Grandchildren on the farm

We now have two grandchildren on the farm and both girls: "Ebony and Ivory" though Ivory's co-owner, Laila from Graceland Farm, would like to call her Domonique since she is out of Domingo and Mystique. It would be fitting except that we already have Ebony who is white and now need a black Ivory, which we just got. Oh well. We'll work it out.

Ivory's birth was a little bit stressful for poor Laila. Mystique wasn't progressing in her labor. I was on my way to Ellsworth to pick up my daughter so I was no help. The feet were poking out but, couldn't see the nose right off. Bravely, Laila gloved and lubed up to find the nose and then Mike Reardon, from Full Moon Alpacas, was nice enough to heed the call and go in to stretch things just a bit and the baby popped right out just the way they say they should. Thank you too, to Cindy Mingle as always to provide counsel via phone and Morelia Candida, who came armed with pitocin in case the placenta didn't arrive on time. It did and all is well.

"Ivory" "Domonique" is out of Mystique who is out of Puella. Ebony is out of Skye who is also out of Puella. She produces fine fleeced alpacas of good bone. Let's see if that passes on to the next generation as well. So far, so good.

Gestation was 369 days! Who would believe it.

Breeding Decisions

We have several breeding decisions to make in the next few weeks. It is great this year to have a few more options, which comes as the herd matures and we know more people in the business. Mt. Brook Farm has bred to our lovely Don's Bellemont Skye and we also bred Dolores to him. That will give us two babies on the ground next Spring. We think we will breed Dahlia to him as well. She has incredible brightness, good density and a wonderful hand--but she is not as fine as we would like. Skye should make a nice match with his also bright, fine fleece with a very nice hand.

Puella just has a handsome boy out of Sugar Ray. We are going to try her with Dalia's Domingo, our herdsire we co-own with Graceland Farm Alpacas.

Because we now have a breeding trade with Mt. Brook, we want to use their Guillermo for Andromeda. We are very excited to see what her pairing with Yopanqui's Kokopelli produces. Guillermo is out of Mt. Brook's champion Lima who is a Snowmass Legacy Lustroso son. Lima has shown that he can consistently stamp his fine and dense fleece on his cria so we are hoping that Guillermo can do the same. He is white, and Andromeda is white so that should give us white... but who knows?

There is a long wait but it is fun to make these decisions to see what comes.

Want to read past posts or see the animals? Click here: Maine's Bellemont Farm Alpacas.