Yes its the day has finally arrived.....

We brought in some alpacas from outlying farms yesterday so that there would be less to do today. A smart idea with hindsight.

The barn is swept the alpacas are clean and dry.... and Alan Godsiff our friend and alpaca shearing guru is here.



One of the things we enjoy doing on shearing day is doing some half shearings then taking some pictures of the half shorn alpaca. This year we are doing mia Sorella who is a wonderful shade of brown and Santo a huge white intact male alpaca that we have.



We were all completed by 4.30 and by 7pm we had cleared up delivered the various alpacas back to their respective owners and were heading for a well deserved soak in a hot bath.

As it was Mothers Cay the children had cooked supper and it was time for a long cold drink.

Well after three long months of hard graft I am delighted to announce that the work of the Affiliate Congress EPD Task Group is now complete and available to anyone who is interested.
My original idea back in February of an e-mail about Alpacas and EPDs soon expanded into a dedicated website www.epdlibrary.org

Our thanks go to Alpacas Owners and Breeders Association (AOBA) member Dr Sara Via who is a statistical geneticist at the University of Maryland and who organized the many articles and wrote the explanatory text.

Thanks also to Gwen Wolff who researched the various EPD experts to create a speaker list, identified many useful EPD resources from other livestock industries and kept me focused.

Please encourage your fellow alpaca enthusiasts to visit the website, read about EPDs, take the EPD survey and if inclined sign up for the EPD Newsletter. The site is very much a work in progress so if you have any comments or suggestions you know where to contact me.

EPDs@mulberryalpacas.com

The annual AFCNA election results are now available and the new board members are:

Carol Boswell
Joyce Judy
John Merrell

Its great to see John Merrell is back up there having done such a great job turning the fiber cooperative around over the last few years. Sadly Larry Vellozzi another local alpaca breeder didn't make it onto the board but at least he tried.

As John Merrell says:

"Our Cooperative is exactly that - "Ours" - and those willing to share of their skills and sacrifice their time in order to make us successful demonstrate and exceptional commitment and sense of ownership."

Lets hope the cooperative continues to go from strength to strength and as we all go into shearing season if you don't have a well thought our use for your fibre then send it to the cooperative. Now of course if you go ahead and join the AFCNA then one day you will also participate in the dividends that flow back to members.

With two alpaca females close to giving birth I hate to leave the farm but...

I somehow damaged a disk in my neck a while back and finally I have had to give in and throw myself at the mercy of the medical proffesion. So I am going to have an epidural injection of steroids to reduce the swelling and get the pain under control...back tomorrow.


Adrian

The alpaca industry is not short of alpaca shows but one of my personal favourites is the annual AFCNA show. This year the AFCNA show is in Denver, Colorado from August 2nd to 3rd. Check it out if you want to avoid the stress that most shows can generate then this is the show for you.

It's time to register for the countries biggest mail-in Alpaca Fleece Show. Here are just some of the highlights.......

• AOBA-Certified Huacaya and Suri Fleece Show
• Top Judges: Jill MacLeod, Sharon Loner & Wade Gease!
• Free Seminars by industry experts - again!
• Awesome sightseeing in Denver, Colorado
• Gorgeous Ribbons for 1st through 6th places
• Color Championships with awesome banners!
• Sponsors get FREE Rooms, Meals and More!
• Sponsor and Attendee Awards and Gifts!
• FREE DVDs of Ribbon Placements and Free Seminars!
• Make it a holiday - the whole family will enjoy Denver!

AFCNA National Alpaca Fleece Show 2008 Show Sponsorship Opportunities and Registration Forms

I am not at all sure if the alpacas would like asparagus but it grows wild on the edge of our hay field and last year we did have a couple of cases of Asparagus rustling....



So why eat wild Asparagus?
Its high in vitamins B6 and C, plus fiber, folate and glutathione, an anti-carcinogen and antioxidant, asparagus is an excellent nutritional choice.
Long considered a luxury vegetable, often with a high price tag, fresh asparagus appears in stores in late February. But asparagus is at its best—and is usually cheapest—in April and May.
Asparagus spears can be thick or thin. Some people prefer one kind over another but size is not necessarily an indicator of quality.
Thicker spears may have tougher, woodier ends, but these are broken off before cooking anyway. The key is to select straight, firm, uniformly sized spears with closed tips. Since asparagus deteriorates rapidly it should be eaten within two or three days of harvesting, preferably sooner. If you do need to keep it for a day or two, the best way is to place the spears upright in a bowl or jar of cold water. Alternatively, you can wrap the ends of the spears in a damp paper towel and refrigerate them.

Tempting though it is to put up a recipe for asparagus I am sure you have your own favorite.

Alpaca cria watch is now underway and the warm summer weather looks like it is here to stay. Which means its time to be running the irrigation every day. The system involves rotating through the various alpaca pastures on a more or less weekly basis.

Today we reinstalled the high pressure pump which had been winterised and tested the underground pipes and risers tomorrow we will attach the hose real and test that out.

AOBA 2008 National Conference
Sandy, Utah
Late Entries Now Open until May 9
Fleece and Halter Show
We are excited to announce the Halter and Fleece Show will allow late entries. If you thought you missed an opportunity for show participation at the Sandy, Utah event it is not true. You will be able to enter Fleece and Halter until Friday, May 9.


The above email arrived today from AOBA and despite their "excitement" I am guessing that entry levels are well down on previous years. Why is that? Well the price of gas is one thing and that can add big money to a long road trip. The location is not a good one, its often described by breeders on the East Coast as the West Coast show,....but breeders on the West Coast do not see Sandy, Utah as being on the West Coast....

The time really has come to rethink the National Show and make it a qualifying show only for alpacas that have won previous events at a regional level. Then we could put all the seminars and so forth into a winter conference. As far as I can see its a no brainer but the AOBA board are not know for their innovation or courage and for many years now we have had the same old same old.....

The current board would sooner spend thousands on a compere aka "motivational speaker" for the Gala Dinner than address the real issues.

Sadly Phoebe died this morning. She was too sick to recover and Howard Miller a neighbor and truly wonderful vet put her to sleep. She died at home safe and surrounded by the family who all loved her so very much.

We are still on cria watch and Phoebe our lovely Golden retriever that we brought with us to the USA from England is sick. So we had an emergency dash to the local vet where we take our domestic pets but not the alpacas as they are a small animal clinic.



We didn't even take Phoebe into the surgery we simply set up a a line while she lay in the back on the truck and Jo cradled her head head. She appeared tio pick up for a while but still can't stand or walk.

Its going to be a long night with an uncertain outcome.

In researching EPDs in Alpaca I discovered a wealth of research and information about Cattle, Pigs and Sheep. But there is also quite a bit of activity in breeding value estimation in the horse world, but most of it is restricted to Europe and currently, especially Ireland where there is a very talented and influential horse geneticist called Paddy Cunningham.

There has never been much enthusiasm for formal, performance-based genetic evaluation in horses in the US, even though it was shown over 25 years ago that racing performance of Standardbred racehorses was quite heritable and would almost certainly respond well to selection.

The show and conformation mentality is strong in most US horse associations, although there is some interest in warmbloods. The Jockey Club, which oversees Thoroughbred Racing is only concerned about competitive races.

Here are some sites for those that are interested:

Irish Horses

More Irish genetics

Genetics to select jumping horses

Horse Magazine

Haflinger horses

Breeding the German Riding Horse

One of the joys of being in the alpaca business and self employed is that you do get to do your own thing and when spring is in the air then it can be very enjoyable. Especially now that laptops are so affordable and connect wireless from just about anywhere in the house.



We are now getting into the cria watch time of year and our first two new arrivals should be here sometime this week I hope......we really don't want to be doing shearing on two overdue mothers if at all possible!

"Travel light in life, take only what you need; a loving family,
good friends, simple pleasures, someone to love, someone
to love you, enough to eat, enough to wear, and a little more
than enough to drink, for thirst is a dangerous thing."

Today I received a request for Alpaca Helmet liners for US troops. here is the email from Debra Edwards.

We are getting ready for my son Taylor's deployment. He is a Cavalry Scout with the 1st Infantry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. He will be deploying sometime in June. He is coming to California for 10 days in May. Can hardly wait to see him.

He is deploying to Afghanistan, where we do not know yet. I understand he will be in the mountain region, which gets below 0 degrees in the Winter. From what I hear helmet liners would be a great comfort for the troops. I was reading a request for wool helmet liners and thought alpaca helmet liners would be even better! I have enclosed instructions on making the liners. They request that the fiber be non-flammable.

My son's platoon has 20 soldiers, his troop (Company) has 78 soldiers and the Squadron(Battalion) has 500 soldiers. Whatever you can supply would be so very wonderful and so very appreciated by our soldiers.

My cell phone number is 805 625-2661, if you have any questions.

Thank you in advance for your support of our troops and my very heartfelt thanks for your interest in my son.

Sincerely,

Debra Edwards

Here are the instructions for those of you who can crochet...

Support Our Troops…Crochet a Helmet Liner

Materials:
Size K and H hooks
6 oz. soft worsted weight 100% wool yarn
Accepted colors are tan, brown, olive, gray and black (black is
preferred and was requested)

Size: Adult Large
Crochet Notes:
Made in rounds – that is, do not join and do not turn.
Other Notes:
The headgear our military issues are usually made of
synthetic fibers or blends and our troops in places like
Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo are still cold. Please use a soft
100% wool worsted weight yarn to keep them warm.

Rnd 1 ...........Form a ring around your finger, work 6 sc in ring
Rnd 2 ...........2 scs in next 6 sts (12 sts)
Rnd 3 ...........(sc in next st, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (18 sts)
Rnd 4 ...........(sc in next 2 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (24 sts)
Rnd 5 ...........(sc in next 3 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (30 sts)
Rnd 6 ...........(sc in next 4 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (36 sts)
Rnd 7 ...........(sc in next 5 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (42 sts
Rnd 8 ...........(sc in next 6 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (48 sts)
Rnd 9 ...........(sc in next 7 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (54 sts)
Rnd 10 .........(sc in next 8 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (60 sts)
Rnd 11 .........(sc in next 9 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (66 sts)
Rnd 12 .........(sc in next 10 sts, 2 scs in next st) 6 times (72 sts)

Work over 72 sts until piece measures 7 inches.
Chain 22 ,skip 20 sts, continue working around until piece measures 10 more inches.
Fasten off and weave in ends. Attach yarn anywhere in face hole and sc around with
H hook. Fasten off and weave in all ends.

Pattern designed Aunt B © 2005. All rights reserved. Copies may be made only for the purpose of donating helmet liners to our service personnel. For additional patterns and helmet liner project information go to Skein Lane’s community page.

Alpaca shearing season is upon us! This is an important event for members of the Ideal Alpaca Community who each year send in samples of all their fleeces so that EPDs can be calculated for all the alpacas.

IAC members have made it possible to produce the only Estimated Progeny Differences program that spans the country.

The results of the 2007 EPD analysis will be available within 60 days. It has taken us a bit longer than we anticipated, but we are almost there. Dr. David Notter of Virginia Tech has just about completed the analysis. Also, we will post the EPDs of all the Studmaster males on the IAC website, along with additional articles. In late Summer or early Fall the Ideal Alpaca Community will be presenting live webinars on understanding and using EPDs.

By submitting fleece samples through the IAC you put yourself in the unique position of receiving enhanced histogram reports that include 12 measurements and statistics. More importantly, you are participating in the IAC’s Estimated Progeny Differences Program. This advanced program is a huge step forward in quantifying heritable traits and facilitates scientific selection of breeding partners. Using EPDs makes breeding decisions easier and increases the probability of desirable outcomes. Using EPDs tremendously accelerates genetic improvements in your herd.

In addition, the shear list preparation and fleece sample submission tools on the IAC website greatly simplify the organization and efficiency of your shearing day.

To maximize the benefits of the new IAC tools, it is vitally important that all IAC members enter their alpacas onto the IAC database. Alpacas do not need to be related to a Studmaster male to receive an EPD evaluation.

If you have alpacas and you want to improve the quality and value of your herd through genetic improvement then you need EPDS - it really is that simple.

The big day has finally arrived and today is the start of our irrigation schedule for the summer of 2007.

The garden around the house is now slowly coming to life



And the house swallows are starting to build their nests in the bird house...they are amazing aerial acrobats.



But we didn't bother running the irrigation as there is a 70% chance of rain tomorrow.......

Still the grass in the pastures is now coming on in leaps and bounds so its time to start getting out there with the tractor and topping some of these pastures. Its the damned alpaca poop thats to blame even when you pick it up everyday the affect it has on grass growth is amazing.

As some of you no doubt know I am putting together a Library of articles on EPDs these articles have all been hand picked by Dr Sara Via at Maryland University. There are so many articles we are going to have to create a website to host them all. So watch this space for when www.epdlibrary.org goes live which should hopefully be some time later this week.

Now back to the website building........