggest alpaca herds in France (80 alpacas) so it is a very young industry there.
The French national herd is about 1000 alpacas.

There are few things more adorable than a newly born cria. Unless you want 16 newly born Panda babies that is.



Adrian Stewart

I have been working on the idea of an alpaca based product for Valentines Day for some time and today we "launched " the idea unto an unsuspecting press. So read on, here is what was sent to almost 2000 "lifestyle journalists".

A Unique and Exclusive, Hand Crafted, All Natural Valentines Gift

For the first time ever you can adopt a beautiful American alpaca and for each of the next three years the alpaca fleece from your adopted alpaca will be spun into a beautiful soft yarn. Then one of our talented fibre artists will transform that yarn into a “one of a kind” alpaca garments just for you.

After shearing each summer your valentine will be sent pictures of the adopted alpaca, together with a sample of the exquisite alpaca fleece and yarn.

They can then select a design of their choice or simply send an image of a knitted garment which they would like made.

One of our fibre artists will hand knit the garment of their choice using the yarn produced from their very own alpaca fleece.

Their adopted alpaca will be fully cared for at all times by experienced alpaca farmers. The alpacas are resident in Southern Oregon so you can even call by and say hello.

Alpacas
Alpacas produce one of the world's finest and most luxurious natural fibers. It is clipped from the animal without causing it injury. Soft as cashmere and warmer, lighter and stronger than wool, it comes in more colors than any other fiber producing animal (approximately 22 basic colors with many variations and blends).This cashmere-like fleece, once reserved for Incan royalty, is now grown in North America and is much sought after.

For more information on this unique gift contact
Adrian Stewart on 1-541-944-8895 or
e-mail at Adrian@mulberryalpacas.com
Or visit www.mulberryalpacas.com/carewear.php

Hopefully, you have sent off all your receipts and bank statements to your accountant who is now beavering away compiling your tax return. Suddenly, you have time on your hands...well maybe not masses of time but lets just assume you have some time.

This is a great time to plan the year ahead assuming of course that you haven't already done so .

If you are still thinking about buying alpacas get yourself an up to date copy of the Alpaca Farm and Ranch Guide and plan some visits to alpaca farms....remember to keep the receipts for your accountant as these trips are like the alpacas themselves - tax deductible !

Click here and this link will take you to a web page on the AOBA site where you can order a copy of the Alpaca Farm and Ranch Guide.

If you want to look at some alpacas this weekend then click on this link and you can find a series of alpaca ranches near you simply by clicking on a map of the USA.

If you want to visit my farm then drop me a line adrian@mulberryalpacas.com

The Internet is so useful, don't you agree?

Only this morning I was swapping e-mails with one of my old colleagues Rob McComb who was working in the City of London, while I was working in Oregon - quite amazing. Of course my children assume there has always been an Internet.



Which leads me into the sort of planning you should be doing if you already own and breed alpacas. Having sorted out all your own breedings for 2007 (I know that you haven't) now is a great time to go through all those clients who bought pregnant alpacas from you in 2006.

Hopefully you will have a list somewhere on your PC of the alpacas, their expected due dates and the new owners. Now you have a list of prospective breed back dates...agreed?

Make sure your alpaca stud details are all up to date on your web site, availability, prices, ribbons, fibre stats and so forth then send those e-mails, two days later hit the phone and see how many breedings you sell for the coming year. I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised.



Adrian Stewart

I have said before that the Internet and digital cameras make selling alpacas so much easier.
If you have a web site and a digital camera the suddenly your market is much bigger than all those folks within an hours drive of where you live.

We have had a flurry of enquiries recently about some of our alpacas, none of them from what you might call local breeders but all are well informed buyers and asked just the right questions before deciding to come visit and inspect the alpacas themselves.

The two essential pictures are the front end (bite) and the back end (testicles or vulva depending on sex). Then if there are any little quirks now is a good time to mention them not when the buyer arrives and his or her expectations are sky high.







If you are in this alpaca breeding business for the long haul then being open and honest about your alpaca pays. You will over time build up an excellent reputation for having those values and be rewarded many times over. Reputations are slow to build but fragile and can be destroyed in a day, so please take good care of yours.

Adrian Stewart

The recent competition we ran attracted about 600 hundred entries and all but a handful managed to get the correct answer to our quiz question.

So two lucky winners have been pulled from the hat and they will both be receiving copies of the Marty McGee DVD on Camelid Dynamics.

The one and only alpaca-specific training DVD. Join Marty for up-to-the minute alpaca training and handling methods that will maximize your efficiency as well as create a confident and companionable alpaca. Marty will guide you through these techniques as only she can. Topics on the DVD include:
? how to present yourself as leader without using force,
?organizing your farm or ranch to support effective training methods,
? force-free injections and toenail trimming,
? approach, halter & lead with refinement,
?stepping in the show ring with confidence,
? early lessons for babies and weanlings,
? re-training challenging adult alpacas to accept a halter.




If you are interested in learning more about Camelid Dynamics click here.

Adrian Stewart

The entries for our internet based competition are literally flooding in.

Here is a copy of the mailshot....please feel free to enter

Whenever we find a prize worth sharing, we like to hold a competition and give away something of value. We have learnt so very, very much through the magic of Marty McGee Bennett that we want to spread the word, and we are giving away two copies of her DVD "Alpaca Training and Handling". To be considered for this gift, please just reply to this email with the answer to the simple question below:

On our website at MulberryAlpacas.com we are selling a white maiden huacaya girl whose picture exactly matches that shown on this email. What is her name?





An email reply with the correct answer will put your name into our "winner's hat" and we will draw the names of the two lucky people on the 1st May. Good Luck!

..... it's cria season - may you all have the most beautiful of babies.

Not only have we had a great response in terms of volume but we have had many e-mails saying that it was fun idea and that people liked the web site. Which is great feedback. Many of the entrants ask questions so tomorrow evening I will be busy replying to all those who wrote in.

In the evening we went to see and interesting movie called "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" its a bit odd ball but the conclusion is worth watching for. Farmer John now operates a Community rganic farm and his web site is www.angelicorganics.com

Adrian Stewart

Talking about marketing made me realise that just as we have a "rule" on the farm that we can accept a farm visit at 15 minutes notice. In other words we try very hard to keep the farm clean, tidy and safe at all times. Then if someone calls asking to see the alpacas we don't have to rush around like the place is on fire for two hours before we can let them in.

By the same token whenever I am out and about I always carry a small selection of useful alpaca items with me.

So just like most alpaca farmers have a box containing all they will need to help a new born cria. In my briefcase I always carry enough to talk about alpacas should I get the opportunity.

My alpaca sales kit:

Samples of raw fibre and a ball of 100% baby alpaca knitting yarn.

Pocket sized pictures of alpacas.

Business cards.

and finally alpaca finger puppets to entertain the troops while I talk to mum and dad.



I have ordered some alpaca socks and will be adding a pair to my mobile collection once they arrive. The more I talk to people the more I realise just how important it is to talk about the end product. If you really want to create a lasting positive impression.


Adrian Stewart

I don't know if you are aware but it is possible to have your very own alpaca postage stamps made. We use them on those special letters where we are trying to create a good impression and where we are fairly certain the recipient of the letter will open the envelope and see the stamp. So we do not use them when renewing our CostCo membership for example!





They cost more than a normal postage stamp but we do get an improved response when we use them. Plus they look really cute and are fun.

Click here to visit the photo stamp web site.

Adrian Stewart

I am not into painting alpacas down the side of my vehicle but every vehicle we have has the web address in the back window.

The signs were custom made and use the lettering font which we have in our logo. They are in simple stick on letters and when the day comes to sell any of the vehicles they will simply peel off. Meanwhile they are pretty tough and this one has survived 36,000 miles beneath the rear wiper..



Adrian Stewart

Getting your name out into the crowded space that is "alpaca land" is now much more demanding, the amount farms are spending on alpaca advertising and promotion is creeping up all the time.

So unless you have very deep pockets, you have to be smarter than the next guy and make sure you take every opportunity to increase the awareness of your brand, in most cases this will be the farm name.



Getting yourself some branded clothing is pretty straight forward and this is when you will find out if your logo design is in fact any good......a badly designed logo will not be easy to embroider. Here is a selection of items we at mulberry Alpacas have had made. We wear, sell and occasionally give these items away.

Adrian Stewart

There is always a steady demand for articles and stories about alpacas. This is great news and it means that it is possible to generate some pretty good publicity with just a little time and effort.

Most of my efforts so far have been in farming and livestock magazines. So in future I may turn my attention to what I call Lifestyle Magazines.

By longest article so far ran to 12 pages and had about 8 pictures, it went to a readership of 7,000 and I was paid almost $1,000 for my time and trouble.

Today I finished proof reading Mike Safely's latest book about the history of the alpaca business. I am not sure exactly when he will publish the book but it is a unique collections of stories some from the dawn of time, about how alpacas came to wander the earth. Others from our own era and the political movers and shakers that built the industry we find today.

My current project is a joint article with Dr Timpson DVM . We are writing an article on how to buy an alpaca. The article which will include internet links so readers can download checklists for yourself and your vet to use.

As always I will keep you posted on developments.

Adrian Stewart

By coincidence we sent out an e-mail to the AOBA leads last night so today we had about 500 visitors to The Mulberry Alpacas web site. "The AOBA leads" are people who have contacted AOBA and expressed interest in alpaca ownership.

From the 500 who visited the Mulberry Alpacas site quite a few stayed a while and read various articles. Some even came to the Blog...so if you are reading this as a result of an e-mail ...welcome!

Of those people that looked round the Mulberry site some went on to e-mail us asking for more details about certain alpacas which we have for sale.

I don't know if any of those will go on to buy alpacas from us but we don't tend to think about that. Instead we put our effort into understanding exactly what it is that they are looking for.

On the farm we spent the morning preparing one of the small paddocks near the barn and reseeding it while the ground is mist and the temperature rising.

On the larger paddocks we will use a mechanical overseeder to push the seed into the ground this greatly improves the proportion of seeds that germinate.


Adrian Stewart

On March 28th I wrote about the use of internet marketing to sell alpacas and the fact that last year fully 43% of alpacas were sold over the internet sight unseen (so to speak).

I put up a little test just for fun of two alpacas.

One of the alpacas was Snowmass Perfection and is worth $155,000 the other was a gelded boy worth $250.

Of the replies I received half got them the right way round and half got them the wrong way round.

The point is that internet photographs although better than nothing are not always an accurate guide to what an alpaca is going to look like in the fleece.

Since then a few people have e-mailed to ask about taking better alpaca photographs. Obviously there are books you can read and probably even courses at local colleges.

Basically you will need a digital camera, a pc and some photo software.

You really don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on Photoshop there are some very effective software packages that cost very little or are even free. You should get some basic software with your camera.

I usually take pictures in the early morning or late afternoon it makes quite a difference.

Here is an example of how an average alpaca shot can be improved.




The first step is to "cut out" the part of the picture we are interested in. This is called cropping and takes about 30 seconds.



Then I can use a repair tool to take out the other alpaca and its shadow.
I can even remove the house on the hill and the white fence. So there are no visual distractions. This part took about two minutes.



Just a simple example to give you some idea of how an alpaca picture can be improved.

Adrian Stewart

If you didn't already know, a large proportion of alpacas are sold over the internet sight unseen. Obviously you look at pictures, histograms and lineage before deciding and ultimately you have a thorough vet check.

But the internet is now the primary means to sell alpacas thats a fact.

As president of SOJAA (an AOBA affiliate) we have just introduced a section on our web site called Marketplace. In here members can post an advertisement for 30 days for any or all of their alpacas. Its early days yet but I think this will become a very useful benefit for SOJAA members over the coming months.

Fancy taking a small internet test?

One of these alpacas is Snowmass Perfection and is worth $155,000 the other is a gelded boy worth $250. Felling lucky? Answers tomorrow...




Adrian Stewart