Livestock

As the year returns to the season of growth and birth, the focus on the smallholding returns to the livestock. First to hatch from the new incubator is this multi-ethnic community of goslings and chickens.

The alpacas have been spat off (pregnancy tested) after the long winter. Poppy and Olivia are still pregnant, although Olivia's body condition needs to be carefully monitored, as last year it turned out she had lost her pregnancy and by the time we found out she had become obese. Bess unfortunately has lost her pregnancy again over the winter, and has had to be mated again. I am less concerned about Bess than Olivia as the one cria she did have she looked after well, and she maintains herself in decent condition even if she isn't pregnant, but if she continues to have these issues and Olivia continues not to produce enough milk for her cria when she's in better condition, both of them will have to be axed from the programme and sold as pets, as reproductively unsound animals have no business being in a livestock breeding programme.

We also have a new stud male, Marius, who is joining our other two males Trident and Costa. Marius is a suri alpaca, which is a different fleece type to the alpacas we currently have (huacaya). The suri fleece is caused by a single dominant gene, so we are hoping to have some suri cria from Marius next year.

Marius

Thanks Trident, but really this was supposed to be a picture of Costa