Pally Archie and the Pet Boys standing by...and getting dry

Archie the TOFT Llama and his gang of pet alpacas suffered a rainy introduction to Easter after Good Friday turned into wet Friday and stayed that way all day at TOFT Alpacas. Never daunted they will be busy drying out over the weekend readying themselves to entertain the alpaca enthusiasts at the TOFT Alpaca Easter Open day on Easter Monday. The weather forecast for  Monday is excellent by which time these boys will be a lot drier and of a mindset to spread a little joy and happiness amongst the people. Here"s wishing you all a dry and happy Easter from TOFT Alpaca Stud.

TOFT alpaca pets...

Off they go, fully halter trained TOFT pet males going to a new home where they will delight and amuse. 

These non breeding males are only pets because they have better brothers. We are very selective here at TOFT and only a handful of our males are selected each year for our own herd or sold as stud males to other breeders. The rest of our beautiful boys are trained to halter and go off as Pets, to be used as fibre herds, sheep guards, chicken guards, therapeutic focus, petting farms, alpaca trekking groups etc. 

I fact TOFT Alpaca Pets are used anywhere and everywhere some one wants well behaved, fine fibred alpacas for anything else other than breeding. These two youngsters are off to a lovely new home in Warwickshire to join some of their relatives who are already resident. Enjoy!

Alpaca surprises...

We have not bred a multi coloured alpaca in five years and last Saturday we had two in ten minutes, on my watch, from two different fathers. Two lovely fleeces on two wonderful pet boys who will sell like hot cakes and add a lot of character to someone's paddock once they are weaned. 

It is one of the great ironies of alpaca breeding that we spend seventeen seasons breeding one coloured alpacas and as soon as a multi adds contrast into our paddocks people fight to buy them. 'Twas ever thus!

Our alpacas went to the pub...

The White Hart Inn at Ufton joined the alpaca fraternity yesterday when they took possession of two lovely pet alpacas from Toft. 

The pet boys hadn't been there 5 minutes and they were dragged into a random family photograph to add interest. There is no doubt that these pet alpacas will soon be the stars of the show and a major attraction at the White Hart Inn.

Jan and Terry of  'White Hart Alpacas' were so taken with their new charges they came back today for a lovely mid brown pet male to balance the picture. We wish them lots of great alpaca moments and just know that the regulars and visitors to the White Hart at Ufton will get as much pleasure from these Toft  Alpaca Pet males as we do. Enjoy

Congratulations to Primrose Alpacas...

Only three days into their new equestrian alpaca, craft and smallholding business in Norfolk and the Robinsons of Primrose Alpacas took delivery of a fabulous Toft Alpaca Fibre Herd to begin their alpaca adventure. No flies on you guys. 

Have a great time with your new herd and good luck in getting your new life sorted.

A Toft Alpaca fibre herd ready to move to a new home

These lovely group of Pet alpaca males were selected at the weekend to go off to Norfolk where they will be groomed for Alpaca walks and talks as well as supply fibre for a craft enterprise. 

Each of these junior. Males carries a very consistent and uniform first fleece that is under 20 microns containing very little guard hair. The only reason they leave as pets  is that they have better brothers here who will remain in the breeding programme to be monitored as they mature. You've got to admit that they make a very attractive alpaca fibre herd.

Fancy Dress at the BAS National show 2014

Wow! I first saw this event in New Zealand at their National Show around 2008 in the young peoples arena. Then again when I judged the Yorkshire Alpaca Group Show in Thirsk a couple of years ago. Now here we are with it centre stage at the BAS  National and I have to say it remains the biggest crowd puller of the weekend. The people were four deep around the ring to see Harry Potter and the Unicorn, Batman and Robin and the  Princesses strut their stuff during the lunch hour. The crowd vote for the winners with a show of hands and fantastic appreciation and encouragement was shown by the general public and the UK Alpaca Breeders for this unique and fascinating distraction.

A fantastic amount of effort was put in by all the entrants and I should imagine hours of fun were had in preparation for this event. Although Batman & Robin came out the winner, everyone was truly a winner and the alpacas seemed to love it. The entrants obviously pick their favourite pets, acclimatise them to the costumes and must spend some hours performing in full cossy to get them to be so settled.

It's fun, challenging in its preparation and certainly a wow with the crowds and the young handlers who took part must have found it a rewarding experience. 

Personally I have never liked dressing up in fancy dress myself but as an alternative alpaca entertainment  I love it, as long as it is well done, enjoyable for alpaca, exhibitor and crowd alike I believe it emphasises the 'show case' element of our industry and certainly must appeal up those who adore keeping these wonderful creatures as pets. Let's hope that more families take up the challenge for 2015, and make this a fantastic alpaca spectacle. 

A huge thanks on behalf of us all to the exhibitors and a special thanks Julia Smith of Astonishing Alpacas who did a great job in organising this event as well as supervising in the Young peoples area for the BAS National. There always seemed to be plenty going off in there everytime I whizzed past.

And the weirdest image of all was when I caught 'Robin' with his mask off -Spooky or What?

I shall miss BINKS he made me laugh

I'm short two good chuckles a day from today. JA JA BINKS has finished his holiday at Toft Alpacas and returns home today. He's been resident in our quarantine paddocks whilst his owners were abroad on holiday.

If there was ever an example of the most perfect pet alpaca it must be BINKS. His markings are astonishing and you can't help but smile when you see him standing there all presence and charisma thinking he has a chance as a stud alpaca. Having said that if one bred a line of Bink's people would be fighting each other to take them home as pets. 'Twas ever thus!

 I shall miss him. He made me laugh every time I passed him on my rounds-so that was at least two chuckles a day I am down.

Alpacas attract at Barby Moorings...

Who said you can't keep an alpaca on a canal boat? Well if you have your barge moored at the canal marina at Barby in Warwickshire you can. This morning we delivered three pet alpaca males to the canal basin where they have huge island in the middle of the Marina which has been traditionally grazed by sheep. The owners and creators of Barby Moorings -Tony, Penny and Luke have decided on a change and replaced the sheep with alpacas. 

Here are the pet alpacas  taking in their new surroundings on the island which is the highest point in the Marina so has plenty of wee hills upon which to play 'I'm the king of the castle'. 

These three pet alpaca males will be the stars of the show at the weekend when all the bargees arrive. As it was there were boat owners asking lots of questions as we were leaving. 

I did warn young Luke that the work might slow down for a while until the bargees familiarise themselves with the new attraction. 

If you don't want to talk to the people then don't buy alpacas!!

Now you see them then you don't !

Busy  morning today castrating 5 of our pet male alpacas and Archie the Llama. All done and dusted by our vet Rebecca from Towcester vet practice. 

The alpacas were dealt with on the shearing table but Archie had to be fully sedated. He's not quite fully grown but is twice the size of the alpacas and wouldn't have fit on  the table. He was given his anaesthetic and dropped into a deep sleep within five minutes and remained blissfully unaware that we had stolen his treasure when he came around about 45 minutes later.

The alpacas weren't quite so lucky and were administered a local anaesthetic and were certainly more aware that we were stealing their jewels although they didn't feel a thing. 

Each castration takes about half an hour and we've got about another 10 pet males to do in the coming weeks. 

And what makes them eligible for castration? Well, there's not a lot in it these days. basically they've got better brothers, showing more positive traits that will go on to become stud males to see if they can reproduce themselves or better. If not then they will in time also join the ' billy no nacks' club.

It may seem harsh but we are an alpaca stud farm producing high quality pedigree alpacas. Only the best will do. We can't breed with them all.  

Out of each crop of males per season we carefully select only two to three in each colour to remain entire and become stud males either for ourselves or for sale to other alpaca farms. Sometimes we lease out these unproven males at much reduced cost to prove themselves at selected alpaca farms across the country. Once proven we sell their stud services to other alpaca breeders who wish to add the select and proven Toft bloodlines to their breeding programmes.

Because we are constantly monitoring the males for selection we never castrate the pet males until they are two or three years old. We also maintain a policy of allowing the pet males to virtually grow out to their full size before we castrate. Once castrated the alpaca live up to their registry status as non breeding males, the fleece maintains its fineness, the boys are calmer and we can safely graze them next to the females without any worries. 

These castrated males are then sold as fully halter trained pet and guardian alpacas and very often these days as fibre producers for the 'crafty' owner. They will move off farm to fulfil their chosen purpose where they will be lucky to see a female alpaca and if they do they will now only nod in recognition rather than chase and reproduce.

As for Archie the Llama he will remain on farm as the Lord of the display  paddocks in the front of the Toft Alpaca Shop to amuse the passers by and we shall sleep easy knowing that none of our female alpacas will ever be giving birth to surprising packages with big banana shaped ears!