The end is near

No, not that end. Nor that one. I’m just talking about the end of the birthing season here! With the final 9 expectant females all in the same feed group together up at the Arena, we can actually visualize it too. Of course if we were smart, we would have bred all of our females in such a way that we would be done and dusted with all of this baby business (that one’s for you Sally Ann) by sometime in mid October. But oh no, what fun would that be after all? Common sense is so overrated. Our final cria is in fact due right around the end of December because, you know…what could possibly say season’s greetings, happy holidays, or merry Christmas more than 6AM cria checks when it’s 20 bloody degrees outside and the sun is still not coming up for more than an hour? Granted, that final cria is kind of important: it was not only the result of the final breeding that Elite Legend ever did here as he was getting ready to exit stage-left last year, but the female in question (see picture at left) also happens to be carrying Elixir’s full sibling. Fingers crossed, obviously.

In the mean time, while those final females in the maternity ward all make a pact to collectively cross their legs and keep us guessing as to when they will in fact have their babies, the beat of the farm goes on. We did our thing this past weekend for National Alpaca Farm Days, and while I am all for the warm and fuzzy nature of a collective marketing push, it doesn’t always work out the way one might have hoped. That is particularly true when the date is in conflict with the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival, inarguably the most important single event for fiber enthusiasts in the state. Suffice it to say that next year we will A. be holding our own open house weekend that has no relation to the NAFD and does not conflict with Sheep & Wool and, B. that we hope to in fact be at the Sheep & Wool Festival itself, which is held at the venerable Tunbridge Fairgrounds, hawking some of our goods in person. The past weekend was not a complete wash of course, we did get to meet and talk with a decent number people after all. It’s just that when we know from past experience that a well marketed stand-alone event can easily attract 300 visitors in 2 days, then the alternative feels like a bit of a let down. My educated guess at this point is that we will be in Tunbridge next year with flyers annoucing our open farm for the weekend after. We shall see.

The beginning of October means several things around here (besides leaf-peepers seemingly driving down every back road at 20 MPH) as the grazing season winds down and we ramp up for the fall shows. With the Green Mountain show up in Essex, VT just over 2 weeks away, we have a smallish group of new show critters, 8 to be exact if memory serves, none of whom have ever seen a halter or lead before. Oh you big sexy deadline you, coyly batting your eyelashes at us. I mean, really: what fun would it have been to have trained those animals earlier in the year? After all, it’s not like we had all summer or anything. Oh. I’m quite certain that I recently strained the rotator cuff in my right shoulder again anyway so let the recalcitrant rookie show critters do their worst, I’ll heal over the winter.

As our breeding season winds down as well, many of our co owned Herdsires have either left us already (Archangel, Kahuna, Sub-Zero) to head to our partner farms, or are leaving us within the week (Elixir). Though Sub-Zero may sneak back here for a day or two later on in the event that some of his last breeding failed to take, for the most part the remaining residents of the CCNF Stud Barn will close out the action. It’s never a bad thing after all, when the Herdsire you have potentially doing mop-up duty for Elixir (who as of this writing now has 18 confirmed pregnancies here) and Kahuna happens to also be the reigning dark Futurity Herdsire of the Year!

Collectively the boys have been quite efficient this year. It feels anecdotally as though the number of repeat (2nd or 3rd) breedings needed to achieve pregnancies were fewer than in years past. I always like to add up the average number of  breedings per confirmed pregnancy at the end of the season but that is, alas, still technically about 5 weeks away. For the past several years we have pushed to condense our birthing season more and more into the summer months by holding those final late fall (early winter actually, yikes) females open and getting them onto a spring or summer schedule. At least that’s been the theory. The practice sometimes falls a bit short…but at least we’re having fun!

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