Now through December 31st we are running great holiday specials on our for sale females and our herdsire services. For more info please contact us at 740-796-2195 or visit our farm site on AlpacaNation.com for a full list of details and pictures.

We took the same four animals to the MOPACA show in MO and here are the results…

-Lulu, 1st place in a class of 4, Billy Jean 1st place in a class of 2, Everest 4th place in a class of 7, Proof 3rd place in a class of 4! Next stop is the Futurity Show in Grand Island, NE.

We took four animals to The Best of the U.S. show and we took two 1st places and two 2nd places!

-Lulu 1st place in a class of 2, Billy Jean 1st place in a class of 1, Everest 2nd place in a class of 6, Proof 2nd in a class of 3.

The Alpacas of Spring Acres spent a busy couple of days with Dr. Toni Cotton from Colorado. Dr. Cotton came to our farm once again to check on our herd and examine the new babies. Good news…. everyone is healthy!

Earlier this year The Alpacas of Spring Acres decided to enter into a co-ownership agreement with Suri’s of the Western Slope.

-Toni’s Accoyo Golden Compass ARI#31326636, Compass will be at our farm this Spring/Summer and is currently available for stud services.

-Toni’s Accoyo Rock Solid ARI#31828666, Rock Solid will make an appearance at the Futurity show this coming April and will be available for stud services in 2012!

The Alpacas of Spring Acres continues to grow and develop into a premier source of alpaca stock and fiber. Many significant achievements have been accomplished since we last updated this blog.

December 2009: We enjoyed a beautiful White Christmas at the farm. The family gathered from far and near. David and Holly came from Hilton Head, Josh and Alvin and their two adopted daughters Destiny and Chloe came from Dallas, Nick, Maggie, Colson, Kaylee and baby Maxx from Columbus, Sherry, and of course Jamie and Shane.

Winter Gate

Winter pastures

February 2010: The snowstorm of 2010 struck early in February. It is unusual to get a lot of snow in Zanesville and unusual for snow to last more than 3 days. At least that is what we always told Shane when we talked him into moving from Hilton Head. I’m sure he doesn’t believe that now after 2 weeks of very cold, very snowy weather. Many many hours were spent plowing and snow blowing, often twice a day, just to keep our very long driveway open. Even the alpacas retreated to the barn!

Snowstorm

March 2010: As winter broke we began to resume our educational and development activities. Once again, Al attended the International Camelid Health Conference sponsored by OSU Veterinary College from March 24 through the 28th. Shane also attended a Camelid Health Conference for Owners and Breeders at OSU on March 25^th. And the Jamie continued her march towards her business degree only now she is enrolled as a full-time student at the prestigious Muskingum College.

We also had a one day on-site Farm Consultation with Tony Cotton DVM as a follow up of her previous visit and to see if we had implemented her suggestions. I think we passed.

May 2010: In May Jamie and Shane took two of our young ones to show at the AOBA National Show in Indiana. In the national competition Lulu won a Second place and Billy Jean won a Fourth place in there categories -which isn’t bad considering both of them are less than a year old.

June 2010: Our new babies began to arrive in June. Denali had a beautiful little female cria on June 24, 2010. Her sire was Jax Inx.

Denali's Delilah

July 2010: July brought three knew babies: Briana gave birth to a nice female (“Princeton’s Proof”) out of our own Princeton. Ascot’s little girl is an offspring out of Rum Runner. And Remedy produced a fine little boy out of Rockwell.

Aspen's Ascot

Briana's Princeton Proof

Remedy's Ransom

August 2010: August brought us another male cria out of Amelia. August was another time for education. Jaime, Shane and Al traveled to Ridgeway Colorado for a private course on Camelid Reproductive Ultrasound with Tony Cotton DVM at her ranch Suris of the Western Slope. Then Jamie and Shane attended the Suri Network Summer Symposium at Estes Park. While there they also attended Tony Cotton’s one day seminar and practical lab on Camelid Reproduction, Neonatology, and Birthing. So we now have 3 very well trained staff members (Becky took the same course last year) who are very competent in the management of cria birthing and can handle complicated births until a veterinarian can arrive.

Between the four of us we have now attended two Suri Network Summer Symposia and 4 of the special courses offered before the symposia actually begins. I think we can all firmly attest to the excellence of both the courses and the symposium. We highly recommend them to all Suri owners. If you haven’t attended one I would urge you to plan to attend next year’s meeting. From both an educational and fun point of view it is well worth your money.

September 2010: As summer ends we remain very busy at The Alpacas of Spring Acres. Shane has been busy working on the pastures sprain we control, fertilizing, and re-seeding. Lili and Bridget both presented us with a male cria and a female cria both sired by Kingpin who is registered as a True Black. Bridget’s beautiful male cria appears to also be a true black. We can’t find even a tiny white spot anyplace on his body. When checking Bridget’s ancestry we found that her great grand sire was QAI1 Sudden Impact. He was an early  Chilean import who produced some 24 True Black offspring out of 45 matings! Thus our little Bridget’s Blackout appears to be well endowed with the much desired ” blackness” genes.

Bridget's Blackout

Lily's Liu

We finished out the month with a very successful National Alpaca Farm Day weekend. The following morning we packed Becky off to Colorado to Tony Cotton’s ranch for some educational R&R and to relax after a very busy summer.

And finally in the last days of September we saw construction begin on a new barn to house our males. One end of this barn will contain a separate quarantine facility, sealed off from the rest of the barn and with a separate pasture. It will be used for animals returning to our farm from shows and for animals coming into the farm from other farms for breeding or agisting.

And so The Alpacas of Spring Acres continues to grow and develop. We have spent the last 2 years planning and developing our facility, educating ourselves, purchasing top-notch breeding stock and preparing to offer our services, our friendship, knowledge and experience and our superior alpaca offspring for sale to others who would enjoy stepping back from this crazy world we live in and enjoy some peace and quiet solitude working with these very remarkable and enjoyable animals. Something that can involve the whole family and bring it closer (Wait ‘till you see your grandchildren interact with these gentle beasts!)  And perhaps lead you to a quieter, genteel life style.

But don’t look at Alpaca farming as just a get rich scheme. Rather consider it as an investment in yourself and your family. And if you just happen to make some money at it you’ve got a bonus. (Besides, how many other investments can you fully insure against all loss, see and visit on a daily basis, help care for, involve your family with, and reproduces itself every 11 months?) There have been some tax advantages it the past but I wouldn’t count on them continuing under the present administrations attitude towards small business owners. But he might surprise us all.

We are ready to offer you high-quality animals for sale, breeding with champion herdsires, and agistment services until you are ready to take your animals home. If at all interested don’t hesitate to contact us.

The highlight event in November was a visit by Toni Cotton DVM.  We suspect the main reason for her coming was to check up and make sure that we were taking good care of her “Celebration” –one of our new purchases in September.  Toni’s depth of knowledge, advice, and practical know-how is overwhelming.  Her evaluation, comments, recommendations covered everything from nutrition, management, medical treatments and vaccinations, breeding program, etc. was extensive.  A month later, Becky says, her head is still spinning from all the advice and knowledge imparted.  Once again, we are fortunate to have made another good friend in the alpaca community. We continue to be impressed by the depth of knowledge, friendliness and cooperation of this group.

October was a somewhat quiet month spent finishing the installation of automatic waters (we elected to use Frank Industries waterers), repairing some of the construction damage to roads and runs on the farm, starting to clear additional acreage for future past pastures, studying potential locations for additional barns, and in general getting ready for winter.

We also took our fleece up to MorningStar mill to have it processed.  Becky decided to have it made into rug yarn.  She’s anxious to get to her loom and start turning out alpaca rugs!

The big event in September was attending The Private Auction sale at Alpaca Jack’s in Findley, Ohio.  As usual, the pre-auction seminars were educational, and the food, drink, and ambience created by our hosts Jack and Marion Donaldson made for very pleasurable day.

Although we had no intention of buying any more animals after our spree at last year’s auction the animals offered such superior genetics and the prices were so good that we couldn’t resist improving our herd even more.  Thus Jack’s Kingpin, Tony’s Celebration, as well as Ascot, Amelia, and Beatrice were added to The Alpacas of Spring Acres’ herd. Many of you undoubtedly know of Kingpin’s and Celebration’s many championships.

We now have two champion herd-sires: Kingpin and Princeton. We also have several other potential champion herd-sires but they are still too young to be offered: Aerosmith and Dundee.  We plan to use all of them extensively in our breeding program.  They will also be made available to other breeders, provided the dams are judged to be good “receivers” of our superior herd-sires’ genes!

Following the TPC, we entered Chase, ¬¬¬¬Celebration, Jacinda______ in the 1st All Suri National Alpaca Sweepstakes show, which was also held in Findlay, Ohio.  Chase  and Celebration  both won a Blue Ribbon, while  Jacinda took a 2nd Place.

Welcome Jemma!! –the first cria to be born on our farm! We prepared for months and months for this first birth, attending cria-care classes, medical lectures, neonatal classes, learned how to assist with difficult births, prepared field kits of appropriate equipment, etc, etc. So what did mom Jetta do? She waited until the one time when everyone was briefly away from the farm, and then she dropped the kid and went on grazing in the field with baby in tow (barely able to stand but sticking with momma!)

And then there came the latest additions to our farm. Becky and Jaime were sent off on a simple mission to deliver four water samples to the Holmes Laboratory in Millersburg, Ohio for Camelid drinking water analyses. They returned six hours later with these three “critters”! I think they are little dogs!They are brother and sisters and inseparable, so I guess we’ll have to keep them Any suggestions for names?

Needless to say, their arrival aroused a great deal of interest in our curious alpacas:

As well as the kittens –who may be somewhat horrified with  their new roommates.

(But not our 10 year old tomcat Kiki. He’s just been around too long to let anything as trivial as three new dogs bother him!)