New weavings

I have been re-focusing on weaving with alpaca.

I just took some really yummy feeling floor rugs off the loom, made from 100% alpaca rug yarn.

The black and grey wrap is also alpaca, handwoven and felted.

NS Farm Investment Fund

Last night we went to a meeting on the this years Farm Investment Fund (FIF) program that is sponsored by the provincial and federal governments agriculture departments. The fund includes money for business development, training, farm health and safety, environmental protection, energy efficiency/sustainability and farm improvements that relate to these areas. Funding is everywhere from 25 to 75% of the cost to get the work or equipment done.

Last year we used the fund to help cover the costs of our protection from predator fencing, website development, and bringing water to the barn. This year we hope to utilize some of the funding for training (internet marketing, fleece sorting course), manure handling and storage, runoff control from buildings, and a nutrient management plan.

Good news that we got last night was that new start up farms now how five years instead of three to reach the gross revenue goal of $10,000 per year.

For more information go to the following website: http://www.gov.ns.ca/agri/prm/programs/fifguide.shtml

Alpaca East Group

Now that winter is here. Lets try to get this going again

Mayflower 2009

The Mayflower Show in PEI this year is the weekend of May 9 and 10. As it takes some effort to put on a show, Heather and crew are looking for more volenteers. Here is the link to the website.

http://mayfloweralpacashow.homestead.com/

I learned lots at it last year and Rocaro Alpacas will be entering. See you there.

Pacafiesta Male Champion

Pacafiesta Female Champion

Pacafiesta Pictures

Pacafiesta a success

Thanks to Oona and all the others envolved in the organization of Pacafiesta. We had a great time and learned lots. I will post a few pictures later in the week.

Pacafiest starts on Friday

Hopefully see you all there

Hi Rob, great looking animals you've purchased .I noticed your male/female ratio is a bit dismal. Chin up though, chances are next year it'll be just the opposite . We were very lucky this year, had 5 births and only 1 male, pretty happy about that. Hopefully next year won't be the opposite for us !!
I noticed when looking at your photos that you have been trying to get your males to eat from your hand ? You might want to re-think that strategy. They can get pretty " food aggressive" after a while, especially when you approach them without any 'treats ".. it could cause you some grief down the road. I tried the same thing, and mine got pretty cocky, especially one male who wouldn't take no for an answer, especially when I was carrying the feed bucket to the trough.. he got quite pushy... just a thought . Bob

Hey everyone.. who can tell me if and how I can identify who is who on the blog ? I look at the names of members, but can't tell who they are if I don't recognize them automatically. For instance, if someone is looking at Gladstone, how would they know that it;s me ie; Bob Biggar ? Thanks

Mayflower best in show 2008

Congrats to Peter Woodyear of Alpaca House Farm near Berwick NS

Mayflower show pictures

Found these pictures so thought I should post them.

Ivomec - Deworming shots (how often?)

How frequently do you give ivomec or equivilant deworming shots?
	Monthly
	Quarterly
	Semi-annually
	Annually
	Do not give preventative treatment
pollcode.com free polls

Alpacas looking for a possible ride

Caroline and I are planning to bring our two males to Pacafiesta but have not yet acquired a trailer to transport them. If anybody bringing alpacas to Pacafiesta from New Brunswick, PEI or northern Nova Scotia and has room for two alpacas for the last hour to Halifax (we are located off highway between Truro and Halifax), we would love to hear from you. While we may have purchased a trailer and received it by September 25th, I would like to have a back up plan.

PACAFIESTA

Reminder to get you registration forms in for Pacafiesta. For your farm name and animals to be printed in the program the registration needs to be submitted by August 19th.

See you all there.

Having login issues

Your username for the blog is actually your email address you used to set up your account. Thus your displayed name is your penname. IE Wildwolf, Magnum. Hopefully this helps others who have had problems logging on to the blog. I will try to post the suggestions for the Blog mission statement later this week.

Sillage verses bales

Glad to see we are starting to get more people signing up. The more who contribute the better this will work.

My question is in regards to Hay. Traditionally most farmers have baled their hay, either small squares or the large round bales. While most alpaca farmers have used the baled hay method has anybody tried using the sillage method that many cattle and dairy farmers are now using. Sillage method is when the hay is cut and then within a day (so the hay is still green and full of moisture) the hay is collected, cut and then wrapped in plastic. This provides green feed in the winter months. While this works for cattle, do/will alpacas eat this form of hay. With Nova Scotia's coastal weather it is often hard to find 4 rainless days in a row at this time of year to get your good crop of hay cut and into the barn.

Joining the Blog

Some of my original emails have been ending up being selected by spam filters so you may have not received the first set of instructions. I have posted the basic instructions here now. The most important thing is to recognize that an invitation from "wildwolf" in your email box is from Alpaca East.

A couple of notes on joining the Alpaca East blog.

Invitation will come from my online name "wildwolf"
Click on the link
Select create new account (assuming you do not have one)
enter email address, password, and penname plus type the letters in the security image
once accepted you will be prompted to enter your password and accept wildwolf invitation to join the Alpaca East blog.
Google will also send you an email to confirm your account set up. You need to click this link as well.
Go to the Alpaca East blog http://alpacaeast.blogspot.com/ and click the sign in link at the upper right hand corner.
enter your email address and password (plus security image letters if asked)
click on new post and you can pose a question or comment.
Send me your farms web address and I will post it on the blog.

Heartworm

Do we need to worry about heartworm for Alpaca's like we do for dogs?

Hey Rob... this seems quite user friendly !! Oreo looks great. We have had 4 babies so far this year,( 1 male & 3 females ) with 1 more due any day. All by our white stud Chino, and not a white among them !! He seems to be throwing color when bred to color, which is great

Welcome to ALPACA EAST

Alpaca East association is a group of Alpaca breeders and owners who reside in the provinces New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Our preliminary meeting was held at the Mayflower Show in May 2007. Attendees of this meeting then followed up by email suggestions for a group name and mission statement. On June 12th, a group of us decided on the Alpaca East moniker by conference call. The other order of business decided was to set up this Blog.

The purpose of the blog is two fold. One, to help facilitate in the organization of the Alpaca East association and, two, provide a forum for members to pose and answer questions. The advantage of the blog is that you can communicate at any time to the entire group without cluttering every one's email and is local. If you have not used a blog before here are the initial steps.

1. You will receive an email inviting you to participate in the blog.
2. You will be required to create a log in. Your login is an email address and password so is easy to remember. You will also be asked for the name you would like for your posts signature. This can be pseudonym.

Once signed in you can now blog. Blogging main actions are posting an new subject, question or thread and commenting or responding to an existing post or thread. To comment, go to the bottom of the post and click on comment. This will change the screen and you can post your comment and see any other comments on the subject. If you want to make a new post on a different subject then follow the link at the top of the screen.

This blogsite does allow us to post pictures, videos, polls, web links etc. As a courtesy to those who only have dial up please keep your picture's file size small. If you can, no more than 200kb. your digital photo program will have a function to help you do this. For video's, I would recommend only posting a link to the video. I will set up two named links lists for now. One for members websites and a second for industry sites like Alpaca Canada and CLAA. Please email me directly your own website or other industry suggestions. A third list will also be set up titled labels. This will allow us to organize similar topics into groups like health, shearing, shows, association issues, etc. If you click on this link it would only bring up threads with this label assigned. This function will be more useful as the blog grows. A monthly archive is also kept.

The more active participants the blog has the better the blog becomes. Happy Blogging and welcome to Alpaca East.