There are twenty one moaning weanlings in the field near the house now making a path along the fence line as anyone goes by. Even humans are not exempt although I have assured them I am not a wierd alpaca that walks on two legs. Most of them are five months old but weigh over 30 kilos so they are big enough to wean. We decided that the weather was so good that it would be better to do it now rather than wait a month when it might be a lot colder and nastier. They are fed every day in the yard so that we can keep an eye on them and they’ll be weighed again in a couple of weeks to make sure they are doing ok.
Joshua has a nasty cold but has tottered up to the office to write his begging letters to our relatives in the hope that they might help to finance his trip to Ecuador to work for the charity Outreach International. I think the cold must be a result of two 12 hour shifts at Knightshayes and Killerton where he is a waiter, far too much contact with the general public!
There is a petition on the government’s website urging the powers that be to order bluetongue vaccine. Apparently the German government has ordered 8 million doses but our lot are doing nothing. This is serious, please sign the petition before the whole of the UK’s livestock industry goes down the pan. The link is http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Bluetongue/