A letter and the shed dwellers.

We received the letter from the BAS today as described by Bob in his blog. It takes a little longer to get to the south of the county obviously. Anyway I feel it would be remiss of me not to pass some sort of comment. I must admit I hadn't heard any rumour of this development but there is no reason why I should have done.

My initial reaction was 'Excellent news, well done, great for the good of the British market and great for Patou alpacas'.

I have, however, had time to reflect and have been sitting astride the intrusive fence for most of the day. I think I have now slipped off and landed on the same side as the BAS.
Well done to Graham and his band of merry men/women.

The way I see it is that the most important thing for the Uk alpaca 'industry' is for the quality to increase year on year and the numbers of alpacas to increase in line with that. I do see that there is the temptation to import cheap low quality alpacas into the country to make a few quid. I have seen, as we all have, alpacas that were imported and are absolute mingers, if you will excuse the term. That doesn't help the industry at all.

Will adding £2,000 to the registration of imported alpacas stop the importation of cheap sub standard animals? I don't know. I don't know what the mark-ups are from one country to another. I assume that the board do know those figures and have come up with two grand as it makes the importation of cheap alpacas unattractive.

I think the stud males and elite females that will help the industry will still come into the country and I expect that they will cost more when they are here. I think that even if they are priced higher they will continue to sell. People will always be prepared to buy quality.
Will it lead to a closed registry in time? I don't know. The Americans have a closed registry I understand. But then the yanks are all mostly bonkers anyway. Oops shouldn't have said that

Here at Patou we have a herd of british born and bred animals bar one. Dee is a 10 year old Chilean import who is absolutely gorgeous and produces lovely cria. We didn't import her and we haven't imported any alpacas. Actually I tell a lie, we imported three from Dorset when we started. Does Dorset count? Should do.
Anyway that's my opinion for what it's worth.

No onto the drivel section..........or have we just had that?

We have a field shelter here in Patouland, a field shelter that is used quite a lot as we only have the one. Little Reggie was born in there, anyone not very well goes in there and when the big boys come to stay they go in there whilst they are waiting for the girls to be sorted out. It is connected to our birthing paddock by a gate at the front and to our small husbandry/mating paddock by a gate at the side via a runway.
During the summer months it is used for shade and during winter it is used as a shelter from the wind and rain.
Sometimes I close it up for cleaning and give it a few days respite. Some of those alpacas, no name mentioned, seem to think it is a latrine. I have seen them walk across the field into the shelter assume the 'legs apart, tail up position' and let fly. Only to walk back out again afterwards.

I had given it a thoroughly good clean out prior to Reggies arrival as I thought that if he was born in bad weather a nice clean dry shed would be the best place for him.

Now that he has been born and is doing well the shed was not needed. However, I left it open and the usual crew of 'shed dwellers' are back in and spend most of the day there.

The black girls particularly like to take their cria in there. They lounge about chewing and soaking up the sun, it's a south facing shed. Dee our oldest female actually takes up residence at the back of the shed and doesn't come out. I literally have to go in and chase her out.

Ronnie and Reggie continue to thrive and are both happy for me to walk up and sit right next to them. Today they were kissing each other for ages. Someone told me alpacas don't lick, well maybe not but they certainly pucker up and kiss!

Decision time about matings

Firstly an update on the latest addition, the little Groove boy Reggie. He is in top form and seems to be thriving. His mum still looks a little shell shocked but we think she'll be fine.

Here he is with some of his new friends.

As I mentioned in the last blog we had the big boys here for a couple of days and they were kept busy. However, there is only so much they can do in a day and as a result we have some females that are still empty.

Sue and I discussed at length what the plan would be. Do we carry on mating into October and have births in September next year? Do we skip any more matings and wait until spring?

We have decided on the latter. Anyone not pregnant now will be kept empty until the spring. That could be as many as 6 of our girls but it is time to reset the mating clock.

I think we started to fall behind as a result of the foot and mouth outbreaks which meant we couldn't get access to males when we needed them. As a result everything was behind schedule and this year we had some late births. We have also had a higher percentage than usual of females not falling pregnant, I don't know why, just bad luck probably.

We are going to be mating Patou Poppy, Lola, Fifi and Lily in the spring. Bobby, the spittiest female we have is due to give birth in April so she will also fall in with the others.

I had to laugh when I was doing the spit offs with Jack.

Most girls performed as you would expect, a few seconds with Jack sniffing around orgling and they either sat or were saying 'Out, let me out!'

Bobby and her mother Priscilla were so different to the rest. I think I heard Bobby spit before he had even got out of the van.

I didn't put them in with Jack, I just ran them past him. I tell you, if looks could kill!

Both of them stared at him spitting as they walked slowly past. Jack, being a sensible fellow stayed at the back of the mating pen. He's not daft, he doesn't want to be covered in spit.

It was nice to see two of our girls so brilliantly pregnant.

Still ecstatic and now the big boys are here!

I am still a bit on cloud nine here after the events of yesterday.

Ronnie and Reggie seem in fine fettle, he is all fluffed up and although they are both a bit bloodstained they have been roaming the field as they should.
Ronnie seems to have taken to motherhood very well and Reggie is feeding well.
He is very inquisitive as shown by the below photograph.




He is also a mighty handsome little galloper!

Today also saw the arrival of two big boys who had come to stay for a couple of days. Whilst here they will be meeting some of the ladies in the herd.

They were kindly brought over by Trevor, father of Tracey, wife of Tim. Tracey not Trevor. Trevor is not Tims' wife Tracey is. I think I made that more complicated than it should have been. Anyway it was nice to see Trevor and chat over a cup of coffee.

Trevor said that he had never seen a more magnificent herd of alpacas than that of the Mighty Patou. He was somewhat awestruck and I think if he is honest with himself he will admit that it was probably a bit much to take in. I think as he gazed out across the gathered herd I saw a tear in his eye. It wouldn't surprise me if he did a little bit of wee in his pants. It does that to people you know. The Mighty Patou.

Well it is my blog you know, I can make stuff up if I like. Can't I?

The two big boys were Lillyfield Jack of Spades of Inca and Cambridge Major Baydon.


We have had Jack here several times before and I have rambled on about how good I think he is. He is stunning, a really super looking male, and a complete gentleman. He was soon put to work with spit offs and then some matings.
Afterwards, Jack, being familiar with his surroundings was not interested in posing for the camera, all he wanted to do was graze and poop. After a while I gave up.

The Major has never been here before and I have to say he looks terrific. He posed superbly for the camera, especially when Bob, our black cat, minced into the paddock. He didn't stay for long!


He is a young up and coming male and is very impressive indeed. He was here to mate with Milarka, a white australian female, daughter of the mighty Purrumbete Highlander.
I have to say Milarka, being a mature female, took a little while to succumb to his somewhat clumsy advances but the job was done in the end.

Tomorrow morning will be a couple more matings for Jack and then I will be taking him and the Major back to Inca headquarters.

This evening before bed Angus and I will be splitting some atoms, auditioning for the lead role in a West End play and completing our alternative theory of relativity. It's a cracker!

What a rollercoaster!

In my previous blog I wrote about Ronnie and the vet visiting yesterday.

This morning at first light I was up and out and homing in on Ronnie. Things had moved on, she was straining. She was very obviously trying to give birth. I reported back to Sue who carried out a quick internal examination and we realised that something was not right.

Instead of the hoped for nose and front feet Sue could feel something else which was either an ear or a tail. The vet was called it was 6.45am.

40 minutes later and the vet arrived. A breach presentation was diagnosed. The last thing we wanted to hear. There then followed a great deal of internal fiddling, pulling and head scratching. The vet told me that it was very likely that the cria was dead, she had not felt it move for sometime. She had managed to get one back leg out but the other was still tucked up under the body. She had a rope round it but the cria wasn't budging. We then went on to discuss the various options whilst we waited for back up to arrive.

The options, if the cria couldn't be pulled out, were not good. A caesarean, which could result in a dead Ronnie or cutting up the cria in order to get it out, hopefully resulting in a live Ronnie.

I wasn't overly keen on either option, but once the second vet arrived decisions were going to have to be made.

At this point in the day I was beginning to wish I was still alseep in the middle of a very bad dream. We were looking at another dead cria and there was a chance we could lose Ronnie as well.

The second vet, David, arrived. He had delivered the two still borns earlier in the summer. He got to work.

As he was lubing up we both saw the foot that was sticking out of Ronnies rear end twitch.

We looked at each other and I asked him if he had seen that foot move. He had but said it might have been due to a contraction.

It moved again. 'It's still alive' I said.
My somewhat low mood had surged upwards.

David was now going to work and bugger me if two minutes later he didn't pull out a lovely healthy male cria!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a fantastic, wonderful, bloody marvellous result!!!!

There were a few tears welling up in that field shelter I can tell you. I just couldn't believe it. From a scenario where we had a dead cria and were in deep pooh with the mother we went to the best possible result, all in about two minutes flat. My emotions still haven't quite caught up with me.
Ronnie was simply marvellous and just lay there without making much of a fuss about any of it. She couldn't have been any better.

Ronnie isn't owned by us so the name of her cria will ultimately be decided by his owner but we have affectionately named him Reggie.

Do you know what happened then. The sun came out. What a fantastic day!! Bring it on!!

In a bit of a dither.

We are in a bit if a dither here in the land of Patou. We have one female yet to unpack, Avon Water Veronique, one of the most gentle alpacas we have here.

She is one of those alpacas that remain virtually invisible within the herd. Never arguing with anyone, always calm, always behaving as a happy healthy alpaca should.

'Ronnie' is now eleven months pregnant and her behaviour today has changed. She is noticeably very pregnant and is mooching around like she is thinking about giving birth. She has been visiting the poo pile frequently, sometimes doing something, sometimes not. Sue was at home and was keeping me updated whilst I was at work. We have become a little hypersensitive about birthing after the two stillborns we had this summer so I came home early and after observing and umming and ahhing we called the vet, just to be on the safe side.

The vet came and checked her over. Ronnie was perfectly behaved and after examining her the vet said she thinks that things will start to happen within 24 hours but she is not ready yet.

So we are in a waiting game.

'Ronnie' is pregnant to Cambridge In the Groove and we are hoping that we are here when it arrives. A healthy cria is all that we wish for. With Ronnies looks and Groove's fab fleece the cria should be good.

Avon Water Veronique in full fleece.

Rumpy pumpy training session

Sue called me out into the garden this morning to watch some of the boys, being........well......being boys.

Jake who is our big white wether thinks that he is a stud male. We think he was castrated a bit late and he still thinks he has what was taken away. Subsequently every now and again he finds an empty female that smells right and gives him the wink and he starts orgling. It can be very useful and we have discovered a few 'empty' females due to Jake's behaviour.

Today he had found Avon Water Monique who is due to be visited by the big man Jack of Spades next week. I don't think he quite anticipated the help he was going to get from the young boys in the herd.

His orgling had also attracted the attention of Bannock our senior black girl and mother of my favourite alpaca in the whole wide world. Bannock came over and lay next to Monique. She was supposed to be pregnant so she will also have another liaison with Jack next week. Bugger.

Orchard Blackjack, Patou Jonah and Patou Alacazam all thought they would come over and help.

Jonah being the oldest and the biggest of the youngsters flapped around on top of Bannock who chewed patiently. I must say female alpacas are so sweet when they just lie there patiently, bless them. Jonah's little orgle was almost as loud as Jakes but he kept falling off and winding himself.

Jack and Al were beside themselves trying to help. They were jumping up onto everyone and orgling their little heads off. It was quite a noisy occasion.

In this last picture poor old Monique is completely pinned down, Jake is in the stud male position and immediately in front of him is Blackjack who has assumed the position on her neck and head.

Patou Lola came over as well. She seemed very interested and as she had refused to entertain Jack a couple weeks ago she looks like she might be ready for him when he visits next week, excellent.

I was slightly concerned not to see our little Killawasi boy joining in but then saw him some distance away trying to get a female down all by himself. Don't you just love it!

Happy days

Today is the first of a four day stretch away from the day job.

Today, tomorrow and Friday are my rostered days off and Saturday is an extra day so that Sue and I can take Angus and his best friend George for their first trip to Twickenham.

We are going up to see the Help for Heroes rugby match between an England XV and a rest of the world XV. There are plenty of international stars playing and it is all for a very worthy cause, supporting the brave men and women of our armed forces who fight in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm looking forward to it, it should be a good day.

Between now and then however, I have chores to do. I will be reacquainting myself with my strimmer and my poo sucker. There is a lot of work to do out there. The grass needs mowing again so hopefully the rain will hold off for a bit longer.

Lily has had her first two 8ml doses of Nuflor. She is on a 5 week course with a dose every 4 days. Hopefully it will stop the abscess growing any bigger and maybe even get it going the other way. I want it to go away, far away, Lily doesn't deserve it. It's not fair.

Hopefully, if I'm lucky I might be able to watch a bit of the Ryder cup which starts on Friday (are you reading this Sue?).

Other than that I will be sitting amongst the herd. Sue and I just love to wander out quietly and sit with them. They all come in close and munch away, some lie down, some sniff, some nuzzle, it's great. If you have alpacas you will be familiar with the experience. If you don't have alpacas, you seriously need to get some, you are missing out on something special in so many ways.