TOFT Suris glow too, you know!

Yes, they do and the winter sun really does a job on their lustre...We have a very select prizewinning  Suri Herd at TOFT which is always worth a look at if you are passing. The Cornflower Cafe is open Wed-Sunday and offers some of the best Cappuccino and Cake in the Midlands!

Alpaca showing: a remarkable haul of Toft rosettes

Now that's what I call a lovely haul of alpaca prizes. The Heart of England Alpaca Fiesta last weekend gave us the best and most consistent results ever in our sixteen years of Alpaca breeding. We have won supreme champions before, we have taken quite a number of championships on various days, but in terms of consistency this showing recognised we have raised the bar right across the herd.
We showed 15 alpacas from five different males and 12 of our entries achieved rosettes. The total tally was one 1st, five 2nds, two 3rds, one 4th, two 6ths, and two championship ribbons.
The stud males range through the colours from mid brown, fawn, light fawn and white and their offspring certainly did them justice.
After 16 years of selective alpaca breeding we sense we are finally getting to that place where the pedigrees kick in and real strength in depth occurs,
We are expecting 50 births in the next few months and we can't wait to see what the next generation of Toft Alpacas has to offer. Watch this space!

Damp alpacas ?

Big disappointment yesterday at the Heart of England Alpaca Fiesta when after all our efforts Friday to keep our Show team dry we turned up at the crack of sparrows to find them damp!
No they hadn't been outside. It's just the weather has changed in the past few days from extremely dry to damp and the amount of moisture in the air has caused the finer alpaca fleeces to suck it up like a bath sponge. That's the downside when all our juniors are showing fleeces under 19 microns.
Effect? All our 17/18 micron fleeces on our show team felt wet which doesn't show off their crimp or their superb handle to its best advantage.
The result is that we probably took a lot more second prizes than we would on another drier day. Having said that we did great at the show. taking two reserve champions and lots of rosettes. Of the 12 alpacas shown by Toft yesterday we took 11 prizes. If only they had been dry who knows what we might have achieved.
Strategy? We will buy some fans for the National show which is in three weeks time and take our own wind with us to play over the young ones whilst they sit in their pens. At least this way we will have done everything we can to get them not the ring at their most impressive.
You've got to try everything when you are chasing the bling!!