Farewell to Giants

Do bad things happen in threes? A lot of people seem to think so. In the course of human events, that certainly seemed to hold true this past week, when celebrity news was dominated by the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.  Just like that, one shocking passing after another.

It caused me to think about the tough year we’ve had for alpaca herdsire deaths. Starting with the end of 2008, some big name males have passed on. Some at an age where you might expect it, but others shockingly taken before their time, when their potential was just being explored.

Here’s to some of those males , who I hope are enjoying green pastures in alpaca valhalla.

Legacy

Accoyo Peruvian Legacy

It would be hard to come up with a list of herdsires who have had a greater impact on the American alpaca population than Legacy. Perhaps the most important passing of an alpaca stud since Caligula, Legacy made news late in his life when half interest in him was sold for $750,000. Born in 1991, his genetics are widespread throughout the alpaca population and it has yet to be seen which of his sons will equal his accomplishments.

Legacy was owned by Crescent Moon Ranch and Virginia Alpaca Farm.

Pedro

AML Legacy’s El Duro (Pedro)

Tragically, one of Legacy’s most well-known sons passed away shortly after him at just six and a half years of age. The male retained by Alpacas of Maple Lane to replace Legacy when they sold him, Pedro (as he was commonly known) made his mark by producing such outstanding offspring as AML El Duro’s Principio.

Pedro was owned by Gore Mountain Farm and Alpacas of Maple Lane.

 

PCA Accoyo El Nino

El Nino

 

It is always our goal as breeders to produce animals that exceed the previous generation.  In reality, though, it’s much harder than it sounds. So when you have a son out of as potent a male as Caligula that succeeds in establishing himself as his own name brand, you know you have a very special male indeed.  When most people hear El Nino, there is no suffix such as “son of Caligula” following. People know the name, just as they know the pedigree. Ten years old when he died,  El Nino left behind a multitude of sons to carry on his legacy, including seven active working sons at his owner’s.

El Nino was owned by Pacific Crest Alpacas.

 

Silver Celebration

AofO Silver Celebration

The biggest shocker of all, Silver Celebration was just five years old when he passed away at the end of 2008. Probably the winningest silver grey male ever, he won a total of 21 banners and 23 blue ribbons, with an elite fleece style that was shocking for its approximation to the quality of white. At his young age, the alpaca industry was still waiting to see if he could consistently replicate his quality and take his place among the greats. Now we’ll never know.

Silver Celebration was owned by Alpacas of Ohio and Hilltop Alpacas.

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For New Breeders: Planning Your Fencing

Yesterday I was planning out the fencing for my new paddocks and pasture.  By now, I know exactly how I want it to work but I remembered that this was perhaps one of the most difficult plans to come up with when I first started out, so I thought I would share the whole gruesome experience.

First off, I had requirements that were specific to my situation and location:

• Handling ease: I wanted to be able to herd and sort animals by myself so my paddocks were designed to be long and narrow and end in smaller pens that connect to each other so they can double as catch pens, sorting areas, and connecting alleys between paddocks.
• Keep out predators: For protection against coyotes and neighboring dogs, I went with a 5′ no climb fence. For perimenter fencing close to the barn, the fence posts have a top rail. For outer pastures, top lines are reinforced with a thick wire. For my new paddocks, I’m going with 4′ high no climb fencing for the inner fence lines to reduce costs and staying with the 5′ high fencing for the outside fencelines. The metal gates that do not have additional fencelines between the main paddocks have to be additionally heightened as they are only 4′ high.
• Uneven terrain and shifting soil: I live on a hilly property that is heavily forested with ponderosa pines. My fenceposts had to be sunk in with concrete to increase stability in the sandy top layer. I also had to go back where the bottom of the fencing did not sit flat on the ground due to slope and fill those gaps. Originally, I used the pricey smart latches to close all my gates, but I’ve since learned that these quickly come out of alignment unless the area is flat. Now I’m going with hooks and chains instead that don’t require perfect alignment. Cheaper too!
• Accommodate machinery: My gates range from 4′ to 10′ wide depending on terrain and location. For all fenced areas,  I have gates that are at least wide enough to allow a bobcat through in case I need additional work or cross fencing done.
• Septic: My septic and leach field location are right in an area that I would have liked to include in pasture. I had to push back the fenceline to exclude this area.
• Quarantine:  No one was talking BVD or Coronavirus when I first started.  I bet a lot of people would have totally different fencing layouts if they had known then what we know now! In my new area being planned, I have a 30′ buffer area that separates the paddocks attached to two shelters for visiting dams.
• Natural flow : No doubt, gates can provide a possible weak point ( more points where a gate can be left open and where dogs can more easily jump over or dig under) but when in doubt, I’ve found you can never have enough gates. When I planned out my fencing, I tried to picture how animals would be moved in all different scenarios in determining where the gates should be. I wanted animals from each stall to be routable to each pasture.  More gates are better!
• Temporary paddocks: This overlaps into barn design, but I also wanted the option of splitting certain paddocks in two or even three in different ways, so some of the fenced areas are designed to allow easy temporary cross fencing with panels

Everyone’s situation is different, but giving the fencing layout a lot of thought will pay off big. The converse is true as well. Trying to fix poor fencing decisions would be a very costly nightmare. I’d recommend staking out your plan and walking it through by simulating different situations. And last but not least, once you find a good fencer, treasure him or her!

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Things That Never End

I’ve just come in from weeding the pasture. My husband is reframing the door to the barn after extensive rewiring work. The mice ate through one of the wires that brought power from the house to the barn so now we’re down to one plastic coated strand for all the barn needs. On the east side of our property, our very generous neighbor is scraping away scrub oak with his bobcat. Next year I plan to seed a new pasture there along with a new shelter for visiting dams and additional paddocks.

As I rush into the house to prepare lunch, I see my dams contentedly chewing their cud, watching the goings on of man and machine. They have no idea how much time and effort is expended on their behalf, or how many priorities have been reshuffled to improve their habitat.  And it’s day in and day out, week after week. I’ve come to terms that there are certain things involved with alpacas and life here that never actually end.

Whether you agree or not, find it humorous or tragic, here are things that you too , may come to know as the Laws of Ad Infinitum:

Law Number One: No matter the size of your property, you will never have enough fencing.

Law Number Two:  Regardless of how many weeds you kill each year, this number will always be exceeded by the number that spring up the following.

Law Number Three: Your barn will never be absolutely finished.

Law Number Four: There will always be more mice.

Law Number Five: Replace “mice” with flies, mosquitoes, or moths in Law Number Four.

Law Number Six: The search for good hay will never end.

Law Number Seven: Laws Number One through Six will never change.

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Cria Watch Pound Cake

Last month I wrote a post Is Breeding Like Baking?. Trapped at home for over three weeks during a cria watch that eventually resulted in the birth of Thisbe (See Exhaustion Redux, The Story of Thisbe, and Thisbe at Two), I turned to comfort baking and one of my favorites: Old-Fashioned Poundcake. I received a note the other day from someone here in Colorado who wanted to know if it worked well in our high-altitude and if so, would I publish the recipe?

The answer is Yes and Yes! This is my favorite old-fashioned poundcake and it makes a tender, short crumb that rises perfectly cooked in a bundt or tube pan, even here at 7,000 feet. I’ve had this recipe since junior high school.

McCall’s Perfect Poundcake

8 egg whites (1 cup)
3 c sifted all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 c sugar
8 egg yolks
2 c unsalted butter at room temperature
1 T grated orange peel
2 T grated lemon peel
2 T lemon juice
2 T water

Glaze: (optional)

1 T butter
1 pkg (1 lb) confectioner’s sugar
1 t grated lemon peel
1/3 c lemon juice

Separate eggs, turning yolks into one large bowl and whites into another. Let whites warm to room temp, about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10″ bundt or tube pan.

Whisk sifted flour, baking powder, and 1/4 t salt together and set aside. Grate lemon and orange peel, measure and set aside. Juice the lemons, measure and set aside.

Beat egg whites with 1/4 t salt until foamy. Slowly add in 1 c sugar while beating until soft peaks form. Set aside.

Cream butter with remaining 1 c sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in yolks, then peels and lemon juice plus 2 T water until smooth. At low speed, add in flour mixture a third at a time just until combined. Then fold in egg whites just until blended. Don’t overmix.

Turn batter into pan and bake about 60 minutes in middle of oven until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on rack 15 minutes and turn out.

To glaze: Blend butter, sugar, lemon juice and peel until smooth. Brush over entire surface of warm cake.

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Herd Maintenance Recordkeeping

Ugh, I don’t know anyone who likes recordkeeping. Even blogging about it makes my fingers numb and my brain cells go dormant. However, it’s one of the most important parts of maintaining a healthy herd. Obviously, I am only talking about records relating to herd management. And for the purposes of both reading and writing sanity, let’s limit the scope of these records to routine herd health and not delve into breeding records you need to supply to your customers.

There are all kinds of nifty software programs available now if you like to go the private database route. I have a tiny herd so I don’t find that worth the expense. It’s the “what” not the “how” that is most important. As long as you have the information, it doesn’t matter what system you use to maintain it.

I use a three part system. Before that even makes your eyes cross and your vision blur, it’s really very simple:

1. Calendar:  Everything is driven by my calendar. Everything that has to be done gets on here.  It’s my trigger to do anything and also allows me to see if I have any conflicts. If I ever lost the stuff on my calendar, I’d be clueless. Nothing would get done, I’d be a disorganized mess, my brain would implode, and next thing you know, they’d find me wandering down the grocery store aisle with a bewildered look on my face, repeatedly whispering “Peanut butter? Peanut butter?” to the air.

Examples of stuff that goes on my calendar: shows, shots, breeding attempts, behavior testing, due dates, shearing, appointments, animal arrivals and departures, follow up

2. Journal : The journal is the spiral bound book that goes with me to the barn and is filled with almost illegible scribbles (the colder the weather the more illegible) that show on each date what happened. It’s like a diary in that it records not only what was done but also the result. I also use it to track traffic of people and animals through the barn. It doesn’t always agree with the calendar. For example, I may have on the calendar to give a shot on that Friday, but I do it on Saturday instead. The journal records what actually happened, not what was planned.

You may wonder why I record who comes and goes. That’s to track exposure. If it ever were to happen that I had a BVD or corona virus event, the journal would be the only record I have that would delineate the timeline for me to figure out the source and who might be at risk. It’s kind of like insurance: Make the effort and hope you never have to use it.

Examples of stuff in a journal: dates and weights of animals, arrivals and departures of people and animals, vet visits and what was done and the results, dates and shots/treatments, breeding activities (breedings, behavior testing etc)

3. Animal Records:  After I’ve recorded something in the Journal, everything gets transcribed into individual animal health records. Along with the input from the journal, the animal records also record any events that happen off the farm when they are at another breeder.  In addition to herd management details, individual animal records I keep include shear weights, pictures at set periods (usually one-few days old, two weeks, one month, six month, full fleece weanling, shorn yearling, full fleece adult, shorn adult), histograms, BVD PCR,  and ARI. I also like to keep a gallon size bag of prime fiber from each year’s shear.

I’m sure other people have slicker ways of doing all of the above but this system suits my current size very well. Plus it can all be done on paper if you’re PC averse or all in soft copy. My calendar is both online and on paper, my journal is hard copy, and my animal records are all spreadsheets. I like to keep all the individual animal records in soft copy (photos, ARI, BVD PCR, and histograms) because I am pro-email and anti-fax. If I had a really large herd, I’d probably go to a software program and a terminal in the barn. You could input from there and the program would organize the data for you, plus it would probably have an internet interface so you could access your records online anytime anywhere. Now that would be sweet.

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Thisbe at Two

…Two weeks that is.

People have been asking me this question nonstop since I posted Exhaustion Redux and The Story of Thisbe:

How is Thisbe doing?

With a birth so difficult that she was not strong enough to stand until the next day, they were wondering if there had been any improvement or if I was still watching her day by day.

Well here’s your answer: Thisbe at two weeks of age and a testament to the amazing resilience of these animals.

Click below to view :

Thisbe at Two Weeks Old from Pacablogger on Vimeo.

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A Starter Alpaca Library

When you get serious about the prospect of owning alpacas, you develop a voracious appetite for knowledge of all things alpacas, especially on how to take care of them. There are quite a lot of good reference books available and they can prove invaluable as you get started. Regardless of how extensive your library becomes, however, nothing can replace a good vet and a good network of alpaca breeders who stand ready and willing to answer all your questions.

I thought I would post the books that I find particularly valuable. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list – these are just those focusing on herd care and management that I found myself reaching for the most.

Caring for Llamas & Alpacas by Claire Hoffman, DVM and Ingrid Asmus

Llama/Alpaca Neonatal Care by Bradford B. Smith, DVM, PhD, Karen I. Timm, DVM, Phd, Patrick O. Long, DVM

Alpaca Field Manual by C. Norman Evans, DVM

The Camelid Companion:Handling and Training Your Alpacas & Llamas by Marty McGee

The Complete Alpaca Book by Eric Hoffman

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The Perfect Summer of Alpacas

Pilar and Laci enjoy summer pasture

I’m dreaming of a perfect summer here in Colorado.

In my dream, spring lasts for months instead of weeks and we enjoy cool days and gentle rainy afternoons.

The weather forecast is right for once and a week of rain is accurately predicted in early May, with temps in the high 60’s. I spread all my grass seed out the day before the rains arrive and a week later have 100% germination.

My pastures are dense and lush by end of May with nary a weed or scrub oak bud in sight.

Summer arrives the day after shearing and my animals are free of heat and cold stress.

Birthing season begins and the babies arrive without problem and within two days of their due date.

They are all fabulous girls in exactly the colors I was aiming for and they gain weight steadily.

In May, the miller moths pass by our little property and we can read with our lights on without having a swarm descend.

In July, the mosquito dunks I put out in the winter runoff actually make a difference this year and you can walk outside without taking a bath in Off!

The fly predator program I’ve diligently applied for the past two years kicks into effect and I’m fly-free in the barn, in the paddocks, in the pasture and around the poop piles.

My cats turn from dedicated couch potatoes into ferocious mousers.

The extra moisture has kept the dust down to a minimum and all summer, there’s barely any dust settling into every nook and cranny in the barn.

All my rebreedings are done locally and none of my dams or crias have to be transported. The pregnancies take on the first breeding.

We continue to get gentle rains all through Summer and into Fall, but all my fecals continue to be negative.

My pregnant dams swear off spitting at each other or decide only to do it when there are no humans around.

Crias pronk with joy when they see me approaching and run circles around me like celebrants around a maypole.

Aaaah, life is good.

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The Story of Thisbe

Thisbe

 Thisbe was born on Thursday, May 28, 2009 through the painful efforts of her dam, my vet, and my own hapless assistance. It was a difficult delivery to say the least and that episode was detailed in my last post Exhaustion Redux.

A few people asked me about her unusual name. It comes from a tale that I first read in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology way back when I was a teenager. It was only later that I learned that it provided the inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. He also retold the tale in “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. When Thisbe (my cria) arrived after much struggle, she was covered in blood. So much so that she was stained pink, even though I could see she was white.  From there came the idea of naming her Thisbe.  If you know the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, you’ll understand this oblique reference right away. If not, read away (Pyramus and Thisbe as retold by Josephine Preston Peabody, Old Greek Stories Told Anew, 1897):

But there once lived in Babylonia two lovers named Pyramus and Thisbe, who were parted by a strange mischance. For they lived in adjoining houses; and although their parents had forbidden them to marry, these two had found a means of talking together through a crevice in the wall.

Here, again and again, Pyramus on his side of the wall and Thisbe on hers, they would meet to tell each other all that had happened during the day, and to complain of their cruel parents. At length they decided that they would endure it no longer, but that they would leave their homes and be married, come what might. They planned to meet, on a certain evening, by a mulberry-tree near the tomb of King Ninus, outside the city gates. Once safely met, they were resolved to brave fortune together.

 

Thisbe by John William Waterhouse -1909

So far all went well. At the appointed time, Thisbe, heavily veiled, managed to escape from home unnoticed, and after a stealthy journey through the streets of Babylon, she came to the grove of mulberriesnear the tomb of Ninus. The place was deserted, and once there she put off the veil from her face to see if Pyramus waited anywhere among the shadows. She heard the sound of a footfall and turned to behold–not Pyramus, but a creature unwelcome to any tryst–none other than a lioness crouching to drink from the pool hard by.

 

 

Without a cry, Thisbe fled, dropping her veil as she ran. She found a hiding-place among the rocks at some distance, and there she waited, not knowing what else to do.

The lioness, having quenched her thirst (after some ferocious meal), turned from the spring and, coming upon the veil, sniffed at it curiously, tore and tossed it with her reddened jaws,–as she would have done with Thisbe herself,–then dropped the plaything and crept away to the forest once more.

It was but a little after this that Pyramus came hurrying to the meeting-place, breathless with eagerness to find Thisbe and tell her what had delayed him. He found no Thisbe there. For a moment he was confounded. Then he looked about for some sign of her, some footprint by the pool. There was the trail of a wild beast in the grass, and near by a woman’s veil, torn and stained with blood; he caught it up and knew it for Thisbe’s.

So she had come at the appointed hour, true to her word; she had waited there for him alone and defenceless, and she had fallen a prey to some beast from the jungle! As these thoughts rushed upon the young man’s mind, he could endure no more.

“Was it to meet me, Thisbe, that you came to such a death!” cried he. “And I followed all too late. But I will atone. Even now I come lagging, but by no will of mine!”

So saying, the poor youth drew his sword and fell upon it, there at the foot of that mulberry-tree which he had named as the trysting-place, and his life-blood ran about the roots.

During these very moments, Thisbe, hearing no sound and a little reassured, had stolen from her hiding-place and was come to the edge of the grove. She saw that the lioness had left the spring, and, eager to show her lover that she had dared all things to keep faith, she came slowly, little by little, back to the mulberry-tree.

She found Pyramus there, according to his promise. His own sword was in his heart, the empty scabbard by his side, and in his hand he held her veil still clasped. Thisbe saw these things as in a dream, and suddenly the truth awoke her. She saw the piteous mischance of all; and when the dying Pyramus opened his eyes and fixed them upon her, her heart broke. With the same sword she stabbed herself, and the lovers died together.

There the parents found them, after a weary search, and they were buried together in the same tomb. But the berries of the mulberry-tree turned red that day, and red they have remained ever since.

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