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On a hot November Saturday I've let the alpacas into fresh pasture. Instead of diving into the fresh pasture, they dived straight into the small dam for a swim.

The beautiful Eaynin has given birth to the first two buck kids of the season. This video shows a proud mum Eaynin, with her two buck kids. There's also a cameo from Jackie, the first doe and our son Hamish, performs the role of lead skipper...

A few months ago two more does entered our herd. I acquired these two Australian Browns from a dairy that unfortunately had to close down. I am very keen to breed the Australian Browns so when these girls were offered to me I jumped at the chance. Camilla is a four year old doe, and Chessy is just over two years old. They were both pregnant when I bought them about three months ago. Two weeks ago, Chessy gave birth to a gorgeous little doe kid.

I was watching Chessy and her baby girl closely and noticed that the kid was attempting to feed but Chessy would walk away before the baby could latch on. I watched and waited for both of them to get the hang of feeding but as time went on I noticed that the kid was getting weaker. Luckily I had milked Chessy's first colostrum and had it in a bottle in the fridge. With a bottle and teat I tried to feed the kid but she was reluctant to take the teat into her mouth. I ended up having to suck the colostrum into a small syringe and slowly trickle it down her throat. 

I took the little one home with us that night, feeding her small amounts every couple of hours and keeping her warm and snug. She spent at least a couple of hours snuggled up in a rug on Craige's lap while he watched TV! The next morning after another feed with the syringe she was up and about and doing well. The familiar exuberance of goat kids was starting to show and I was feeling a lot more hopeful about her future.

By that afternoon she was feeding properly from Chessy. Success! I was so glad that she was doing so well. It seems that first time mother goats aren't always strong on the mothering instinct.  Chessy learned  to stand still for her little one and the kid, being stronger and more aggressive with the teat was able to latch on without a problem.

I left her with Chessy for another nine days to give her the best start possible. I am now feeding her myself four times a day and she is staring to nibble on hay and leaves. I named her Kerstin after my own mum. When I told mum that news she said she never dreamed in a million years she would one day have a goat named after her!

Last Friday saw another milestone passed on our little patch. We had the first on-site mating of any of our livestock, either alpaca or dairy goat. It has been a year since Creampuff had last given birth and she is in excellent condition, so we figured it was time for her to be introduced to Sappa, who has worn out a trench pacing up and down the fence line that separates him from our ladies.

We found an empty paddock and left our two love birds to get to know each other...but no introduction was required, as Creampuff went straight to the ground (the alpaca mating acceptance position) and Sappa was soon set about his business.

We'd opted for a paddock mating rather than a stockyard and at "half time", Sappa and Creampuff decided to pull up stumps and move their show over against the fence next to all the other females. This prompted three of them to go to ground next  to the fence (alpaca for "me too!") while another nibbled Sappa's ear while he continued the show with Creampuff.

I was too busy laughing to put my camera to good use.

Alpaca males have a fibro-elastic penis which has a dexterity that most human males would envy but from what I've seen, they can have that, there appeared to be far too much complaining from Sappa to make it worthwhile!

Mating with alpacas is a little hit and miss. Alpaca females ovulate in response to the act of mating and the presence of semen. So now we wait a while, then re-unite Sappa and Creampuff again. If Creampuff spits at Sappa and runs off, she's pregnant. If she submits for mating, she's not.

That's as precise and scientific as it gets with alpacas.