Friends of the earth?...Legacy and Snowstorm go green...

With non-stop rain here and more forecast, we decided to move the girls on to drier land yesterday. Although we did get the 'hay field' drained a couple of years ago, it is still the wetter of our fields due to the clay in the soil. So the girls were moved back across the lane and out of sight of the boys.

Now, despite the girls being quite happy about the move...somebody was most definitely not...screeching could be heard...I expect for miles...as Legacy took his frustration out on poor Snowstorm. Poor Snowstorm (a Suri) came as Legacy's companion and "best friend". Mis-named Prince Snowstorm, the poor boy has a life of subservience. Although, judging by the photos I am not sure who came off the worse on this occasion:

 Prince Snowstorm...a wether and our only Suri

Legacy of Purston...looking like he came off the worst...stud male or not!

It looks like Legacy, who is always keen to work, may have a bit of a frustrating time ahead. With Hollywood's Attitude working; two other young boys ready to work in the spring (Anzac Almost Illegal and Viracocha Black Sabbath); and the purchase of a new male (more soon); it looks like he will not get any work here at Beck Brow next year, mainly due to the limited amount of females available. We are now trying to decide whether to put him up for sale, offer to lease him out, or let him retire and be our spit off male. However, it does seem a shame with a micron of 25.3 um at 11 years of age for him not to be working.

I have been back up to Scotland this week; the scenery is starting to look very familiar. Amanda came with me on a day out visiting weavers and manufacturers in the Borders. Tyke came along too and was made very welcome everywhere. I will probably be remembered for the smallest dog seen in a waterproof! It was rather wet! A successful day out; I think we have decided on who will be making what for us. Very exciting!

Velvet was left at home on this occasion. Two dogs might have been pushing it. Velvet just takes herself out of the cat flap when she needs the toilet which makes life rather easy. Tyke who is half her size and 4 years old has never figured that one out. Maybe just as well as I am not sure the garden fencing is Tyke proof!

The Scottish National Fleece Show comes to an end...

The weather is dreadful here in Cumbria; Cold, wet and with snow falling on the Northern Pennines, it looks like winter has arrived. Thankfully we have no late cria due in this 'up North' weather.

Saturday saw us back at Plane Castle for the last day of the Scottish National Fleece Show. We arrived around 10.30 am in order to catch Cameron Holt, who was available in the morning to discuss fleece results with breeders.

We had only entered two fleeces: E.P Cambridge Lady Gaga and Silverstream Galaxy. There wasn't really a lot of feedback to get about the girls more about the skirter. Both girls scored 20/20 for fineness and handle and did very well throughout the categories. In fact Lady G had a near faultless score, and the best in her class until it came to weight...now I have to say this is where she was let down by her owner...what did she score out of 20 for weight?....6!!...yes 6...over zealous skirting to say the least. Ironically one of the points that she did lose was for lack of uniformity of length. Oh well I will know better next time. She ended up with a third place and Galaxy a fourth (she also got 6/20 for weight)! We were however very pleased with the feedback. Lady G received 9/10 for lack of guard hair an impressive result for a pregnant fawn, well Cameron was impressed.

Both Cameron Holt and Liz Barlow gave lectures and talks in the afternoon before the gala dinner in the evening. It was a very Scottish themed evening with locally sourced food and some bag pipes to add to the occasion.

Acer Alpacas, from the South West region were the worthy Supreme Championship winners with a junior white male. It was fantastic to see what is a realitively small breeder do so well. Established with just five females (and no additional purchases) only five years ago, they have chosen their stud services very well. Amazingly they also took the championship at the Heart of England Fleece Show as well with a different fleece! As Mark (Patou Alpacas) would say "you don't have to be big to be mighty". They are a fantastic example of what can be achieved by a small breeder with a considered breeding plan. Well done!

Exploring fleece

It was an early start yesterday for a trip up to Scotland. Plane Castle near Sterling is the venue of this year's Scottish National Fleece Show and judging commenced on Monday. With 280 plus fleeces entered, all to be weighed, details checked, judged, results filed, rosettes awarded and then the fleece returned to the correct owner, it had the potential to be a logistical nightmare. However Jonathan (Russell) and Debbie (Rippon) had everything well under control and I just mucked in for the day.

The level of entries makes this year's Scottish National Fleece Show the largest fleece show in Europe. Judge Cameron Holt has attracted not only a record number of entries but also entries of a very high quality. Winners will be announced on Saturday at a celebratory dinner in the castle (tickets still available).

Whilst I was away Paul managed to fix the puncture on the poo-picking machine. I should point out that there is nothing wrong with using a brush and shovel....although my technique of spreading is not a good one it has to be said.... this is a user problem rather than an equipment problem...however, when I say that Paul spent three hours in the girls paddock and has left some for me to finish off today, you can see why the idea of hand cleaning was a bit daunting!

Paul somehow managed to end up with a gash on his head whilst on poovering duties. He claims that he accidentally managed to hit himself with a piece of wood. Now...I know how much he hates paddock cleaning...surely he wouldn't have to beat himself with a stick to complete the task?...mind you three hours.. that would turn anyone crazy!!

All the talk of fleece yesterday reminded me that I hadn't checked out the results of our fleece photography from Sunday properly. Beck Brow Explorer gets a lot of attention around here. As one of the first EP Cambridge Navigator cria to be born we are all interested in monitoring his progress. Navigator was sold for AU$ 150,000 as a multiple supreme champion winner. However, with no progeny on the ground at the time, he was an unproven male; So Explorer really is an interesting prospect.

We managed to get a top/midside fleece shot that shows his definition fairly well but doesn't demonstrate that amazing brightness that really makes you go wow when you open his fleece (click on photo to enlarge). I guess outside on a dull day wasn't going to capture that. However, it is possible to see that at 4  months of age he has good length and density.

This shot of his rump shows the brightness a little better...we just appear to have missed the target!

We have a long wait ahead of us to see if he makes the grade to become our next white herdsire, but we will enjoy watching. In the meantime he manages to keep us very amused with his grumbling and gurning (that's pulling faces for non-Cumbrians...we are famous for it here!).

Flat out....well that was the intention!

We have had a mad nine days of constant alpaca chatter. Apart from having a very nice social time; I am hopefully very well trained in alpaca assessment. After attending the Cameron Holt courses last weekend; followed by a week of home instruction; we ended up paying a visit to Cathy and Matt Lloyd at E.P. Cambridge Alpacas on Saturday. Can you have too much alpaca?!!

As we were in Wiltshire on business, we decided to take a look at Lady Gaga, our Futurity auction female who is still at EPC. I have to say that she is looking gorgeous. Her third fleece is fantastic and is already showing great length. She appears to be holding her pregnancy to Waradene St. Patrick of EPC and is due to be scanned shortly. All being well the plan is to have her with us before the end of the month.

Yesterday Bev and Andy joined us for Sunday lunch at one of the locals and managed to take plenty of photos of their new boys. We did rope them in to some fleece photography. We have had some requests for photos of Explorer's fleece and we thought the more hands the better. We still didn't manage to capture his brightness but I do think that we are improving!

The plan today was to catch up on all the jobs on the farm. The poo picking has been getting seriously neglected. We had managed to do the boys fields yesterday but today was to be full on in the girls paddock. At least it wasn't raining. No stopping until it was pristine. Well that was the idea, however five minutes in and I encountered a problem:

Oops...and no spare tyre! What to do...I hate poo filled paddocks. I did think about using an earlier invention...some thing dating pre-paddock cleaning machines...something called a brush and shovel with wheelbarrow attachment. However, I could see why we had moved on...more spreading than cleaning. Oh no...lets hope Paul can fix it.

As I always have the camera with me on the quad, I had plenty of time for some photos:

Tyke...obviously preferring the whites

Camilla with Lucie and Noah behind. Lucie looks much like Camilla. She is gentle and feminine...something that you definitely can't say about her boy...Explorer! 

Explorer...all male

Explorer...so hard he chews on thorns!!

With no poo picking to do I decided to nip over to see Amanda...lots to tell...and more alpaca chatter!

Sold...my babies!

Following Sunday's lecture on alpaca sire selection there has been lots of discussions in our house surrounding the desired qualities within stud males, both ours and others available.

Ideally we would all love that finest, densest male with perfect confirmation who is totally free of guard hair...unfortunately he hasn't yet been born and if he had most of us mere mortals could not afford to buy him!

In the meantime most of us try to use the best stud males that we can to suit each individual female in the hope that we might just breed perfection.

Now this brings us to Finian (pictured in the summer). Finian is the friendliest little fella with a lovely fawn fleece. A fleece that has been deemed good enough for him to be of stud quality. Great news?...Yes, but Finian has already been sold as a pet.

 Finian is lovely and is a very good male, but for us he is not an elite male which is where we want to be. Therefore we feel much happier for him to be going to a new home (non-breeders) where he will be loved dearly and his fleece will be appreciated and used, than he be sold as a potential stud male and possibly only work for a couple of years. We have however bred his mum (Holly) to Legacy of Purston again in the hope of achieving a female version of Finian. Fingers crossed. Holly is due a girl after having three boys in a row!

The lucky boys; Finian, Kenzie and Noah will be going to North Yorkshire once they are weaned and halter trained. Bev and Andy (who just missed out on our boys sold earlier this year) had pre-ordered three boys from this seasons crop. It is strange knowing from such a young age that they are going and I still have got far too attached...it would be impossible not to with Finian who follows me about...but it has been lovely getting to know Bev and Andy well and to know that they are going to have plenty of hands on experience before the boys are delivered. Hopefully they will help with the halter training too...it's easy Bev!

Kenzie (left) and Noah

I had a knitting lesson yesterday. I did master casting on, stocking stitch, rib and moss stitch to a reasonable standard. Mum decided that it was much easier to teach me now than it had been when I was a child. I think the difference might be that she tried to  force me to learn as a child. A willing pupil is always better! Now I need to learn how to correct the mistakes. But do you know what?...I actually enjoyed it...is another obsession about to take hold?

Visitors...some of the herd put in more effort than others!

As I said in my last blog we have the pleasure of having Cameron Holt, one of the world's most highly respected experts on fleece evaluation, staying for a few days. Cameron kindly had a look through our herd yesterday and gave his honest opinion. Not all of our decisions have been perfect (has anyone got it right every time? ...no? I guess that person doesn't exist!). We had already recognised a number of things that we want to add or improve within the herd, so we had no real negative surprises.

It would be wrong to use Cameron's opinion for the promotion of individual animals - but suffice to say I could hardly sleep due to excitement. I have to say getting someone impartial, who has the level of skills required, to evaluate your herd is great, as it so easy to get blinkered. I am sure some of his recommendations will become apparent in our herd overtime!

I did have a little chat to the herd to prepare them for the VIP visit. Some took this more seriously than others I have to say:

Hollywood's Attitude had kept himself pretty clean and was looking like the elite stud male that he is. Nimrod was also making a very good effort. I don't know if he has understood what the term wether means? Sorry Nimrod. Looking good....but not good enough!

Nimrod.

Roma on the other hand really could not be bothered with visitors and was rather chilled about the whole thing:

Who's this Cameron Holt then?

Sparko!...or very trusting to let me so close!

Luckily I did get some photos yesterday as today is pretty grim. We are getting Jayne's problem with muddy winter gates. The cows will be gone by the end of the week (we do some seasonal grass letting) so that will help. The alpacas are pretty good at not messing up the land thankfully. Now, ponies... they are another thing all together...yes Paul!

Some team photos:

Poppet gets the coat off for good...she is now a month old and well grown with a lovely dense fleece to keep her warm. Lets see if I manage to stick with that decision!

Explorer...getting such a big boy that Camilla is starting to wean him herself. The boy got a good looking over yesterday. Obviously too much so for Mum... as Camilla didn't come in for breakfast with him this morning...something unheard of!

Lucie is really coming along. All of a sudden she appears to be looking much older. A Top Account of Fowberry daughter...she is showing real promise...a true example of an improved female when compared to her dam.

A master class with homework!

It has been an alpaca filled weekend for both Paul and myself. We have just returned from a two day course on; identifying and measuring superior fibre traits in alpacas; and sire selection. The event, hosted at Northumbrian Alpacas, was taught by senior consultant alpaca specialist Cameron Holt who is visiting from Australia. This man really is alpaca royalty.

Although we only live just over an hour away, we decided to stay over and make a weekend of it. We made the most of enjoying the food and wine at the local hostelry and enjoyed plenty of alpaca chatter (to the wee hours in Paul's case!) We also caught up with Debbie. Debbie and I always seemed to come up with the same answers... whether right or wrong!

We did manage to get home this afternoon whilst it was still light enough to have a really good inspection of our cria. I have to admit that we are more than happy with our little herd although it is really too early to tell. We will however get the real verdict next week. Yes...I have been brave enough to have Cameron and his wife Joy to stay for a few days whilst they explore the lakes. I am told that a little alpaca evaluation will be included. Cameron has already warned us that he will be nothing but honest ...good or bad! If I don't blog for a few days it will be due to severe depression.

It will be interesting to see what Cameron thinks of our head types. I have to admit that I do like well covered faces, thought Cameron was suggesting that medium coverage was ideal to avoid 'fleece blindness' (facial fleece growth which interferes with vision). Tabitha (pictured) would appear to fit with his aim. I guess some things will always be down to personal preference. Anyway. I got a lovely welcome home from the gang...they are such a friendly bunch... and that will always be my preference.