BARN NEWSLETTER 7
 The Pucara Team |
SHOW SEASON Show season will never be the same again! Jude and I think its ridiculous how so many people get so uptight at show time. Yeah, it can be nerve racking...having some high and mighty judge tell you what your breeding program is like and its not always very favourable. Well we decided to lighten things up. Margaritaville at Pucara. Each night after showing the entire area around our pens...think like 20 feet by 60 feet, was full of a whole lot of alpaca freeloaders downing our special brew margaritas like a pack of thirsty dingos! It was a lot of fun. We met lots of new people. Even did some business which was what it really was about. Funny thing was that at our local show in the Northwest, the CABA show, security were not very impressed but they had to argue with about 60 very happy alpaca breeders who were not giving over the Tequila bottle and mix. We won. We apologised. The security guard got an empty bottle and we all had let off a whole lot of post show steam. The show season has been unbelievable for Jude and I and some of our customers. We are posting a show results list for the Barns next to the herd lists for your perusal a bit later on. But all the barns got amongst the ribbons. It has been interesting to feel the energy or lack of at the shows compared to other years. Earlier in the year at the Futurity in Kentucky the show seemed really dull although it is easily the most important of the year. As we told you at the barn meeting at Tim's the auction lacked any guts but still more than 70% of the lots sold at an average of over $16,000. Considering there was a lot of junk in there thats not too bad. Besides that we had a great show. In fact the barns were amongst the ribbons with Barn 2 suri female, Coco Ho, getting a first in the juvie whites. Barn 3 suri males Pipeline got a second next to the eventual champion and Mazatlan got a first in the beige yearlings. Why is this so good? This is the toughest show in the country. These are just first generation alpacas! At our next show at CABA, the big Northwest show for WA, OR and CA we had more success....in fact Pucara International were unbeaten in the progeny classes ...we won the Get of Sire, THe Breeders Best Three, Bred and Owned Male yearlings and Produce of Dam.... they stopped clapping after a while!!!! Also Barn 3 huacaya male Javier won the mature male class in fawn, Mazatlan won the beige yearlings and Pipeline won the Reserve. We were staggered when Coco Ho from Barn 2 got the gate ( didn't get a ribbon) after winning at the Futurity in stronger competition. Thats showing and the nuances of having different judges. Next is the National show in Cleveland. Its the first time there and you always fear a new facility because you don't know if its animal friendly. You can bet it will be hotter than hell with humidity which is not good for the fine huacayas. The suris look great however because the humidity moistens the fleece and they sparkle and their fiber pencils up making them look superb. Its always a toss up if the facility will run their air conditioning or not. And the water is always a drama so we try and take our own. If the water pipes don't get much use bacteria builds up and the animals can easily scour ( get the runs) which in turn makes them dehydrate. We think we know how to handle it but you are always on tippy toe because once one alpaca gets the runs it spreads like...well you can imagine. The Nationals are from June 4-7 and are hosting the World Alpaca Conference where alpaca breeders from all over the world will visit and mingle. Jude and I are featured speakers at the conference so we'll be getting plenty of profile....and ribbons we hope. Update!! We just got news that Pucara Kahuna won The Futurity White and Light Herdsire of the Year, 2009. This is the most prestiguous award a farm can win and to consider we also won all the progeny classes at the 2008 Nationals with Kahuna kids last year it puts a premium on his progeny. The beaut thing about this is that Barn 2 & 3 own Kahuna kids and this award will sustain their value. Well, we're stoked and you should be too!
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A little corner at Muddy Valley Farm |
At Muddy Valley Farm It's birthing season again. Already we have 19 cria on the ground at the farm. Sharon regularly updates the website with the new cria and monthly on the herd list after they are born with their individual page. Just go to the table with the 2009 births for your barn and click on the animal names or tag to see pics. New lists in the next couple of days. I've lost count of the number of shows and weekends ( meaning four or five days) that Jude has been off judging. Plus many more weekends are spent running or hosting seminars, all in the effort to get people on farm or to visit our website. We are also hosting client appreciation days on our farm to express thanks to our exisiting clients and one good to remember is the Pucara Luau to be held here this summer. Its an overnight stay and guess what goes in the oven! Our marketing is slowly getting along. It got delayed a little with Adrian our man from Ashland having his house catch on fire! He was inside entertaining a lady friend when there was repeated shouting and banging on the front door. " Hey your house is on fire"! We are using a colleague of Adrians from the UK to revamp the website to help with the major search engines discovering it plus to make it a lot more interactive with users. It needed some freshening up although it is a very popular website in the industry. As I look out the window I see two foot long rich green grass that is starting to head out. Its been an awesome growing season as a result of warm wet weather and a lot of attention to weeding, liming and fertilizing the paddocks. But with the wet warm weather comes all sorts of bacteria and bugs. In fact Jude is in the barn right now drip feeding two young cria that have caught a bug that no test can diagnose despite repeated attempts. They are very weak and very dehydrated because of chronic diarrohea. Fingers crossed. One is a female we personally own that is the result of a lot of selective breeding over the years and is the best colored suri female we have ever produced. Such is life on the farm. Now listen up! We are expecting you all to get your plane fares and be here for shearing June 9-10. My favourite time of the year. Watching the fleece peel off the alpacas under those very sharp blades is a sight to behold. Watch your fingers! Whilst the alpacas bitch, moan and spit once they have their six minutes on the board they leave thankful for the ever so rude incursion. They are free of twelve months of fleece and do not have to endure the heat it produces any longer. It's rowdy. Its hot. Its dusty. Its hard work. Its a lot of fun as long as our Aussie shearer, Eddie, is not hung over! I also hate waking him up early after a night out to get him in the barn! Hope fully this year I'll find a paying market for all this fiber we have on hold. I've been researching a lot of avenues for it so time will tell. |
Typical pen set up at a show. |
The Industry Nothing much has changed since the meetings at Tim's. Sales are sluggish but just lately we have seen a new trickle of interest. I have a couple of small sales on the books so fingers crossed. It takes a lot more time these days to get them across the line. Jude and I came away from the meetings at Tim's thankful for everyone's participation and understanding. It was very helpful to sit and talk and get your feedback and learn from your perspective. We truly hope we can do it once or twice a year. We admit communication has been a little cockeyed but as I said at the meeting...we don't have a PR office...its me! We'll also try harder to get you involved and don't forget if you could manage to get along to the National show in Cleveland and give us a hand. I have well founded hope that this alpaca thing will be good for you all. At the top end still things do well. A friend sold a suri male for $75,000. I look like I have closed a $400,000 sale of huacaya herdsire males for Snowmass Alpacas to be exported to the UK . The deposit arrived! Tim and I see a little bit of mid level interest starting to appear. Time will tell and we are not going to die of not trying! |
Tim winning at the Futurity with CoCo Ho from Barn 2, despite looking so affable!!!
Tim's farm help, cook, secretary, psyhciatrist and soul mate, Anita looking much more friendly! By the way,Tim blamed his auto focus for the bad pic!!!!
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News from Beachwood Creek Farm
First, I want to thank all of those who were able to attend the Barn meeting on April 21st and 22nd. With all of the demands for everyone’s time, I know it was a commitment but the meetings were productive. As a follow-up, I have sent to everyone via email a summary of the discussion points and various attachments. If you didn’t receive it or were unable to open the attachments, please let me know and I’ll get a copy to you immediately.
Well, spring has arrived and we have been busy attending shows, shearing animals, fertilizing hay fields and getting the pastures, fences, etc. back into shape for summer.
We had all of the alpacas at our place shorn on May 16th . As you can see from the Events Page on my site, we opened the farm to the public both days.
It was a ton of work but thankfully our shearer has improved a bunch since last year and doubled his output. I think he was getting a bit annoyed with me because I didn't give him much of a rest between animals. As soon as he was done with one, I qued-up another and kept at it until we finished. We started at 9am and wrapped-up about 6pm.
While Al and Jude can boast numerous championships with their suris again this year, we had a decent year so far in showing our huacayas. In addition to attending the Futurity in Kentucky, we took a team of huacaya males to four shows this spring; the Indiana Alpaca Invitational; the MAPACA, Buckeye and PAOBA shows in May and we’ll be at the National show in Cleveland this June.
Our team consists of 4 juvenile males; Beachwood’s Diego (Bay Balck); Beachwood’s Iquito (Medium Brown); Beachwood’s Lorenzo (Beige); and Beachwood’s Calloa (White). The first three are from Snowmass Royal Ember and the white boy is from Snowmass Elite Reflection.
Placements at each of the shows were as follows:
Indiana Alpaca Invitational
Beachwood’s Lorenzo- 2nd Place-White Juvenile Male Beachwood’s Iquito- 3rd Place- Medium Brown Juvenile male
MAPACA Jubilee
Beachwood’s Lorenzo- 3nd Place-Beige Juvenile Male Beachwood’s Iquito- 4rd Place- Medium Brown Juvenile male
Buckeye
Beachwood’s Lorenzo- 3nd Place-Beige Juvenile Male Beachwood’s Iquito- 4rd Place- Medium Brown Juvenile Male Beachwood’s Calloa-3rd Place-White Juvenile Male
PAOBA
Beachwood’s Diego- 3nd Place-Beige Juvenile Male Beachwood’s Iquito- 4rd Place- Medium Brown Juvenile Male
While we would prefer 1st place and color champion awards, these boys are a 1st generation product of our breeding program which is encouraging given the size of the classes in attendance at each of the shows. We’ll continue to move up in the rankings as we extend the breeding effort into the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations. ( An editors note here from the big guy...Tim kicked some freckle for his first year showing barn animals and considering his less than becoming profile in the show ring...see pic to the left ...he did real well...I mean you all did really well....as an aside Jude and I did a consultancy in Oregon on Friday...these people have owned and bred alpacas here since 2000...we were dismayed with the lack of improvement after nine years. But they actually got annoyed with us because we were honest which we have to be when analysing a herd. And they have been to many shows but just don't get why they keep getting the gate. No mentors!! To have achieved what the barns have in a short time is great.All we need now is economic recovery!!!)
Also, of note is the seminar series planned for this year. Please feel free to look at the offering posted on my web site and tell your friends a bout them. |
