Alpaca stars emerging...

The new borns are starting to fill out as their secondary fibre comes through and it was such a magnificent evening last night that a few summer photies are a must at this special time

The last one has hit the deck...

That's it, finally one of our top Australian girls, Maggie Mae gave birth to a stonking girl to go some way to evening up the score for the season but the boys won hands down this year. Fortunately the cria are of such a high standard across the board we could have a lot of potential stud males for sale in the next few years. Still that's up the line a ways. All the girls are done and dusted and we can now take some time to enjoy the progeny in what has been a remarkable summer here at Toft.

The Bonny Browns

The finesse of the fawns...

The luxurious white and lights...

Brown & Black, a formidable combination...

An exquisite blend of Huacaya and Suri...

A kaleidoscope of cria....

With 22 categorised colours and every shade in between the alpaca offers a pallete of natural colour that is truly unique.

Fawn on brown a classic blend...

Too, too cute and perfectly formed...

Spot that pesky fly...

Majestic...

Magic!

Wanna be in my gang?

Hours of fun in every field- this is the elite Toft fawn and white gang

This way people- follow me...

What else does an alpaca owner do if he finds a spare hour on a lovely Sunday? He wanders out into the fields with his camera and sees if he can capture a a little bit of the alpaca joy he experiences daily.

Toft Crias getting to the hard stuff early...

It doesn't take long for the alpaca crias to start copying their mothers and each other. The young dark fawn alpaca female in the foreground is being bottle fed and of necessity is getting onto grass and hay very early. Never an animal to be left behind the other cria of course join in. 

True to type Alpacas work very much on the principle of- 'What's good for one is good for all!

This is a first...walking lessons.

After 17 years of breeding alpacas there is always something to surprise us... No, it's not the cut of my shorts!

 This young lady was found the other day not in the maternity paddock but in one of the prebirth paddocks. She was born a week or so early but wasn't particularly prem. She was probably born at sunrise and we found her tucked in a depression in the field around 11am. All dry, all fine except she didn't stand up. Then when she was placed on her feet she didn't seem to know where her legs were. Every time she went to move forward her back legs swing in front of her front ones and she tips back in an ungainly mess and lands on her bottom.

Only one solution. So here I am teaching her to walk. Forgive the shorts I am well aware it's not a great look. This light touch harness cobbled together from a lead rein stuffed through the support strap of her cria coat kept her on her feet long enough for her to gain some awareness of where her legs were and how they might work. A couple of ten minute sessions and she was getting herself up on her feet- so it works.

Each day she gains a little more confidence but she remains a bit 'special'. It's a worry and we can only hope that she will improve enough to be productive, we shall see. Mum is attentive but cria seems disinterested so is not feeding off her, We are bottle feeding the cria and she is doing real well. However she is still sometimes a bit wobbly on her feet and seems to wander off from her  mom far too often. She is walking and running on her own now but she wouldn't win any prizes for style!

Shiny new born Suri glowing in the sun...

Aren't we all on this fine day... This wee girl was born a week or so early yesterday but has now found her legs and the sun. She and the other three earlies will be the stars of the show over the next few days for the customers of the Cornflower Cafe which pops up Thursday to Saturday in the Toft Studio for Coffee cakes , light lunch and lots and lots of alpaca chat! 9am-4am and as delightful as this wee girl!

Happy Easter surprise...

Came across the first Toft Alpaca cria of the season yesterday morning during my rounds. Unexpected to say the least at four weeks early. With a cold wind raking the hill the cria had been on  the ground about an hour when I found him. He was freezing and floppy and struggling to hold up his head. He's a big lad and I have the felling it had been a long labour as he seemed exhausted,as well as cold. A quick run to the shed do get mother and baby out of the wind and the challenge began in earnest. 

An hour later with the hair drier working like a Trojan he perked up a little but not a lot. I managed to get some colostrum down him and a coat on him to keep the wind out. In short bursts throughout the day as he warmed up  I managed to get some more milk down him until eventually  he  managed to stand. Overnight thankfully he started to feed from Mum and today although he's not exactly running around with the joys of spring he is happy on his feet and feeding regular and getting stronger by the hour. Needless to say I didn't get a lot of me 'busy jobs' done yesterday.

 I know it's tempting fate but I think he's over the hump now. However he'll be a touch lonely for ge next few weeks as the rest of his 60 colleagues are not scheduled to arrive for another three weeks.

Bottle feeding a premature alpaca

EBit of a surprise this week when Toft Linseed not due until the 17th of August suddenly went into labour and produced a wee brown girl only 4.06 kg. She's perfectly formed if a little weak but feeds off mum. She was however a little too weak to stand and feed for too long. So we have kept her penned outside and in all week to save her walking too far to Mum. Kept a coat on her to preserve what little energy she has and we have been supplementing her natural food with the bottle. And....? Well it's still early days. So early in fact that we don't dare give the wee girl a name. But she seems to be getting stronger and is standing longer and his morning when I checked her early doors she had a full tummy. So things are looking good but I feel it will be some time before we can chance our arm and give her a name. If she makes it through then maybe 'Toft Survivor' would be fitting.