Summer Stretch

As I write this, we are in the thick of birthing and breeding season, most likely even a little more than 50% of the way through it in fact. With the the final in-house breeding having taken place late last summer on September 15th, a birthing season that in years gone by used to often stretch from early May into late October, or even early November, has now been effectively compacted so that it runs from just early June to mid September. Yes, it potentially means 3 to 3.5 months of crazy but the flip-side is 8.5 to 9 months where there are no 6AM baby checks, no dystocias or uterine torsions to fix, and no first time moms looking askance at that thing they just pushed out of them: in short, the new, shorter season is something we’ve all embraced, particularly Jen and Kim who handle 99.9% of the midwifery around this joint!

Though yours truly, who in turn manages 99% of the breeding operations, got that show going officially on 6/15, we were then off on a family trip for about ten days (our new high school graduate choosing the Big Island of Hawaii), so really those first six days of breeding felt more like a preseason shake-out cruise. That was particularly true with the notable absences of CCNF Elixir (who came home for the summer from Maryland and A Paca Fun Farm the day before we did), as well his sire Snowmass Elite Legend (co owned with Tierra Prometida), and CCNF Angiolo (co owned with Legendary Alpacas of Texas) who both caught a ride out of Texas with good guy Randy Coleman shortly thereafter.

While the aforementioned boys and the rest of the our front-line Herdsires have certainly been quite busy since our return on 6/30 — it’s not at all uncommon for there to be 5 or 6 breedings in any given day — there is also the small matter of Irish Meadows Elite Max (the 2018 White Futurity Champion & AOA Supreme Champion Light Male, whom we co own with his birth farm), who as I write this, all things being equal, is about 24 hours out from arriving here in Vermont for the first time. “Over-sexed” is a term I associate with conservative suburbanites in the 60s and 70s used to describe the youth in the counter-culture. In my case, having counted no fewer than 8 open and receptive females yesterday (along with at least 5 or 6 others who aren’t receptive at the moment) all with Elite Max’s name next to theirs on the breeding list, it’s a term I am using to describe the near-future of the Herdsire who in strategic discussions of whom to breed with whom has come to tongue-in-cheek just simply be known as “New Guy.” Here’s hoping he’s ready to work, because the open females — a mix of maidens and proven females held open from last fall — are quite literally lining up for him! Tough gig, that one. More soon…

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