News

Well this is a surprise! Usually I’m not the voice of the blog, but with John swimming with Elephants in Sri Lanka and Nick tied up with BAS training commitments I am trying my hand! Let me know what you think but be gentle!

Last week Nick was going through the Alpacas, between the storms, selecting a show team for the South of England show. The team we showed at the Futurity is currently holidaying in the surveillance zone in readiness for the Spring Fiesta. As many of you will know the selection process can be very trying. We all have our favourites who we would love to show off but usually this is because they are the ones with personality, the ones who are the other more emotional side of alpacas that keeps us all hooked. I have a favourite this year that luckily does cut the mustard and I was his personal cheer squad, bringing great pressure to bear on Nick to include him. I won. This little fellow has been a great source of amusement since his birth. He took an immediate liking to Nick and would pursue him relentlessly if he entered the field. As he became a little older this grew to include me, the dogs and the quad as well. Nick and I feed the Alpacas together at the weekends during the summer, and this young Alpaca would eye us up as soon as we entered the field. But the fun didn’t begin until we had put out the feed and started to proceed to the next field—he would suddenly emerge from the group with a glint in his eyes and chase us in the manner of a joyful puppy down the field. On one occasion he got into trouble because he refused to stop, and tried to force his way through the hedge and became stuck fast. Nick had to disentangle him and I had to walk him up the field and remonstrate with his somewhat belatedly worried mother to keep him under control!! The only problem now is in barracking for him so hard I have the dubious pleasure of having to halter train him. I bet that will be fun!!!

There is a side effect of Nick selecting a show team, a group of thirty odd hopefuls needing halter training. And guess who are not around much in the next month to do any? You’ve got it, both Nick and John. It never ceases to amaze me how individual each Alpaca is, they all respond in different ways to training, we have had our failures, one female in particular who Nick was desperate to show but we decided not to as she became so stressed on a halter. Her cria came in for selection this time and showed every sign of being just as stressed as her mother. There have been others that have become over confident. In general they seem to suddenly take a leap in both confidence and growth after their first show. And I love the bond that is formed with your show team: even with the numbers we have on farm I still know each and every one, and more importantly they know me.

Like everyone else we are affected by Blue Tongue. We are in a protection zone which strangely could be classed as lucky as we get vaccine earlier than most. Our Vets ordered vaccine for our herd as soon as Defra gave the ok, now we just have to wait for it to become available. Of course there are still a great number of unknowns which hopefully will be explained before much longer, the one upper most on my mind is the suitability of the vaccine for use on Alpacas. When you analyse it very little is done with Alpacas in mind: a shopping trip to the local Agricultural outlet requires you to make little comment on the animal in mind in order to obtain the most basic requirement for your Alpacas welfare, as there are no vaccines, wormers etc. licensed for Alpacas. For me the one plus point to Blue Tongue is that all our Alpacas will be shorn at the right time given that the show season is going to be very short for us. At the moment the South of England will be our last. We will be sad missing other chances to show but I really hate seeing over fleeced Alpacas, and all for the sake of a show. Mind you the way our weanlings are packing on the fleece if we shear them at the beginning of May they will have enough fleece to show again by July!!

As I finish this the sun is shining and all the Alpacas are sunbathing and looking very happy with life, long may it last!!!!
- Terry Harrington-Smith

News

A fantastically successful British Alpaca Futurity with 230 alpacas, 200 guests for a black tie dinner an auction of 7 alpacas which raised £60,000, stunning fashion shows and well attended seminars. We are working with Newbury to see if they have facilities to cope with 400 alpaca next year. Everyone appeared to have a good time; the only criticism I have seen was that the lighting at the fashion show was not good enough for a Brownie Instamatic!

We will soon have the final payments in to enable us to calculate the donations to be sent to our chosen charities this year: Quechua Benefit and Practical Action in Peru. Whilst Clare Whitehead’s appeal for funding for Peruvian vets to attend meetings of the world wide Camelid Veterinary organisation ISOCARD was very strong and is an excellent cause, we have passed this request to the British Camelid Foundation as an appropriate claim for funding from their resources.

There is still room for improvement and we are already looking at some changes for next year at our first meeting on March 13.

Well, birthing has started at The Alpaca Stud and we already have two beautiful girls on the ground, one huacaya and one suri. So far the weather is with us. I am soon to be a grass widower as Nick starts his travels to judge in Sweden, Germany, France and Bristol.

About a week before the Futurity Nick received a call from a DEFRA vet claiming that on our web site we were encouraging breeders to break the Movement Restrictions. Not so. Twenty minutes later it was agreed that the DEFRA chief vet would call us to discuss the position. I took the call from an extremely nice vet, on secondment. He told me that the Movement Regulations applying to the Futurity were “a nonsense” and he would send a memo to the Policy committee to that effect. A few days silence and I then received a call from the Head of Policy. He clearly did not appreciate his vet’s comments and proceeded to argue that the latest movement requirements directed many breeders to stay in the Show zone for 28 days and test. I explained to him that the wording did not say that, whatever his intention, and, if necessary a court could quickly be called on to give an opinion. He went away to think about it. Silence until last week when Nick received a call from a Berkshire Trading Standards officer who indicated that the Show should not have been held at all and requiring us to supply a list of names and addresses of all exhibitors. The request was politely refused by Nick who asked him to contact certain of his colleagues in DEFRA. If he then wished to maintain his request we would need to see his statutory authority for making it. To date silence.

We have always made it clear that we want to work within DEFRA’s rules. We disclosed the Show to them months ago, invited them and tried to discuss the logic of how their movement rules did not make sense in achieving bio-security. Many breeders called us having obtained different answers from different regional offices. A number of breeders decided not to attend because of the lack of clarity. I see that DEFRA, having been decimated by Hilary Benn, are now advertising for a new Chief Executive and a No.2. I do hope these new appointments help them to get their act together for all our sakes.
Email us with your thoughts

Gossip

My right ear receives a large daily dose of judge politics. Whilst it is nothing to do with me and I have no intention of breaking confidentiality—at least so far as the end of the call which I hear—it does appear to me that the issues appear to be a lot more contentious than I ever witnessed amongst the judges in the Law Courts in London. I can’t believe that it is anything to do with egos getting in the way!

Congratulations to John Gaye for rejuvenating Alpaca Magazine. Just one comment: are we really interested in the fact that a breeder has been a bag carrier for some minor celebrities in the dim distant past?
Email us with your thoughts

Advice

I know a few breeders have provided sugar beet to their alpacas for some time. In our view this can be good and bad. Fed entire it can cause a problem with older alpacas where quantity is not controlled and there can also be some deterioration in tooth enamel. If it is of a proprietary pelleted brand and fed with the daily nuts to cria it can be a useful energy supplement over tough winter months. However, it is vitally important to soak it fully before feeding so that it does not swell in the cria stomach nor compact causing a problem internally.
Email us with your thoughts

For Discussion

Switch off now if you are not interested in Registry Closure. But for all of us who are concerned about viable profitability for our continually growing number of breeders then the AGM is approaching. Whilst not the appropriate venue for lengthy discussion it is a time when breeders get together to discuss issues of the moment. A request: it would be useful for the Board to know the feeling of the regions on this topic. Perhaps it could be raised at a future regional group meeting and feedback given to the Board.
Email us with your thoughts

News

We thought the British Alpaca Futurity may turn out to be a shadow of last year’s show with all the movement restrictions/licence requirements and lots of confusing information in the public domain. How wrong could we be. Whilst some members are a little nervous of travelling with their alpacas we have shown anybody who has asked how it can be done. The result is that we are going to have to look for a bigger venue next year unless the Grandstand at Newbury gets bigger. At the time of writing we have 232 entries with some to come that we know about: dinner bookings stand at 150.

We are very excited about it and a lot of money is going to be awarded in prizes, with rules which give the smaller breeders a fair chance. Our hope is that the 2 or 3 breeders who continue to boycott the event for their own reasons will see sense and come and see what they are missing.

At last the weather appears to be improving, certainly in the South-East, but the winter has taken a heavy toll in having to help those alpacas who found the struggle of varying temperatures and heavy rainfall difficult to cope with alone.

The show season approaches but the current prognosis is that they could be quite local if they take place at all once the midges return with the warmer weather. I still believe that the best result is for them to cover the rest of the UK as soon as possible so we can have free movement everywhere, possibly with prior blood testing and or vaccination.
Email us with your thoughts

Gossip

I have been taken to task by a breeder who interpreted my article in this months SMALLHOLDING as an attack on the quality of Australian alpacas. Nothing could be further from my belief. Australia has superb alpacas. My gripe is that too many breeders rush to buy Australian and import alpacas that could easily be sourced here. Enough is enough; before the market is flooded let’s take a breather and start dealing with each other more. Keep the money in the UK industry.

The AGM looms and brings with it the legal requirement for 3 directors to resign on what is usually a rotational basis. The new board has only been in place for 1 year and the new members are only now beginning to be really effective. Let’s not interrupt their efforts and particularly the Chairman who has arrived like a breath of fresh air. I assume lots will be drawn for who is to retire. My view: let the new team continue but if any of the old guard from the previous board seek re-election, they have had long enough.
Email us with your thoughts

Advice

If you find an alpaca with worms which can be identified from the faeces our response was to use Vitatrace among other things to deal with potential anaemia as it had some iron content. As with injectable AD&E this no longer appears to be available in the UK, so how do you find an injectable multivitamin with mineral traces? It is just possible to find injectable iron but extreme care is needed as it can cause problems.

If anyone knows of a readily available product we would love to hear of it.
Email us with your thoughts

For Discussion

I would like to draw your attention to the new show rules which I believe are now posted on the BAS website, and in particular the definition of a solid colour. I am not sure it is right. What do you think?
Email us with your thoughts

News

Well done to everyone! Christmas and New Year are over! I am sure all of our boys and girls appreciated their cards and their individual packets of Newline Gold! The minced guinea pig brought back memories for many but the real herd pleaser was a gallon of Pisco Sour in all the water troughs. Many joined the queue for Rescue Remedy on Boxing Day. I am sorry for the delay in posting this blog but Nick insisted I took another holiday while the snow was good.

I am sure we are not alone in having had people seeking to give alpacas as Christmas presents and I am sure you all carry out the necessary checks to ensure the clients are likely to prove competent long term owners. I may post the photographs of Nick in Black Tie delivering one of a small group bought as a present, walking across the dance floor in a marquee holding 250 people! Impeccable behaviour by both of them.

Well, the Futurity is on, and it yet may be possible for the whole country to attend. I will know if we have obtained a derogation from the current movement restrictions in a few days. If you are unsure what you have to do to be able to go please telephone Chas Brook (01884243579) or me (01903891425) and we will steer you through the confusing rules. It is actually very easy for breeders in any part of the country to attend. Bookings are excellent, show entries already well exceed last year, the fashion show is nearly ready and the auction of stud services should just about ensure that we don’t go broke. Please keep bidding. There are lots of the country’s top studs yet to be posted.

Can I issue a warning before you book your matings for this year. There are 2 or 3 breeders who for their own incomprehensible reasons do not support the Futurity (probably because they did not think of it!) and even encourage people to avoid it. If you want to enter next year’s Futurity be sure to get an undertaking from the breeder that they will sponsor those males for the show. Alternatively, DO NOT USE THEM!

My best cracker joke: When Pavrotti died they found he would not fit in a standard Italian hearse so they had to hire a Nissan Dorma!
Email us with your thoughts

Gossip

Do you realise that we have three of our BAS judges who have not recertified and will not therefore be able to judge this year, unless they get a move on. This is a pity as our judges need as much experience as they can get. However, I suppose another way of looking at it is that it gives more exposure to the others. It will be a pity if they fail to re-certify as we are starting to need more and more judges with an increasing number of shows so perhaps they will take to their books soon to ensure they pass this very difficult hurdle.
Email us with your thoughts

Advice

Keep up those A Dand E injections for cria. They need all the help they can get in these conditions. If you have loss of condition in an animal two other checks you need to add to your list are:

1. we have heard of many instances of tapeworm, which can be picked up from deer, badgers, foxes or even your own dogs. Special treatment beyond normal wormers is necessary. We are advised that Ovispec S&C 10% is the answer, but check with your vet; and
2. lice, which can embed themselves in a very small area of fleece and skin and are very difficult to detect unless you know what you are looking for. Treatment: a strong lice powder or Frontline, if your vet approves

Don’t think you are doing your alpacas a favour by keeping them housed for long periods in bad condition. By all means bring them in during the worst weather but quickly let them out when it slackens off. If they are wet they do not dry off properly inside, which can lead to problems, but need to be out in the wind for this to happen.
Email us with your thoughts

For Discussion

I hear rumours that a group of “medium sized breeders” are going to ask the Board to canvass the industry about immediate Registry closure to any further imports to give breeders here a chance to get established, particularly after such a difficult year. Preparations continue for more imports from Chile and a group of Australian breeders establishing themselves here before shipping in crates of Aussy pacas. Get ready to step up and be counted in telling the Board what you want for our industry.
Email us with your thoughts