Very Funny Ad!

You'll notice that I have several new blogs on my blogroll, mostly from alpaca farms around the world. Check out this video, it's a commercial for an insurance company, played in Australia and possible the UK- you're gonna love it!

Woodford Farm Field Day

We were invited to bring alpacas and educate 4th graders about them as one of 15 "stations" at a farm field day held at Life Adventure Center of the Bluegrass. It was a beautiful day and a great venue, just a lot of fun!

It's amazing how far we've come as an industry in exposing the public to our great animals, and I get only infrequent "ignorant" questions and far fewer people ask if they're baby llamas, etc. I like to think that it's partly because of those of use who "get out there" with our animals, to farmer's markets, festivals, libraries, schools, farm events, parades, etc. We have done literally dozens of these sorts of things over the years, and they are still gratifying.

Even though we live in a rural county, there are children growing up in our area who are completely out of touch with farms, their food sources, and exposure to animals. Fourth graders, I believe, are ideally receptive to learning about these things and I was very impressed with some of their great questions and attention.
We talked about the alpaca's use and origins, their habits, and defenses. I demonstrated my spinning wheel and let them all try treadling on it. They got to pet our 4-day-old cria, Ginger Spice. Each child left with a little bit of roving- what a thrill that was for some of them! Hopefully they'll go home and tell their parents about all that they learned and saw today- who knows, some may become alpaca breeders or at least consumers of alpaca products someday!

A night scene in fiber...

It's been really hard for me to find time for fiber lately, and I may be breaking a new personal record for time spent NOT knitting (it's probably been at least 3 weeks since I've even picked up any needles!). I did, at least, make time for a bit of felting a few weeks ago, and put the finishing touches on this little project today (I knew it needed something, the recent full moon gave me the idea!)
I started with a felt sheet, purchased from the Kentucky Alpaca Association and processed by Flaggy Meadow Fiber Works. This was a great surface for needle-felting! I keep a good stash of my own hand-dyed fibers, and needled on the design and stitched in some tiny beeds.

Then I sewed a little border about 1/2 inch from the edge to give it a little more finished look and put a hanger on the back. I look forward to doing more of these quick and easy little projects and plan to sell some in my Etsy store and at Truly Bluegrass in Versailles.

A Mamma AND a Nanny!

Amidst all of the other busy-ness of springtime, we have had a special situation to deal with the past few years with one of our dams, 5Peruvian Aymara. Aymara somehow developed a problem with her udder. (Possibly mastitis after a stillbirth? We just don't know), and starting about 4 years ago we had problems getting her babies "hooked up" and nursing. Her udder gets very large and tender, and ultimately only one teat is functional. To get her to the point where she'll allow the cria to nurse on the one teat has required milking her out (which she HATES), warm compresses, banamine, isolating her with cria, bottle-feeding the cria, and any number of other methods which take almost daily, round-the-clock tweaking for at least a few weeks.
Ultimately, we have been able to make it work and the trouble has been worth it because Aymara is one of our most outstanding dams, having produced multi-champions SSF Peruvian Pablo (above, owned by The Criation Station) and Barbaro (below, co-owned with RobAsia Alpacas) and others. The biggest help to this process has been, without a question, "Nanny." A little over two years ago, we purchased a large group of alpacas from a woman getting out of the business after the death of her husband. She mentioned that one of the females was no longer able to have crias, but that she would "adopt" other's crias and eventually come in to her milk. I was skeptical, but when we were having trouble with Aymara's newborn I asked our farm manager to go pick up Nanny and put her in with Aymara and her cria.

It was and is amazing to watch Nanny as she immediately starts giving the targeted cria all of the signals that she is willing and able to nurse it- sniffing the cria's behind, staying nearby, positioning herself just so. She always defers to the dam and the crias do seem to know who mom really is, but she is right there when the baby needs an extra drink! We tried to use Nanny to help with our last bottle cria, but unfortunately she had started bonding with another cria first and just never attached to the one in need. This time, she seemed to remember that Aymara is a special situation.

Last Monday, "Rachel Alexandra" (one of our first crias from Snowmass Nova's Private Reserve) was born to Aymara and we were super-prepared and excited. We had Nanny already in the maternity ward with the older crias moved out, we had frozen colostrum saved from another dam, plasma ready to give orally within the first 3 hours, etc. The cria, a beautiful dark brown female(!), was born strong and lively and has stayed that way with supplementation with Vit D. milk. She's nursing on both Aymara (with her one good teat) and Nanny (who is just now starting to lactate a little), and we are ready to discontinue bottles since she's gaining about a half a pound a day. The whole process can be challenging and often frustrating, but I think that Aymara and Nanny are learning to trust us and our goodwill toward the cria and we are able to relax and know that this process can work! It is very satisfying, and I'm looking forward to putting the three of them out together in the pasture with the other crias soon. Lest you think that Nanny is an angel, I must say that 99% of the time she's a real pain! She is an older import female from Bolivia who is very set in her ways and fearful, and she responds to any quick moves by spitting profusely, screaching, and peeing! Still, she's absolutely worth her weight in gold....

Futurity 2009

Last weekend was great fun and WOW, the competition was as ruthless as ever. How is it that every year I forget just how many incredible alpacas there are out there, and how many of them find their way to the Futurity to compete? The picture says it all, Snowmass seemed to dominate once again- congratulations to Don and Julie, their animals are incredible.

The auction was soft, which we feel is simply indicative of the economy right now. The very best of the best still brought good prices, and we were very grateful that both of our girls sold to excellent farms! Congratulations and thank you to Gary and Kay Burtoft of Capture Your Heart Alpacas in Bloomfield, KY on their purchase of Michelangelo's Peruvian Muffin! Accoyo Shimmer went to our friend and co-owner of Michelangelo, Larry Johnson of Likada Farm in Illinois- thanks and congratulations once again!!!

I hadn't mentioned it yet, but we recently sold Accoyo America Prophecy to Scott and Tracy Murphy of Harvest Farm in Madison, Indiana- watch for a special blog about that coming up!

Finally, we are off to the 10th Annual Kentucky Classic Alpaca Show in Louisville this weekend! As a co-founder of the Kentucky Classic, which was the first significant AOBA-certified alpaca show, we are very proud of the growth, tradition and success of this fine event. Something new this year will be an interactive fiber arts demonstration by Jan Durham, which will culminate in a felted wall hanging that will be auctioned at the Saturday Night dinner! Should be lots of fun!

We are showing 12 of our finest alpacas, many of which are available for purchase at the show- come look us up!

Futurity Bound!

Producing quality breeding stock is undoubtedly a long-term endeavor which requires a lot of perseverance and patience (something I'm often a bit short on). We are proud to offer two of our best 2008 girls, from top bloodlines that we have been cultivating for quite some time! Michelangelo (above) is the sire of both Lot #26, SSF Michelangelo's Peruvian Muffin and Lot #73, SSF Accoyo Shimmer.

Muffin is an exquisite female who has done very well for us in the showring, just like both of her parents (El Nino's Accoyo Michelangelo x Consistency- by Camilio). Her fleece appears more and more dense each time we open it, and we are always stunned by it's brightness and uniformity! She sells with a FREE breeding to ANY of our SSF or Thoroughly Bred Herdsires.

SSF Accoyo Shimmer is also a very special female with an endearing personality to boot! (She is very talkative!) Her fleece shows absolutely no medullation, and is very soft, crimpy and dense. Shimmer's dam is a maternal sister to our Accoyo Maverick- we have always dreamed of combining the Michelangelo and Maverick lines- her she is! Muffin also sells with a complementary breeding.

Both females can be financed, and both are eligible for the Futurity Show. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to call during the weekend at 859-983-8808!

We are looking forward to showing our brown champion female, XXXtremely Sweet, SSF Peruvian Jack Black (it'll be the first show for this Cody son), blue ribbon beige Sinbad son SSF Gallantry, and blueribbon dark fawn Sinbad son SSF Jolly Mon! Hope to see you there!

Getting Ready for the big day- Shearing!

John Gunther and crew take off an elite "blanket" of fleece

It's hard to believe that shearing time is here again! As in the two previous years, we will have a crew from Biosecure Alpaca Shearing (http://www.shearingalpaca.com/) come to do it, and although I always anticipate shearing day with some trepidation, they have truly made the process much more easy and pleasant for us. We have come such a long way in our ability to prepare the animals, execute the shearing, and process the fleeces, as seen above and below. Then again, anything is better than the first few years we sheared! I would do the llamas using Fiskars scissors and then hand-shears to do strictly a barrel-cut. (In the very early years, nobody even bothered to shear llamas, barrel-cuts were all the rage!). Our favorite llama ever, Grato 1, at the All Kentucky Ag Exp at the Kentucky Horse Park, 1995?

The first year we had more than a few alpacas, I was unable to find a shearer and had only a few hours of extra help per week. Many of the alpacas that were here were newly-imported animals (read: WILD!) that we were brokering for Pan American Alpacas, and they weren't halter-trained and had been handled very little. In order to get them cool and get the fleece off, I would wrestle a halter onto them, tie them up high on the wall, and then start clipping.

One of our first alpaca females, Sweet Tiara

The fleeces weren't very clean since a lot of it fell onto the dirt floor in our only barn at the time, and due to the kicking and protests of the frightened and angry animal, it was nearly impossible to go past their upper belly area or to do around their head (hence, the poodle-looking cuts!). Paul always said the difference between a good and bad haircut is a few weeks, but I think some of those bad cuts lasted for the year! Now, there are travelling crews of experienced and trained shearers who are experts with alpacas, and we have all come a long way in knowing how to safely and quickly get a nice clean fleece off of each animal.

In several of our early years, (when we did at least have a sheep shearer come), we had an annual Shearing Day and Country Festival in the barnyard surrounding the old cabin. It was a crazy time, as we would invite vendors with crafts and food, have spinning demos and a speaker, a bluegrass band, shearing (of course), and usually about 300 people would come. We may do it again in the future now that we have our nice new barn, but inviting in the public for the busiest farm day of the year is a little bit loco.

With my parents and some of our "menagerie" at a Shearing Festiveal, 1996?

On Monday, March 30th starting at around 7:30 AM, we'll be shearing 90 alpacas. All are invited, either to help (with fleece-gathering, sweeping, etc.) or just to watch! Give me a call so that I'll have plenty of food on hand- 859-873-8352.

I've been at the barn doing extra sweeping (an extra-clean barn environment has been mandated for the past month or more), preparing the fiber bags and labels, and rethinking the "traffic flow", since all of the animals will need to be moved quickly in and out of the shearing area. In addition, I've got dinner and breakfast meals prepared for the shearing crew, who always seem to be a bottomless pit and we sure try to keep them nourished and happy! I think we're ready!!!