Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

This time tomorrow, the empty stall pictured below will contain Jupiter and Neptune hopefully looking at home, relaxed and enjoying a bit of food and hay!! It is obviously very important to be ready to receive any new livestock onto ones smallholding/farm. It is usual to house new stock for a little while in their own area in order to minimise their stress as well as to ensure they are healthy before allowing them to mix with other animals. Depending on time of year, space, etc this can be done in a variety of ways. For us, space is always a premium so whilst the alpacas will be in their own stall, they will still be sharing the barn with everyone else so a little like in a classroom, germs can still spread.
We are consoled by the fact we visited the animals initially in their current home and so as far as possible were able to see that they were fit and healthy. It is usually recommended that where possible this is how you purchase new stock, rather than having someone simply deliver to you or buy through a market or auction. In reality this is not always possible which is why isolating animals when they first come onto your land is good practice. We are as confident as we can be we have bought two very healthy animals and so have set up their stall with clean straw, fresh hay, water and a mineral lick with a bag of feed at the ready. We also have a few carrots to give as a treat, a perfect way to encourage them to start trusting us!
Onto other news. Unfortunately we realised today that there is something wrong with Parsley, our black and white pygmy (pictured here back in September, enjoying the warmth on the concrete apron). She is once again displaying signs of being in season suggesting she is not in kid. The current thinking (from our vet) is she may have an ovarian cyst which is interfering with her usual 18-21 day cycles. We have booked her in with the vet tomorrow so may know more then...