Milk thief caught on camera!

I mentioned in the blog that the little Killawasi cria, Minna, had been seen stealing (there is no other word for it folks, she is a thief) milk from a mother that was not her own.

Sue was out in the field whilst I was up at Baydon on Saturday and captured the little miscreant in the act. The brown mum in the picture is Avon Water Monique and her cria is the little fawn girl, her owner hasn't come up with a name for her yet so we call her Nonni (as in Nonni no name) The white cria is the little Killawasi girl, Minna and is caught bang to rights.

From the front.

And from the back.

No further questions, the prosecution rests m'lud.

Both cria are doing well and Minna is also feeding from her own mother who has plenty of milk (not surprising) so we will just let them get on with it for now.

I have just been reading through Ian Watt's presentation on the SRS fibre follicle testing thingammyjig. It's a good job I can remember some of his explanations as reading it quietly to myself gave me a headache. It really is very interesting in a sort of anorakish way. It makes sense in that the people who take note of it are going to be ahead of those who ignore it, in my opinion. However, I have been trying to work out what it means in real terms to someone like me.

We have so far chosen to go down the coloured alpaca route. Initially our decision was because we liked the colours. We still do. Not only that but we believe there is a bright future for coloured alpaca fleece.

In our first year we chose the stud males to breed from based entirely on colour.

In our second year we again chose based on colour but were now also looking at fleece density and crimp. We were learning stuff you see.

This year we are giving it more thought and are basing decisions not only on colour but also on conformation, fleece density, crimp, fineness and coverage. I certainly have a vision about what I want the mighty Patou herd to look like in ten years time. Yes, good people I am a visionary! Well you must know what I mean.

Anyway the talk by Ian Watt has given me even more to think about now. So much so that I think my brain is dusting itself down after years of humming quietly to itself and is warming up.

I think my brain might actually start to become useful once more. If my brain was called Gordon I would be able to hear the booming voice of Brian Blessed shouting incredulously 'GORDON'S ALIVE!!!!' Cue Queen soundtrack, air guitars, big hair, and space rockets.

Perhaps I should just encourage it to humm quietly after all. I had better go and lie down for a while.

Thanks for those who have asked about Lily and her unborn cria. She is still unborn (it will be a she as Lily can do no wrong) and Lily is looking very wide and very bored. However, we now have a new game here. We are no longer playing 'waiting for Lily to have her cria' no, no that is far to depressing. No, we are now playing 'watching Lily not having a cria'. It is so much better as there is no expectation of anything happening so we are not disappointed on a daily basis. When we eventually see a nose and some feet we will quickly revert to playing 'waiting for Lily to have her cria' and oh it will be so much fun.