Quarter House Alpacas
March 2009
At the time of writing (early March), we can definitely say that “the Spring is sprung, the grass is riz”, so the hay consumption will at last start to fall. Hosta has grudgingly accepted a reduction to two bottles a day, and after remaining a steady weight the first week, she is gaining again. We think we’ve worked out a plan for the fields for weaning, but not before Easter. Meanwhile we have been doing even more mathematical calculations; this time it’s vaccinations. We need to fit in Bluetongue vaccinations, followed by a 3-week gap before we can give anything else. This is because veterinary drugs are not tested on Alpacas (the market is too small) so we always have to leave safety margins. We also have to have give a second Bluetongue to the cria, then wait another 3 weeks, then everybody needs their annual Heptovac vaccination which must be done a minimum of 4 weeks before any of the mums give birth. If we add in a recent recommendation to give a liver-fluke drench, you can see that we have spent a lot of time studying the calendar. It’s a good job Jane is so well organised, but I never realised that farming involved so much maths.
Anyway we gave the first Bluetongue 2 weeks ago, when the weather was mild. It is arguable whether healthy Alpacas are susceptible anyway, but it is also claimed that the vaccinations have no ill effects. Maybe we just didn’t notice last year, but this time, the whole herd became very lethargic, made frequent trips to drink water, and hardly noticed even when we opened up a new field. This was quite worrying, and lasted for a few days with some of them, but eventually they all recovered. No wonder DEFRA is having trouble persuading farmers to take up the vaccine.
Another seasonal activity has started – halter training. We teach our Alpacas to walk on a halter and lead, (as llamas do when they go ‘trekking’). This helps calm their behaviour when handling them, and makes it easier to move them or restrain them when the vet wants to do something tricky. It is also good fun, and we walk them around the front garden and up steps, which helps them to learn to trust us. We also introduce them to our life-sized metal Alpaca statue made for us by a young sculptor from Hastings. They invariably spot it and go over and sniff it, so it must be pretty life-like. Of course the introduction to halter work is very gradual, and the cria are a long way from walks yet, but we still walk some of the older animals now and then to remind them how to do it, and that is definitely good fun.
Incidentally if you have missed any of the earlier episodes, and you have access to a computer, you can read them all at our website www.qhalpacas.co.uk, but not before they’ve been published in Outlook on Oxney of course.