Changing Places

Nick is continuing with the fertilising and spreading Grasstrak which is a mineral supplement for the soil.  This is a good way to get vital minerals into the alpacas naturally.


We are trying to make a start on mating the  alpacas who were not mated at the end of last year.  We thought we would try out our young males but they did not seem at all interested.   They are still a bit young, but I was hoping for at least a little enthusiasm.  It is strange that they are both acting the same way, so it is probably just a matter of timing.   We'll try again in a few weeks.

All the goats and kids seem to be fine.  Number 7 is still having a top up bottle every day.  As soon as she sees me enter the paddock she comes rushing over bleating until I give her the bottle.  She worries me a bit because she is so anxious to get the milk  down her I am worried that she will burst.  Much to her disgust I take the bottle away during her feed so she has a chance to let her tummy settle. 

Although we could do with some rain, it is lovely having nice spring weather.  The female alpacas in the winter paddocks spend a lot of time paddling in the stream or in their water hole which is spring fed.  When we brought the herd up to pick out the ones for mating they kept stopping at the dusty patches for a lovely roll.  

Little Life Lost

We went to a dog show at the weekend and Nick looked after the farm.   Sadly one of the little kids that I had been feeding suddenly died.  He seemed fine and then the next time Nick checked he was dead in the shelter.   He had been scouring a little and we had given him some medication but it was difficult to tell what caused his death.  He was quite full so he might have gorged himself on the milk bucket, or maybe he was just destined not to live.

The other problem kid number 7, seems to be coping alright and we are keeping a close eye on her.  Her Mum is the Doe with only one udder working and twins to feed.

The  good news is that Romie with her brother, Nikey, made it to the semi finals in the knock out pairs and have qualified for the finals.  Unfortunately they are held Up North so we probably won't be going.  We'll see.

The grass is growing at last - Nick has been fertilising the farm and I have been battling with the grass which we laughingly call the lawn.  Shame it all has to grow at once.

The alpacas are loving the sun and spending a lot of  time lying around soaking up the rays.

Hooray - Dolly can do the weaves on her own now so it is just a question of getting more speed and experience before she is a fully qualified agility dog.    I will be getting her measured at Kernow show at Easter.  There is no doubt that she will be a Large as opposed to Medium or Small dog for competition but it has to be officially confirmed.

Goat Mountain

This is the oldest goat and her kids learning mountain climbing on our special goat mountain.  Today we tagged the kids so that they can be identified easily.  I think Defra should come and do them.  Poor little things have to have one in each ear and you should hear them scream.  Still it is over quickly and they scream just as loudly when they see me coming with the bucket.

Number 12 and number 7 are still a concern but they have been promoted from a bottle to a bucket.  We make up some Lamblac and put it in a bucket which has teats on it.   The bucket is suspended on a partition Mike made in the goathouse and the theory is that they can get the milk ad lib when they cannot get it from their Mums.  At the moment we still have to guide them on to the teat but once on they stay and suckle until full.  They have been shut in most of the day because it has been very cold and wet, but they usually love frolicking in the sun.

I took some of our young alpacas to a show at the weekend.   There was lots of competition and the bigger breeders brought along multiple entries  for most of the classes.   We only achieved a  fourth and a sixth but I was not displeased as both were in quite big classes.

The event was held at the Hand Equestrian Centre at Clevedon which has been revamped since I last went there to a dog show.  It now has quite a smart cafeteria, bar, good quality stables and an excellent arena.

There was a really good atmosphere and although it was quite hard work because, being on the committee, I was involved in setting up and breaking down as well as showing our own animals.

My friend Pauline came along and luckily was able to show one of the boys as two were in the same class.  She stayed for quite a while and we were pleased to be able to spend some time together as we don't see as much of each other now we have moved to Devon.  On the Sunday my client/friend Anita came along and was interested to see the show alpacas.  She commented that compared with showing other animals (she has bred cattle and dogs at least in the past) alpacas and their owners do not present themselves very well.   She thinks we should learn some ringcraft!!  I agree with her actually, but I am one of the worst offenders for lolling around whilst the judge goes backwards and forwards trying to decide the winners.

Another alpaca friend has a really good alpaca and he quite rightly won the Supreme Champion.   She has just gained planning permission to put a house on their property - so it is obviously it is her year.

We are now catching up on our matings and Emilia, a really good alpaca who has rejected all male attentions up until now suddenly decided when we were spitting off some alpacas (testing them for pregnancy by letting a male near them) suddenly decided to sit and allow herself to be mated.   There is no guarantee that she will be pregnant but at least now she is acting normally.

I have suspected that the Blue Tongue vaccination has effected fertility and behaviour amongst our girls and had already decided not to use it this year.   As it happens there have been no reports of Blue Tongue in the UK so far this year.  It might be just coincidence but I don't believe that.

Last year  and the year beforewe had one or two females who were young and healthy but they did not become pregnant and we have never had problems before.   Anyway we shall see how it goes this year.

The alpacas who were shown are being kept in quarantine at the moment and will not be allowed back into the herd until the end of the showing that we intend to do.   That will be about June.  They are happy enough as there are five males and a couple of females so they are not alone.



 

Open Day

We had a farm open day yesterday.  It was a pretty low key affair but we had quite a few visitors and the shop did  well.   Our next event is on the 14th May and is a coffee morning in aid of Devon Air Ambulance.  There will be coffee and biscuits included in the £1 entrance fee (children free), a cake stall, raffle, and an agility demonstration- which will actually be an agility course set up so that any of our friends in agility can practice.  One of our neighbours, Tony is very knowledgeable about antiques and he is going to be the "expert" for an Antiques Road Show for which donations will go to the charity.  If the weather is good it should go quite well but could be a disaster if it rains.  The curse of all village fetes and similar events!!

Today we transferred the last two sets of twins back to the goathouse.  Last night they slept without the benefit of the heat lamp and woke up quite lively this morning, so fingers crossed they will  be OK overnight tonight. They were all having a great time during the day frolicking in their paddock.   I shut them in fairly early this afternoon so they did not over tire themselves after being used to quite a small enclosed space for most of their little lives.

When I did my daily walk round the farm with the dogs which includes checking that the alpacas in the winter paddocks are all present and correct, I came across a dead owl.  This seems like a very unusual event to me as I have never seen one before - only heard them in the night or seen them flying around.  I think it was a tawny owl but I could find no obvious reason for its demise.  It seemed to have its head in a small hole in the ground (not a mouse hole though) and might have lost a few feathers from the back of its neck.  I had to pick it up and put it in the manure trailer so the dogs did not pick it up.

Dolly has been in season since last week and unfortunately Charlie managed to end up playing with her in the garden and one thing led to another.   I thought I heard a dog squeal and went to investigate and found him taking advantage of my little treasure.  She was extremely distressed as I had not had time to explain things to her.   Luckily Charlie has been castrated and so no unwanted pregnancy will result.  I just hope she won't have the dreaded phantom pregnancy.   She seems fine so far and although Charlie is being walked on a lead and shut in his crate for quite a lot of the time due to his bad leg, we have to be very careful  as he is very interested in her and she seems to want to tease him.   I suppose it is not surprising really as they are best friends anyway.   A lot of people think that Charlie is her Mum as they look very similar.

In an effort to make her less interesting I gave her a bath this afternoon and as everywhere was wet and messy anyway I thought I might as well bath the others so 5 of the 7 dogs are now sweet smelling and looking smart.  I thought it was still too cold for Sandy (our seventeen year old terrier) and Jake is too big and heavy for me to deal with on my own.  Mike and I will have to give him the treatment another day.

More trouble

This weekend definitely did not go to plan.   We had another set of twin kids born on Friday morning and one of them was very small and just once he had got to his feet did nothing but stand and look lost.  The bigger twin seemed to be quite normal.  Although I kept a close eye on them only one twin suckled from her Mum and  I could not get the weaker one to get interested at all so eventually I milked the mother and we tube fed the kid.  He was very shaky and Tessa, the vet, came at lunch time to check the pre movement TB test which we had on some alpacas we have sold.   She had a look at him and thought he would be OK if we could get him to feed. He had a slight temperature. 

I thought the goathouse seemed quite cosy and so was devasted when I went to check early on Saturday morning and found the bigger kid lying apparently dead from hyperthermia.  I picked her up and found that there was a thread of life and rushed her in to the kitchen and put the oven on to warm her up.   I lay her on the oven door whilst I prepared the cat basket with a towel and switched the gas fire on full.  I rubbed her with a towel and Mike went to get her twin.   We put them both in the bed and I stayed with them whilst Mike set up another pen and heat lamp in the barn and the rest of weekend was spent supporting them.  They seem to be holding their own now, although the boy is tiny and  still has to be encouraged to suckle.

We are now inundated with eggs as the hens have decided to all come back in to lay at once.   Hopefully with the better weather we will start to get a few more customers in the shop to buy them. 

I am a bit worried about Charlie as he has been limping for a week or so now.   I have been lead walking him but every now and again when he is in the garden or in the yard and I don't keep an eye on him he runs and then starts hopping and alternately moving normally.  I cannot see anything wrong with his pads and when I manipulate his leg he shows no  sign of pain so I am at a loss.  I suppose the next step is to take him to the vet but I bet they say lead walk him!! 

Double Trouble

We have had a  busy few days.     I took Dolly for her sheep dog try out on Saturday, which was a bit disappointing in a way.   I did not learn anything that Nick had not already told me, but I was pleased that she ignored all the other dogs except one that came to say hello to me.    The test was to go round and round a pen of sheep.  Dolly took to it straight away as it is what she does most days to the alpacas.   She also changed direction and went the other way round  and dropped on command.  I had wondered if she would behave differently with sheep but apparently if it has 4 legs, herd it, is her motto.  I think I can probably teach her to do what I want her to do now, as I don't need her to be a super sheep dog - just to move on a bit so she will fetch the alpacas to me.

I phoned Mike to say I was on the way home and he told me that he had been on his way to put the goats in when he found 2 kids on the ground.  They were very cold and he was quickly setting up a pen and heat lamp to try and keep them alive.    We had let the expectant goats out to get some exercise and enjoy the sunshine and he had been checking on them regularly but once the sun started to go down it got cold very quickly and they chose that time to arrive!!   When I got home they were still alive but not as they should be and they had not suckled.   I felt that I should give them some colostrum but they were so tiny compared to alpaca cria that I was worried about tube feeding them so I phoned Nick and, bless him, he came over to take a look at them.  I had already checked that the doe had milk and found that only one udder was producing.

He did not think they would make it but showed me a way of tube feeding that I will certainly use again if I have to.   Instead of using the tube with a colostrum feeder he inserted the tube and used a syringe to put the colustrum in in small amounts.   By checking the tube during the feeding I could see when it had gone down which reduces the risk of choking the kid.  

Mike had made a cosy pen by hanging old curtains and blankets round the pen and put out heat lamp in the corner.   I tube fed the kids again during the evening and got up a couple of times in the night to feed and check on them and we were relieved that they got through the night.  Next morning Mike got some goat milk from the supermarket and I continued to bottle feed the kid which was getting less of its mother's milk.  I have been topping her up ever since, but luckily at least she is suckling from her Mum as well so is getting some of her Mother's immunity.

Realising that I would need more goat milk and that we could not milk any of the other does as only one had kidded by then, I phoned Forde Abbey Goat Farm and they kindly agreed to sell me some fresh milk off the farm.  I got 5 litres which I have frozen to use as and when.   Both kids seem to be feeding from their mother now but I am still topping up the weaker one.

On Tuesday Nick went up to feed the goats and found that another doe had given birth to a female kid and yet another had given birth to one kid and  was trying to give birth to another but it had its leg back.  Nick  got the second leg out and delivered the kid, but its mother rejected it and would only feed the first one- presumably because the second one was so late that she did not realise it was hers.  We tried throughout the day to get her to bond with the kid  and it looked like another bottle feeding job.  The only way she would feed it was if we held her.  Before Nick went we took the kids and Mum down to the barn and set up another heat lamp.   The trip from the goathouse to the barn seemed to traumatise the doe but it also made her recognise the kid as hers and both kids fed normally from then on.   Strange!!

We now have six kids in all with one doe still to go.  Four female and 2 male.

The male alpaca weanlings were starting to get feisty with each other and we think it was probably because the female weanlings are getting older and reaching sexual maturity so we have separated them into two paddocks which seems to have settled them down again.  They are only next door to each other so it is not too bad for them.

We are getting a dozen eggs a day now which means that we have a surplus to sell again, which is nice.

A Harrowing Experience



All the paddocks have been grazed to oblivion over this long hard winter but now is the time to get them back in order.   Nick and Mike made a start today.  Mike started  harrowing whilst Nick and I dosed the herd with ADE vitamins to help them keep in good condition until the spring and summer sunshine  take over the job.

We also condition checked them all and found that the ones we knew were a little thin have improved a bit and at least there were no more herd members who were of any concern regarding condition.

The harrowing opens up the surface of the paddock to get rid of moss and oxygenate the soil so that when it is warm enough the grass will grow  back to its maximum.They managed to harrow all the empty paddocks.

The nice sunny weather brought out a few shoppers today and obviously the gardeners are getting up to speed as we also had  phone calls for alpaca manure - our polite term for poo.

In preparation for Dolly's herding lessons on Saturday I took her down to the winter paddocks where the Yurt  base provides a big circle and taught her to go round it on her own.    The hope is that she learns the commands and then transfers them to herding. I'll give it another day getting her to go clockwise (cumbye) and then the other way for "away"  for a couple of sessions.   I am just hoping that Adam on Countryfile was right when he said which command is which.  I know it does not really matter what commands you use, but at least I can  sound like a sheep dog handler.  Just hope that Dolly agrees.

The new kid seems to be holding her own, but no more births yet.  It is quite a game getting them all in at night as we separate the older kids from the pregnant mums so that there is no chance of milk bandits stealing the all important colostrum from the new mums before the new kids get their  fix to ensure maximum immunity to the environment they are born into.  The newborn and her Mum were kept indoors all day as although it was fine there was a chilling breeze.

We are topping up with fresh straw quite often to try and keep the goat house as clean as possible for the new arrivals.  Unlike alpacas they need to be kept warm as their fleece is quite thin and they do not have the extra layer of fat that lambs have to protect them against the cold.  Last year the kids were born in May so we did not have to worry so much.