Preparation for Shows. Our halter training of the new weanling Show Team has been under way for about a month now.. Our trailers are already clean, with the wheels and brakes, lights and wiring checked, because they were used to transport Mary-Jo and Iain’s furniture into the new farmhouse – just in time for Amelia’s 10th birthday! So the trailers are all ready for the National Show this month. We now just have the fans and electrical gear left to check. Please come and see us at our breeders stand.
Field work commenced in February, with empty paddocks being swept clean of dead grass and any remaining faecal matter, followed by aerating. After a few weeks we can already see the difference, with good new grass growth already. There is still the possibility of hard frosts, and so the harrowing will wait until after we have some rain. Iain says we are just waiting for the magic T-200* number to appear before we apply our fertiliser. This year we are looking at adding Selenium to our normal N.P.K. mix.
Feed Trials. One of the new feeds we have been trialling is Aztec Silver. This doesn’t have quite the same minerals in it as our trusty Camelibra, so we have been keeping an eye out for any skin problems appearing, but fortunately that hasn’t happened. The feeding rate on the bag is quoted as 150-300gms per alpaca. We fed this to our geldings, initially at the lower rate, 150 gms per head, which was not enough for them, as they lost some condition: 300gms is just about right. The non-pregnant females were given 150gms twice a day, and they mostly went up over 2 months to condition scores 6 – 7 out of 10, so their total has been adjusted to 250gms per day. The total of geldings and non-pregnant females solely on the Aztec silver is 150, and just among these 150 alpacas we have made a saving of 1/2 ton feed per week, which makes a significant cash saving. All were previously given Camelibra, with the females also having Fibregest.
Our large group of pregnant females were given 100gms/head of Aztec Silver mixed with 70g Camelibra per head each morning. Then in the evening they were given 150g/head of a new high protein (up 4%), no starch version of Growell’s Fibregest. The result is that individuals are generally either maintaining or gaining condition this Winter: we have found it incredibly difficult in the past to put much condition on them during the winter even when we felt it was needed. Just a handful of the older (10 – 20 years old) girls are now at condition scores down to 4.5, but that is still better than previously. We are hoping that in maintaining a higher nutritional plane in the dams this year, we may achieve even higher follicular density in their crias. (Some research has been done on this)
Our male and female weanlings have remained together this Winter, along with a few old (high teens, early 20’s) open females, and they all seem to have enjoyed each other’s company. The whole group has been brought into the barn overnight; they seem to have had better appetites and have eaten lots of haylage. We have not given them sugar beet as in the past, but they have had large containers of fresh water each evening, instead of the self-filling troughs; We can expect this water to be warmer than the self-filling troughs out in the fields, and warmer water aids digestion, meaning that the alpacas can access more of the available nutrients in their food. All of this group have gained weight really well, even the old ladies. The past few years we had given the weanlings a top-dressing of soya meal, but not this year. The weanlings have been fed 50g Camelibra and 100g Fibregest/ head in the morning and 100g Fibregest/head in the afternoon.
The Winter has been drier than usual, and we have had about 5 weeks of very cold weather overall. Most of the herd – even the Studs and geldings – have been given supplements this year, in addition to daily minerals. The herd has generally eaten plenty of good quality haylage; in fact it’s seemed like one of those years they’ve eaten us out of house and home. Even though we have been feeding less minerals through Camelibra overall, we have not found any negatives to the new regimes, and we have had no worm issues. In fact, we now know how to put weight on quickly if we need to. To complete the picture, our Studs have been given 80g/head camelibra plus Aztec Silver at 100g /head.
Please note that our feeding regimes are always based on the results of regular condition scoring. Another farm may need to feed different amounts of supplements, as there are so many variables to consider, such as the area and condition of available grazing, the protein value of the hay/haylage available, whether alpacas are housed or not, the weather and even the temperature of their drinking water.
Featured Stud: Bozedown Achilles is an outstandingly genuine light fawn Stud. Sired by Trojan of Bozedown, and with Galaxy of Bozedown his dam Bozedown Sahara’s Sire, he very quickly proved himself as prepotent…. his crias not only exceeded our initial expectations, they are simply superb! Peas in a pod and the spitting image of their sire! His progeny also inherit their sire’s residual fineness, a highly desirable trait. From his first fleece at 15.7 microns (with SD2.9), this had only risen to 18.7 microns by age 5, and he is maintaining his fineness. Achilles is a good-looking, compact male with an exceptional soft-handling fleece, brilliantly bright and with superb density. A Double Supreme Champion himself, Achilles progeny produce a steady stream of outstanding show results. Incidentally, Achilles’ dam Sahara was Champion fawn female at both the South of England Show and the British Alpaca Futurity in 2008.
At the 2016 Alpaca Classic auction, Achilles daughter Bozedown Delphi was selected by the discerning purchaser of the Sweet Sixteen’ Breeders’ Selection Lot. Delphi went on to win the Champion Light Huacaya ribbon (from among all the male and female 1st place show winners) at Alpaca Showtime in October 2016 for her new owner: our sincere congratulations to Barbara and Paul Hetherington of Beck Brow Alpacas.
If you are keen to get hold of Achilles’ genetics, he is standing at Stud again this year, and we also have some progeny of his which might suit your requirements, or females pregnant to him………..please just ask as they may not be on our sales list.
N.B. Shearing. We have some spare capacity with our shearers, so contact us if you would like us to fit your alpacas into our shearing schedule.
We were sad to hear from the BAS that there has been a confirmed bTB outbreak in a large alpaca herd. It is a possibility we are all aware of, and take as much care as we can to avoid, with biosecurity etc. Therefore last year, and not without some trepidation, Bozedown Alpacas undertook voluntary routine bTB surveillance as part of a scheme promoted by the industry and endorsed by Defra. Fortunately we tested clear, which was reassuring for us and our clients. We wish those farms involved in this latest outbreak a satisfactory outcome.
* What Is T-Sum?
’T-Sum’ is a method to determine when to make the first application of nitrogen fertilizer in spring. The ‘T-Sum’ value is the accumulated mean daily temperatures (in ° C) above zero, starting on January 1 (below-zero temperatures are ignored). For example, if the mean daily temperatures for a 5-day period were 6, 3, 0, 1, and -4°C, the ‘T-Sum’ total is 10. The ‘T-Sum’ concept assumes that rate of spring growth is related to accumulated mean temperature.