Sun, Nov 11, 2007 8:40 PM

Well, I never figured it would take so long to get back to our blog. Lots to report some good and some bad.

The AlpacaMania show was really good for our farm. We won blue ribbons in halter and fleece also one color champion. El Ventajo took the beige color champion with his fleece. Diliberate took first place in fleece and halter. Commandante took first place in both fleece and halter too. Finally, Major Fete took first place in fleece and 3rd place in halter.

The end of the show on Sunday provided a scary event that was definitely a significant emotional moment. We had shown in the next to last class of the day with Diliberate and so we were still trying to get photos taken as crews started to tear down the empty pens in the arena. As the panels around our pen were taken away the integrity of out pens was compromised and Commandante managed to have a panel get stuck around his neck as he reached through and then the panel fell down and he went racing through the building with the panel hanging off his neck until some other quick acting people in the barn were able to grab him and remove the panel from him. Thankfully he was only very frightened and not injured. He is such a mellow guy that he was easy for the folks who caught him to stand with him until Jacob could run a halter over to them. I of course was still trying to get down from the upper level with the two big boys Jacob and I had up at the pictures area. Other folks in the arena were able to catch Major as well as he also split at a dead run when the pen came apart. I am very thankful to those who aided in saving Dante(commandante) from potential injury by stopping him from getting out of the barn with the panel around his neck and by calming him so well. I probably took longer to calm down. It was such a helpless feeling watching it go on from the upper deck area. Everyone made it home safely at the end. We had a couple cases of what may have been the "snots" show up in the next week. We had placed all the show attendees in quarantine. Dante came down with the worse case. No surprise since he had had the stress at the show. He had a low grade fever, opaque snotty nose, and some lethargy. We treated him with 3 days of Penicillin and Banamine and he bounced right back. The others needed no treatment.

Our beautiful little golden cria out of Heather and Maximus died overnight at the age of 23 days. He always struck a strong pose, but never quite seemed to have the energy that a cria should. He continued to grow and showed no other signs or symptoms. We had a necropsy done at Oregon State U vet school. The results showed a congenital anomaly of his heart. He basically did not have the left ventricle of his heart. Thus the explanation for not having much energy. The vets think it was a developmental fluke rather than a genetically created fault. We are still saddened by his loss, but feel he is no longer struggling on earth and is romping in the green fields of heaven. You can see a picture of him on the AlpacaWatch .com front page as he died during the same time frame that so many crias have succumbed to death from issues related to the current "snots" issues.

Back onto the joyful side! We had our last cria of the year born on October 30th to Truely Scrumptious. His sire is Night Ruler. We have named him Marauder - Otter for short. He is the biggest cria we have had born on the farm to date. He weighed a whopping 23# a birth, 29.5# at 8 days, and 35# at 16 days. He was so tall that I had to run right out and measure his height. He was 25 inches tall at 2 hours old! He is already wrestling with and holding his own with the 4-6mo. olds. He is the friendliest guy. He comes to you and gives kisses. He has the most beautiful fiber that is soft and crimpy and pretty much the dark rich color of an otter. He has lightening under the belly with black legs and face. I will have to post a picture of him soon.

Now with rebreeding Truely, we should be done for the season. For now everyone is spitting off and I will draw for progesterone levels tomorrow.

Hidalgo is leaving us tomorrow to spend his winter in Texas at Windmill Crest Farms. Joe and Karla will take good care of him and he will get to have many breedings. He has a few crias due this winter for them. Can't wait to see what he adds to the rose gray and silver gray crias he gave them last year. I can't wait to get my Hidalgo cria, Mistique into the show ring next spring.

I'll work on those cria pictures to add here, talk to you soon.

Tue, Oct 16, 2007 9:46 AM

Welcome to our blog! This is a very busy week here at the farm.

We are eagerly awaiting our last cria of the year. "She" is due on October 17th, at least that is Truely's 340 day gestation date. This cria is sired by Night Ruler and should be dynamite!

We are also getting prepared for the last show of the year for us. We will be leaving on Friday for Medford and the AlpacaMania show. We are taking our two herdsires that started working this year. Dreamweavers Diliberate has 6 crias coming next year. In his last show he took the blue ribbon in both halter and fleece. Will he repeat this weekend? I hope so. El Ventajo has 3 crias on the way for next year. He has done really well in his last few shows too. His awards include Reserve champ, firsts and a second with ribbons for fleece and at halter. We are also taking Commandante (Dante) who is looking more silver gray every day just like his Sire. He has taken blues in 3 shows both for color class and bred and owned yearling.
Dante will have competition from his pasture mate, Major Fete , for the bred and owned yearling award! Dante will be 2 in November and we are excited to get him started on his breeding career. Major is a gorgeous copper brown male and so far has taken blue ribbons for fleece and halter. He will be in the yearling classes as well. We hope to see you there!

Our cria born on Oct. 3rd is doing great and starting to take off. He is out of Heather of Bolivia and our Peruvian Herdsire JA Maximus. This little guy is a beautiful light fawn with vicuna pattern and is going to have show topping fleece with his dam's 16 micron & dense fleece and his sire's equally impressive fleece and outstanding conformation and presence. Can you tell I'm excited about him.