Just a quick video of Janice, one of our many great alpaca mothers here at The Alpaca Place, feeding her young cria:
Posts Tagged ‘alpacas’
Janice and cria feeding
Thursday, December 29th, 2011HB Show and new cria – on the same day
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011What a busy time we have had since returning from the National Show – first we attended the Hawkes Bay show, where Cracker impressed by winning the Intermediate white/light fawn fleece, and Marquis picked up a first placing in his class. 2nd placings were awarded to HollyAnna and Marshall as well, so a enjoyable day for us – despite the heat.
Gordon stayed at home to care for the alpacas – and just as well, as 2 of our girls, Jean E and Delta had their cria within an hour of each other the same day. Both girls, Jean E had a white, now named Celtic Mist (Misty) for her grand-father, and Delta had a rose grey like herself who has been named Cypress.
Misty (left) & Cypress
Spring Fertilizer
Thursday, September 8th, 2011I’ve been busy fertilising our spring pasture with Fish Fertiliser and blood & bone. One of the interesting claims by the producers of the fish fertiliser is that it suppresses fungal growth. While no claim is made specifically around facial eczema spores we are hoping using this particular fertilizer will be another helpful aid in reducing the chances of our alpacas picking up this condition. In any event it adds a multitude of core minerals to the pasture so should be good food for the grasses.
Winter sunshine
Thursday, July 21st, 2011We have just had a week of beautiful sunshine to follow 10 days of rain. So we had a chance to catch up on a few tasks – we started dosing our girls with A ,D&E vitaminsplus do some overdue pregnancy scans, plus the all-important halter training. We have a number of very nice cria we are looking forward to showing the world in the coming show season, so getting these cria confident on a halter is really important. As alpaca breeders, we always aim for excellence, so it is really encouraging to see so many fine cria growing up – many will come available for sale in the coming months, we have a particularly fine group of young black males, so if you are looking for a potential stud, or an adorable pet, keep an eye on our alpacas for sale page in the coming months – or better still, contact us, and let us know what you are looking for-many of our alpacas are sold without ever appearing on the website, so don’t miss out – contact us first.
Grazing
Saturday, June 4th, 2011We are currently weaning 3 of our young boys. For company, we have Sheridan and Calibre (see our alpacas for sale page) looking after them. Today we let them into the garden around the house. Our garden is pretty much alpaca proof (everything that can be nibbled, has been nibbled, and survived!), and the boys really enjoyed the change of scenery and the fresh grass.
We are having a quiet long weekend, without many alpaca tasks to carry out, other than doing a bit of halter training. One of the fun tasks!
A Mountain at The Alpaca Place?!
Saturday, May 28th, 2011When we excavated our new soakholes recently, we took the opportunity to create an artificial hill for our cria to play on. Those of you who are familiar with The Alpaca Place will know our farm is completely flat, so a hill creates interest and activity for our alpaca. They love it! The picture shows our beautiful grey cria, Sterling Silver showing off that he has pushed everyone else off!
New Products at The Alpaca Place
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011Our products for sale section is now up and running with our first featured product being luxury alpaca throws. Keep an eye on this page, we will be adding many more products over the coming months as our on-farm store is being developed. Watch out for scarves in the near future – wonderful winter warmth that looks classy too.
Winter is here!
Sunday, May 15th, 2011After a delightful, long autumn, winter has finally arrived, with cold wind and rain. Yesterday we filled all the feeding stations with hay so our alpacas can help themselves whenever they are feeling cold and hungry. Our “feeding stations” are simply a shed in each paddock which will keep the hay dry. This means we can feed out bale or two at at time, and cuts down on the time required to feed out each day. Some of our alpacas will also go in the sheds to keep out of wind and rain, so it serves a double purpose.
National Alpaca Day
Monday, April 11th, 2011Thanks for coming! – National Alpaca Day
To support National Alpaca Day we held an Open Farm on Sunday 1st May. This was a time to join a guided interactive tour of our farm, enjoy meeting our 70+ friendly alpacas, and hear some interesting alpaca facts and tales. We had lots of positive feedback, and some new converts to “all things alpaca”.
Alpacas on Holiday
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011We have some visiting alpacas at the moment – one with a young cria who has suffered from rye grass staggers. Getting him on to endophyte free grass will be a big step in his recovery. While he is here his owner is taking the opportunity to have his mum remated and she has brought along a friend who also will be visiting one of our studs while here. Hopefully the couple of months or so that they are here will see Marco well on the road to recovery.
