All done in Meppel,and the jobs a good un!

Whoopy Daisy done great as the happy organisers signify, congratulations to the organisers, thanks to the stewards and exhibitors for another great alpaca showcase. WD off to bed now as she is falling asleep in her ice cream...

Mrs Judge at the Alpaka Show Meppel...Holland

Well here we are in deepest Holland with Shirley judging 140 alpacas at the Alpaka Show Meppel and me acting as companion animal. Great to meet new friends and old here in a Holland in a lovely setting bedecked with trade stands- some Alpaca  some not but obviously enough of a draw as the crowds have been rolling I since about 10am. Here's a few snaps of Mrs TOFT Judge strutting her stuff in a very competitive turn out.

Shirley at Olympia with the British Alpaca Society at the Farm Innovation Show...

5 am the girl set off this morning with the trailer for Olympia where she is busy promoting Alpacas at the Farm Innovation Show for the next two days on behalf of the British Alpaca Society along with Gary Sanders of Popham Alpacas.

The girl will be tired tonight as she will have talked herself to a standstill today about our emerging industry and she had a lecture to deliver. 

This girl doesn't do ' Sparrowfart' easily so she was huffing and chuffing in the dark this morning as we were loading the alpacas and she will have run on adrenalin most of today.  The stand looks great. Apparently there has been a lot of interest throughout the day but I  hope they let her get to bed early the night or there won't be a lot left of her coming backup the M1 tomorrow! 

The glamour of Alpaca fleece judging... Alpaka show Ost

All an alpaca fleece judge needs is a big warm room, nice high table, detailed preparation, good organisation, a good scribe. Throw her a bun regular  and she can keep herself amused for hours. Does she care that we are in the beautiful town of Burgstadt in Germany? Not a jot. The world could end at noon and she'd not notice until the last fleece is scored and done.

Saturday and Sunday in the halter classes will be a different matter entirely Mrs Toft Alpaca Judge has 180 alpacas to judge in one and a half days. She is already behind before she starts at midday tomorrow but there's no rescheduling the ancillary events. It turns out she is also sharing the ring with a fashion show, fleece talks and various other presentations and alpaca attractions. The girl will have to get her skates on early doors to ensure the prizes are not awarded under floodlights on Sunday.

Nice big hall for the halter- the hut in the middle is the association office. It arrived first and the rest is set up around it. Nice scorecards too with the show branding. If the alpacas are as nice as the people it should be a great weekend.There is a lot more alpaca show here than I thought there was going to be and the enthusiasm and commitment is tangible - love it. Can't wait for the alpacas to arrive and the show to start. Somewhere on site this weekend there will be camel riding- what me? No I don't think so. I'll look like a bad version of Oliver Reed in Gladiator.

Toft Alpacas judging in Germany for ALPACA Association e.v.....

The Toft Alpaca judges were on tour this weekend in deepest Germany. Planes to Frankfurt, trains to Erfurt and taxis to a small country hotel in Germany this weekend with 100 alpaca fleeces to judge. This was the first ALPACA Association e.v. Fleece show which was a prelude to their association annual general meeting.

Naturally the show was well attended and thankfully the majority of breeders spoke some English which is just as well because Shirley and I have only a danke and auf wiedersehen between the both of us. The interpreters were fantastic and saved the day. 

Good fleeces all round, very fine with a notable lack of guard hair and fantastic 'keeper' rosettes. Supreme champ achieved 86 points and was a very well organised and consistent white intermediate fleece with a distinct lack guard hair and a good cutting weight. 

Great weekend, great people and Danke one and all for your generous hospitality from the Toft Alpaca Judges - auf wiedersehen ....xxx

Alpaca judging action from the North Devon Show

Companion Animal in the frame...

Here's Shirley at the BAS AGM picking up a prezzy for being my supporting partner during the years  I was on the board of the BAS. As you can see my Companion Animal is not slack at getting in the limelight. 

Great Pick arrived yesterday thanks to the BAS. It's one for the archive.

All ready to go for the Northumberland Show

Here she is all presentable and professional for a day in the showring.

North Somerset Alpaca Show for Shirley today

Weathers good, judge is fed. Watch out Somerset here comes the judge!

Heart of England Alpaca Group Shearing and Showing Day

A terrific turnout of owners on Saturday at Toft for the Heart of England Alpaca Group Shearing and Showing day. 

 Shirley and I took members of the Heart of England Alpaca Group through an alpaca Shearing  and Showing day, focusing on preparation and organisation for shearing, skirting and sorting of Alpaca Fibre, dissecting and assimilating the practical application of the British Alpaca Society Shearing guidelines and shearing manual in relation to the realities of the UK. I know it doesn't sound like fun but it truly was. We had a lot of laughs and covered acres of  information and discussion as we shared our practical experience of the past 17 years with the attendees.

A great turnout and very reassuring to so so many new faces. Thanks for your attendance, good humour and patience and we hope you took away a lot more than you arrived with from the day and look forward to seeing you all again in future!

Young handlers at the BAS National Show 2014

In a welcome break for the judging of alpacas the young handler competition was held on the Saturday lunch hour with two separate classes, one for the young uns 3-7 and another for the older handlers 8-15. 

Shirley ran the younger class and Tim Hey from Inca Alpacas the older one. 

It was refreshing to see that all of the entrants knew their way around alpacas. All competitors walked and handled with confidence and with very little prompting even the youngest managed to answer intelligent questions on alpacas. Sometimes it's the cute factor which governs the winners and I must admit it was nice to see several first prizes handed out to the under 7's but the older handlers had to strut their stuff in style and be knowledgable about alpacas and were placed accordingly. The winner in the older group was Chloe Edwards from Mulberry Alpacas.

A lovely diversion and an important one we must encourage every opportunity to get the younger generations involved in our industry and much thanks Tim and Shirley for making it enjoyable for all.

Companion animal, moi?

The new British Alpaca Society Judge is taking the reversal in roles this weekend very seriously. Shirley and I are off to the Dundalk Agricultural show this weekend in Eire, where Shirley is judging her first alpaca halter show. 

She has been my loyal companion animal for the past ten years as I have judged alpacas all over the UK and Europe. This weekend we swop roles and I shall be hers.

 However I don't remember  Shirley ever carrying all the bags? There's obviously been a bit of a rule change now Shirley is qualified. Seems like the 'companion animal' has suffered a demotion to the role of Donkey or the new BAS Judge is pulling a fast one. I'll find out which as the weekend progresses!