And this afternoon it will be Assembly

10 small Hayracks rocked up today to take their place in the new TOFT quarantine area. Every alpaca family staying for mating will have their own little hay bar!

Girlie class of 15 coming out to play early....?

It's been a very dry summer so far here at TOFT and although it may not have done the hay making much good (we've still got yo see how much we get at the end of this week) the alpacas have loved it. The young girlies of 2015 are maturing fast and there's half a dozen of these elite maidens who may well become women by the end of the season. Good weight, good size and starting to show interest ....we normally leave it until the second year but these girls seem determined to change that policy this year....we shall see.

Not an alpaca in sight ....but what a treat.

Shirley and I have been stopping out over the weekend celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary in a small Country Inn in Borrowdale in God's own country. We certainly knew we were a long way from Toft when at 7.10 am Saturday I was awoken by two or three hundred herd wicks trundling past my bedroom window. Same again. Monday morning and blow me when we were leaving at 10a, another two hundred blocked the road. The shepherds are gathering them off the hill and bringing them down for shearing. A sight to behold, a noise to relish as the colours of the fells ran past in all their glory. Thankyou one and all for a magnificent welcome and good to know all is well in God's Own.

Surprise surprise !!!

One of our clients who has three alpacas in our quarantine facility for mating was pleasantly surprised last week when her grey female gave both to a lovely little grey girl... These things can happen. Apparently she had discovered an abortion in her herd over winter and now realises that she had attributed it to the wrong female...'Twas ever thus. An unexpected grey girl enabled her to get over any embarrassment very quickly- congratulations!

Finally we get to the finish..

Finally we have knocked in the last staple fixed the last gate latch and crimped the last wire joint on the new TOFT quarantine paddocks. The new area is self contained, consists of 17 small paddocks enabling the visiting females to live as their own family group separated by a paddock either side from the other families in quarantine. They can all see each other but the only contact they make with another alpaca during their stay at TOFT is whilst mating with their chosen male. 

No system is ever perfect but this is pretty robust. Coupled with the existing 15 other quarantine paddocks at TOFT it gives us a minimum of 32 options to maintain strict  bio security for our visitors females during mating.  

Floodlights on for extra time at TOFT

Our Champion girl TOFT Nashira  had a sticky time yesterday evening  finally giving birth at 7.45pm producing a stunning fawn LAVENDER PARK TULLEY  boy TOFT TYPHOON. All well in the end but the trauma required a few stitches so the vet was called off the bench in Towcester floodlights erected and extra time was played until 10pm.  All well this morn and the boyo looking very impressive blissfully unaware of the effort his Mum put in to get him here. 'Twas ever thus.

Doing what you must to thwart the bad boys...

Putting the final touches on the new TOFT quarantine paddocks and doing what I must to keep the bad boys from stealing the kit. We mark all the moveable kit with the TOFT herd prefix. Does it work? Maybe...The upside of sharing the farm with the public is the way the people have adopted our alpacas and take a keen interest in the alpacas and the general well being of TOFT. The downside is occasionally a bad un turns up and walks off with some kit...'twas ever thus. 

TOFT TIMOGEN has a new extended family

Shirley and I are delighted to announce that, after much interest being expressed ,we have now agreed to share ownership of our Champion Brown Male TOFT TIMOGEN with Mark and Sue Steele of Patou Alpacas, Ron and Linda Mackintosh of Redens Alpacas and Tracy and Tim Hey of Inca Alpacas. We thank them for their confidence in investing in our hard work and look forward to working closely with them to develop the future career of this stunning young male. 

This is very much a first for TOFT after breeding alpacas for 18 years but we are very excited to be embarking on this next stage of our alpaca adventure in working with discerning breeders to get our elite genetics creating as much fine fibre as possible to satisfy the ever increasing demand for luxury UK Alpaca Fibre.

TOFT Timogen will work close to home this season with his new owners and will be available for service next season- book early to avoid disappointment.

TOFT TIMOGEN is a fourth generation male  out of our Champion female TOFT NASHIRA ( daughter of BARRBINDA FLINDERS STAR ) and our other co-owned male LAVENDER PARK TULLEY currently resident at TOFT and available for service.