Wednesday saw Gordon and I cria-napping Harmony’s baby.  Time for a vet check to see how those broken leg bones are healing. Good news!  An xray determined the bones are healing well and Cadenza could have her plaster removed.  After 5 hours away from home Harmony was very relieved to see Cadenza return, albeit with 4 matching legs, and no plaster.  Cadenza is to remain confined for another 10 days while her muscles strengthen and her leg is functioning properly.  Since she was 2 weeks old Cadenza has had to cush with her plastered leg held rigidly out in front.  Its taken her a couple of days to realise she has a knee in that leg but today (TWICE!!)  we have found her cushing with both front legs tucked up under her – just like all the others!  And today, because we no longer have to worry about keeping her plaster dry, Cadenza is enjoying grazing in a pen outside, able to eat REAL grass, instead of hay.  So the countdown is really on – soon she will be able to graze outside with Harmony, something she probably doesn’t remember ever doing before.  And before too long she’ll be able to join the other youngsters in their evening romp around the paddock. Life is fun!

Today its cold and wet, the first signs that our New Zealand winter is on its way! Alpacas are very stoic and so long as they have tree or fence shelter from our cold southerly winter winds they tolerate winter very well.  But keeping them well fed and warm is paramount if you want them to keep their good health.  Make sure in cold weather that they have meadow hay available – this will keep them warm!  We have small hay sheds in each of our paddocks.  We place bales of hay on old forklift pallets to keep it off the damp ground and top it up every weekend over winter.  That way the alpacas can choose when to eat hay instead of grass (which lacks good nutrition in the winter months).

Soon our ‘boys’ (a mix of stud males and youngsters who have not been wethered (castrated) will be moved off farm for the winter.  This gives them a change of scenery, and allows their paddocks to recover without being grazed for a few months.  Even though they live separately the ‘girls’ notice their absence and there’ll be quite a bit of excitement when they return in spring.

Cheryl and I (and Gordon) are all busily knitting alpaca garments for ourselves.  There’s nothing warmer than alpaca when it comes to clothing.  If you’re after socks, scarves, hats etc check out our online shop here.

It’s the season to do catch up on farm maintenance and we have been busy demolishing some “past-its-use-by date”  fencing, re-hanging a couple of gates and  replacing some very old fence posts.  This is never as simple as it first seems, and we have to admit to cutting through a water pipeline which feeds our troughs.  The line was buried years before we bought our property and we’ve never known exactly where the pipes are located.  We do now: right along the fenceline and about 1 foot underground!

We’re about to organise to split our winter firewood which is currently still outside but at least cut into rounds ready for the splitter.  We’re hoping the weather will stay dry until we can get the wood undercover for winter.

Cadenza update:  Our cria with the broken leg is now a month old and still largely confined to an indoor pen with her mum who is let out from time to time so she can graze.  We do have an outside pen for Cadenza so she can start grazing as well but she is restricted to times when the grass is dry so her plaster doesn’t get wet.  With heavy dews overnight and shorter days she  rarely gets this privilege!  However a recent vet check confirmed  she is progressing well with no signs of infection in her leg.  Her mother has been a real champ, accepting their isolation from the herd and taking good care of her cria.

Our well-known black stud male, Pejo Rebel is for sale! Over the past few years Rebel has given us a wealth of top-quality cria, many of them championship winners. Now that we have a number of his daughters (plus some very promising sons), Rebel is reluctantly for sale – as it would be a waste to have such a great stud not being used! We have put Rebel up for tender, so have a look at what he can offer you by looking at our tender document. Imagine having cria of this quality - placing a tender could make it real!

On Monday night (26th March), we discovered our two week old cria had broken her leg. X-rays show both bones in her lower foreleg have been broken, with an open wound where the bone had poked through the flesh. Our vet tells us the type of fracture is consistent with a kick.

Cadenza now sports a bright blue cast from the top of her leg to the toes, and requires some observant nursing, to make sure the wound in her leg doesn’t become infected under the cast (she is also having anti-biotic every 2 days to help prevent this also), and she is not allowed to get the cast wet. This means she and her mother, Harmony, are now being kept under cover for the next five weeks until the break heals. We will write a full article on Cadenzas broken leg after she is mobile again, and publish it in our newsletter. (If you don’t already receive our newsletter, you can sign up here).