Both are very nice, take a look! More are due soon!
Baby alpacas at Newaukum Creek
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Thursday, July 22, 2010
New alpaca babies at Newaukum Creek
July 13th brought us 2 new alpaca babies.
1 male out of LCA Viho and one female out of NWA Flash.
Both are very nice, take a look! More are due soon!
Baby alpacas at Newaukum Creek
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Both are very nice, take a look! More are due soon!
Baby alpacas at Newaukum Creek
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Alpaca Shearing
It's that time of year once again. Alpaca shearing at Newaukum Creek Alpacas came and went.
Once again our shearer managed to get through 22 alpacas in 3 1/2 hours!! Just under 10 minutes per alpaca!! No they didn't look like hell, they looked very nice, only needed a slight touch up here and there!
Now the work begins, fiber samples to be sent in for testing, show blankets to be skirted, fiber to be sorted and sent for processing...
Got fiber???? We do!!! Call us if you want some raw, spun or finished goods.
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Pere Ubu before and after shearing
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010
CABA Classic 2010 Report
Once again another great show is behind us. CABA Classic was a level V halter show and a level III fleece show this year. The fleece show had 200 fleeces entered and the fleece judge commented on how many extremely nice fleeces were entered.
So, onto how we did...
LCA Zurie was once again the show stopper! She brought us home 2 first place ribbons and a special award of best lock.LCA Ochichi brought us a 2nd place in the Produce of Dam production class.
Cortez brought us home a 5th place in the halter show and taught us a valuable lesson.
I took him in the ring and was surprised when he started acting up really badly. Normally he's one of our easiest to handle and will simply stand there quietly when you handle him. However this time he was pulling and going around in circles. He absolutely would not cooperate. On leaving the ring we went straight back to the pen and we found out why. He had to use the bathroom so badly he was panicking and he refused to go in the ring. Can't say I blame him with all those people watching!! :)We were finished showing and on the road by early afternoon. It's always good to get back home.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Alpaca Western Extravaganza
Once again another great alpaca show has come and gone. It was an exciting weekend at the Alpaca Western Extravagana in Ridgefield, WA.
The show was held at the Clark County Event Center. Many large well established breeders were there which made for an exciting and competetive show. AWE is a difficult show to ribbon in due to the number of outstanding alpacas present. You're always up against stiff competition in the ring.
So enough of that.. how'd we do? We decided to only show 3 of our younger suris at AWE this year as well as 2 fleeces in the fleece show. Here are the alpacas and the results:
LCA Zurie - 1st place, Best Luster, Best Lock - Fleece Show
Ricaro - 3rd place fleece show
Cortez - 3rd place halter show
Vallejo - 3rd place halter show
There it is... next stop.. CABA!
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
The show was held at the Clark County Event Center. Many large well established breeders were there which made for an exciting and competetive show. AWE is a difficult show to ribbon in due to the number of outstanding alpacas present. You're always up against stiff competition in the ring.
So enough of that.. how'd we do? We decided to only show 3 of our younger suris at AWE this year as well as 2 fleeces in the fleece show. Here are the alpacas and the results:
LCA Zurie - 1st place, Best Luster, Best Lock - Fleece Show
Ricaro - 3rd place fleece show
Cortez - 3rd place halter show
Vallejo - 3rd place halter show
There it is... next stop.. CABA!
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Sold our Tuco Today
Tuco gets a new home. Congratulations to Kaylee Davidson!
Tuco has been a very nice alpaca to have around our farm. Very calm personality and good with the other alpacas. Tuco is a very nice Peruvian Glacial Storm son.
I'm sure he'll make a great addition to his new owners herd and we wish him and his new owners all the best.
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
... halter training continues and hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures and update my previous post soon!
Tuco has been a very nice alpaca to have around our farm. Very calm personality and good with the other alpacas. Tuco is a very nice Peruvian Glacial Storm son.
I'm sure he'll make a great addition to his new owners herd and we wish him and his new owners all the best.
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
... halter training continues and hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures and update my previous post soon!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Halter Training Young Alpacas
Show season is upon us!
Normally alpaca breeders will begin halter training quite some time before an upcoming show which they plan on attending. However as we all know, time slips away!
We've found that halter training can actually be lots of fun and doesn't have to be overly stressful on the young alpacas. It's really all about how you approach it. Make it fun! Some important factors in halter training are...
1. Reinforce good behaviour with a reward. We keep a handful of treats (orchard grass pellets or grain) in the pocket and give them a small nibble everytime they take a step in the right direction. It's really amazing how fast they learn.
2. Keep the training sessions short. We never work with any one alpaca more than 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Work in an aisleway not out in an open pasture. If you have a large enough barn, plan on walking them up and down the barns aisleway.
4. Make sure their halter is fitted correctly. This is very important! They won't behave if it isn't.
5. Be patient! Dont' get mad and when they misbehave, just give them plenty of lead and wait till they calm down, then begin again. You might even end up with one that takes off vertically like a bottle rocket the first time the halter is put on him. Dont' get discouraged, just be calm and let them bounce around until they calm down which they will. Remember, with some you might not see any real progress until after several sessions.
Also remember to keep them away from posts or other things which they can hurt themselves on while they're jumping about.
For the most part alpacas are very intelligent and will get it pretty quickly.
How about some halter training pix? I'll try to get some during upcoming sessions and add them to this post. Stay tuned!
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Normally alpaca breeders will begin halter training quite some time before an upcoming show which they plan on attending. However as we all know, time slips away!
We've found that halter training can actually be lots of fun and doesn't have to be overly stressful on the young alpacas. It's really all about how you approach it. Make it fun! Some important factors in halter training are...
1. Reinforce good behaviour with a reward. We keep a handful of treats (orchard grass pellets or grain) in the pocket and give them a small nibble everytime they take a step in the right direction. It's really amazing how fast they learn.
2. Keep the training sessions short. We never work with any one alpaca more than 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Work in an aisleway not out in an open pasture. If you have a large enough barn, plan on walking them up and down the barns aisleway.
4. Make sure their halter is fitted correctly. This is very important! They won't behave if it isn't.
5. Be patient! Dont' get mad and when they misbehave, just give them plenty of lead and wait till they calm down, then begin again. You might even end up with one that takes off vertically like a bottle rocket the first time the halter is put on him. Dont' get discouraged, just be calm and let them bounce around until they calm down which they will. Remember, with some you might not see any real progress until after several sessions.
Also remember to keep them away from posts or other things which they can hurt themselves on while they're jumping about.
For the most part alpacas are very intelligent and will get it pretty quickly.
How about some halter training pix? I'll try to get some during upcoming sessions and add them to this post. Stay tuned!
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Monday, February 1, 2010
Raising Alpacas On A Budget
Alpaca breeding is a high dollar industry and unfortunately many small to medium sized farms are having a difficult time given the current economic difficulties. So, we're thinking.. what can we do to help out. Why would we want to help? Does the success of other farms affect us? Of course it does.
Everyone in this industry is relying on it's continued growth. When I say growth I mean primarily as a fiber industry (which it is) and also growth in terms of new breeders coming on board.
Beside the purchase of breeding males and females, the next big ticket item are breedings themselves. This is where cost sometimes affects good judgement. Good high quality breedings are not cheap but trying to save a few bucks and breeding to inferior males will be far more costly to a breeder in the long run! If you can't afford a high quality breeding then you're better off leaving your dam open for the season until next year.
As a breeder with focus on quality and improvement, we have only ever bred our dams to males with the genetics you expect for the several thousand dollars the breedings cost. The results have been very positive indeed!
So back to the original questions. We've answered 2 of them but how can we help. As a new direction to our breeding business we've decided to make 2 for 1 breedings a permanent facet of our business. This will significantly reduce the costs for small farms on a budget and at the same time give them the quality they must have. We're still working out the details but basically: buy a breeding and get a "paid in full" receipt for a second breeding to the same or different male. The second breeding can be used immediately or any time within the next 12 months.
This year we've added 3 outstanding males to our herdsire program. These are males we will be breeding our own dams to as well. We also have several junior herdsires in our lineup for next season.
These are males with Accoyo genetics and have been sired by some of the best in the country! More to come...
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Ricaro - Accoyo America Triumph son (14 microns)
Everyone in this industry is relying on it's continued growth. When I say growth I mean primarily as a fiber industry (which it is) and also growth in terms of new breeders coming on board.
Beside the purchase of breeding males and females, the next big ticket item are breedings themselves. This is where cost sometimes affects good judgement. Good high quality breedings are not cheap but trying to save a few bucks and breeding to inferior males will be far more costly to a breeder in the long run! If you can't afford a high quality breeding then you're better off leaving your dam open for the season until next year.
As a breeder with focus on quality and improvement, we have only ever bred our dams to males with the genetics you expect for the several thousand dollars the breedings cost. The results have been very positive indeed!
So back to the original questions. We've answered 2 of them but how can we help. As a new direction to our breeding business we've decided to make 2 for 1 breedings a permanent facet of our business. This will significantly reduce the costs for small farms on a budget and at the same time give them the quality they must have. We're still working out the details but basically: buy a breeding and get a "paid in full" receipt for a second breeding to the same or different male. The second breeding can be used immediately or any time within the next 12 months.
This year we've added 3 outstanding males to our herdsire program. These are males we will be breeding our own dams to as well. We also have several junior herdsires in our lineup for next season.
These are males with Accoyo genetics and have been sired by some of the best in the country! More to come...
cheers,
Newaukum Creek Alpacas
Ricaro - Accoyo America Triumph son (14 microns)
Pere Ubu - MSA Hemingway's Tequila son
LCA Kharuso - Snowmass Grand Marnier son
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