EAG’s first plasma drive took place on 17 May. Organised and hosted by Harley Laver with Laura from Westpoint vets taking the blood, four farms took part. A plasma drive Continue reading “EAG’S PLASMA DRIVE SAVES TWO LIVES”
Category: alpaca welfare
Birthing and Husbandry Workshop 22 April 2017
Karin Muller once again delivered life saving advice and practice in birthing at our workshop on the 22 April. Attendees left much more knowledgeable about when to call the vet and more confident of their ability to help if a birth isn’t straight forward.
Bovine TB talk on Tuesday 4th April 7pm
Due to the topical concerns over Bovine TB, the Eastern Alpaca Group arranged a meeting to discuss this topic for which the Chairman of the British Alpaca Society, Ron Mackintosh, kindly agreed to come along to the meeting to describe his personal experiences with Btb.
The meeting was held at Diss High School in Norfolk on Tuesday 4th April at 7pm and proved of great interest to the EAG members, local vets and others. £5 payable on the door covered the cost of hiring the hall and providing tea, coffee and biscuits and re-imbursed Ron for travel expenses. A small surplus from this was donated to BAS Welfare fund earmarked for TB.
Ron gave his personal experience on how to be pro-active to minimise the impact of the disease if it somehow effects your herd. He gave up to date information on what the BAS has been doing with respect to negotiations with DEFRA and APHA and the various methods of testing and presented data from his own experience.
After Ron’s talk there was a lively discussion and questions and and answer session and everybody came away with a better understanding of the current situation with Btb.
Feeding for Fibre Event -3rd Dec 2016
Graham and Jenny MacHarg gave an excellent talk on the successful Fowberry approach to feeding alpacas so as to maximize the health of the alpacas and the quality and quantity of their fibre. It soon became clear that this is much more than just providing plenty of nutrition in the third trimester (when the secondary follicles are forming). Continue reading “Feeding for Fibre Event -3rd Dec 2016”
Alpaca Talk on 1st October 2016
Rob and Anne Wales provided the venue for our October Alpaca Talk in Suffolk. With numbers limited to 25, it was a sell out event. The day began with a panel session on alpaca husbandry which was opened by Pauline and David talking about their experiences of birthing. A key message was that most births are problem free, so watch from a distance using binoculars. Continue reading “Alpaca Talk on 1st October 2016”
Birthing Workshop 2nd April 2016
A Birthing Workshop was held on 2nd April 2016 at 10pm at Butlers Farm, Willingale, Ongar, Essex, CM5 0QL. This was a full days workshop with camelid expert Karin Mueller covering all aspects of pregnancy, birthing and caring for the newborn.
Winter is on its Way
From Issue 2 of our newslettter September 2015
Now that winter is on its way and the daylight hours are getting shorter it will soon be time to administer vitamin D to your alpacas. 
In their native country there are long hours of daylight all year round and bright skies, but here in the UK it is necessary to supplement your alpaca with Vitamin D to avoid lameness. Vitamin D is mixed with Vitamins A & E and can be administered either as a paste or as an injection.
Now that all your cria have been born it is time to get them micro-chipped and registered with the British Alpaca Society. Continue reading “Winter is on its Way”
Feeding Your Alpacas
From Issue 2 of the Newsletter September 2015
In their native country alpacas have evolved to survive on poor forage, grazing on relatively sparse grassland and coarse vegetation.
