We have moved the animals out of two of our wetter fields. The young boys were in Slope 2 which has rivers running through it when it rains like this and our field of pregnant females without cria at foot and weanling girls were in the New field. Both groups have come up to drier fields near the house with very big hedges so they will have plenty of shelter.

Joshua had two big envelopes from University College London today and has discovered to his huge delight that Steve Jones is going to be his personal tutor for the next three years. He has read two of his books - no doubt will be reading everything forthwith.

I went on a follow up half day ‘how to be a better diabetic’ course yesterday. It was quite interesting being back in the classroom again with a load of crazy women who all clearly have a fondness for several glasses of wine of an evening. Anyway I am a slightly better diabetic, more work required, but at least it is all more stable without half as many highs or lows.

Woke up to a howling gale and torrential rain and darkness. It is still pretty dark now at 8.50. Most of the alpacas are being reasonably sensible and sitting under the hedges where it is dry. Others who are clearly barmy are sitting out in it - do they require a shower, shall I go out there with a little shampoo?

Tim Hey dropped by today on his way into deepest Devon to collect his males. We spun a load of blood from his alpacas in our centrifuge so now Inca Alpaca has got loads of plasma. I can’t believe his son Oliver is walking already - just shows how old I’m getting. I’ll be saying ‘hasn’t he grown’ soon whilst trying to ignore the ‘poor old thing’ looks from the young.

Our lopsided cria looks worse today after improving quite a lot, o dear, not really sure what to do. I am convinced we shouldn’t let the vet do any sort of exploratory operation because she gets so stressed if you handle her at all. My preference is to let her be and if she does die I’d rather she was with her mother out in a field.

Back at the ranch here in sunny Devon, yes it is still sunny at 3.30 in the afternoon, we are ploughing through bits of paper, me on the magazine and Chas on the British Alpaca Futurity. We had to have lunch early for a bit of re-motivation. It worked.

The vet popped by yesterday to look at the lopsided cria who is rather less lopsided than she was. It was decided that she should have another six days of the humdinger antibiotic as it does seem to be having some effect. The flystrike boy is improving too, off the drugs, but has to be looked at every day. We have to go and collect some more Bluetongue vaccine today as we now have a batch of 20 cria old enough to get their jabs, that is over a month old. The weanlings were all done with the main herd immediately we went into the Protection Zone but we still have to work our way through the 2008 cria and we still have another dozen or so pregnant females to birth.

Today we woke to sunshine and over the last two hours it has got darker and darker in the office until finally the rain returned. O joy.

Pandora has put on two kilos this week and has now moved from the birth field back with a couple of her mates as I think she is out of danger. The lopsided cria looks slightly better holding its head straight for some of the time and I think it is less unsteady. It is still on the antibiotics so we’ll see what she is like on Monday and talk to the vet.

Our incubator has 19 eggs in it and is whirring away in the office, very exciting.

I don’t know what it is about maggots but they are absolutely disgusting. Chas put the boy in the shearing harness and set to work cutting off as much fibre as possible from his lower leg and washing off the obvious maggots. Thanks goodness for Crovect, you spray it on and all the nasty little blighters that are inside the leg come wriggling out and die. We then put him and a mate in the hay barn for a couple of hours. Into the shearing harness again for more Crovect to make sure there were no more. Left him for another few hours. Then at tea time back in the shearing harness for a thorough wash with Hibi scrub, Teramycin spray, more Crovect and an antibiotic injection. It looks as though he had a cut on his hock and of course that’s where the eggs were laid. He’ll be on antibiotics for five days and we’ll see whether the fly strike has destroyed his joint or whether it recovers.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our stock and our first class back-up service to new and experienced owners. Our pedigrees are impeccable including Australian lines like Purrumbete Highlander, Purrumbete Inti, Accoyo Tulaco, Jolimont Stefano, Purrumbete El Dorado, Purrumbete Ledger’s Boy plus the great American sires Peruvian Hemingway and Pperuvian Vengador.

Dovecote Jaquinto, our jointly owned male, achieved considerable success with his progeny at the BAS Spring Show 2008 winning the Sire’s Progeny class with CME Paris taking Champion Junior Male and CME Venus Reserve Champion Junior Female and MEF Adonis placed first in the fawn junior male class. This group won the Sire’s Progeny class again at the Royal Bath & West Show 2008 (Judge Val Fullerlove) with a second group coming third. At the Devon County Show 2008 (Judge Nick Harrington Smith) CME Paris was Show Champion Huacaya with CME Venus Champion White Female Huacaya and MEF Adonis Champion Fawn Male Huacaya. At the North Devon Show 2008 (Judge Liz Barlow) CME Paris was Show Champion, CME Venus was Champion White Female with CME Gaia Reserve Champion and MEF Adonis Reserve Champion Fawn Male.

CME Cornelia was the Fawn Female Champion at the North Devon Show, a daughter of CME Tulaco Centurion, our jointly owned male.

UK Alpaca is able to buy your fleece, bring first class fully worsted alpaca yarns to the market place whilst Alpaca World magazine ensures you have the latest news and information on alpacas worldwide.

Alpaca Stud Services

Dovecote Jaquinto, CME Tulaco Centurion, CME Shanbrooke Distinction, CME Aztec Avalanche, CME Kurrawa Micah, Shanbrooke Toffee Crunch, Classical Ikon are all standing at stud in Devon. Please contact us if you would like to book their services.

This little girl gazes up at you in the most endearing way but became extremely stressed when examined, mouth breathing and curling her head right back. It was decided to give her a steroid to minimise any swelling and put her on a course of heavy duty antibiotics that cross the blood brain barrier. This was done as quickly as possible with her mother close by and then the two of them went out into the birthing field as it is nearest to the house and the office. We will have to make sure she has as little contact as possible with humans, just the daily jab, to keep the stress levels low. Apart from being lopsided, the cria seems quite perky, is eating hay and grass and suckling and is a good weight for her age.

Meanwhile my Pandora continues to improve. She has stopped sitting on her side and twitching a back leg which they do with abdominal pain and now cushes like a normal alpaca and is eating grass like a good ‘un.

If you are interested in alpacas and wish to come and visit the farm in the meantime please contact us by email or telephone. We will be very happy to welcome you to Vulscombe Farm for a one to one chat and to show you our alpacas for sale and our stud males.