A feverish birthday, the last cria is born and the fleece stats

Cria (L-R) Ceymour, Cairo, Cocoa and Chance

The cria are all doing well, and we were waiting on one more...Vodka then decided to have little Chester...while I was at Playgroup with 3y.old.  Luckily daughter was home and broke the bag covering his head (it didn't break when he dropped to the ground), so that he could breathe. Chester then was up and feeding within the hour - what a star! He is our last cria of the season, so we ended up with five males and only one female!! Hmmmm...lots of fleece tests next year to determine who is wethered and who remains a 'man'!

Vodka and Chester - the last cria of the season

Poor daughter...turned 20 on Australia day but was so sick! She turned out with those red spots suspiciously similar to those sported by toddler at Christmas...hmmm...blood tests revealed glandular Fever!! Poor thing has been so very sick and tired.  Nearly three weeks on and she is much better, which is great news as she heads back down to Hobart for Uni in a week!

Meanwhile, remember how Maddie (first time Mum) was so very over-portective of Chia? Well, she can now manage him being handled with just a few hums.  Boo was really bad when we handled Poppy last year, screaming and trying to bite, but this year with Cairo she doesn't even look around.  This makes it so much easier to manage the cria and get them used to lifting their feet, as they are less anxious when their Mum's don't make a fuss.

Cocoa

Adlin is showing signs of impending testosterone rush, and starting to annoy the girls.  He will have to be moved out with the two wethers Hamish and Sherman soon.  Tegan is feeling a bit left out as Mum is only interested in Cocoa, so she has become very sooky and likes to kush next to us for a cuddle (like a big dog).  This is also good as the cria then come closer to us in the paddock, to see what Tegan is doing, and are less wary of us.

Cairo

Well, the fleece stats are in from our first ever testing.  These tests were conducted on fleece from our purchased alpacas, we wont be getting stats on our first generation until next year.  I have been doing some research on the stats, and I think they are OK, though it has surprised me that those animals that won ribbons at the show last year (or rather Tegan who didn't) seems to have the better fleece upon analysis!!  Anyway, I thought I would share and get some feedback (PLEASE give me some feedback!!)

Eclipse is our stud male, though he is getting on in his years, he has sired our first generation (though I think that next years' will be even better due to the better females we purchased last year) and those cria are just stunning!  His stats at age 11 are - Micron 27.1, SD 5.6, CV 20.7, CF 75.7 Curve 38, SF 26.3. He has maintained his microns at 25/26 until this year so I think he might be a chunky monkey on the extra feeds we have been providing for our working 'man'.  I guess the aim is low micron over time, so I'm happy with his stats and I think he is probably a good first 'ring' in the ladder to attaining better fleece.

The older girls (as in those who we have had for a year and have just birthed)...I wanted stats simply as we didn't have any recent figures.  I was surprised that Acua (black and 12 years) was still at 30 microns with a CV of 20.3.  Ambrosia and Harmony are still maintaining 23 and 26 respectively, Maddie was surprising with a 26 as her fleece has always seemed much better than the others.
However the new girls are showing huge promise....the four that we purchased in June, one of which won reserve champion...I'm really happy with!
 - Yuralee Adultress - 7years this year - M24.7, SD 4.0, CV 16.2, CF 93.6, Curve 28, SF 23.1 is the oldest female we had purchased and I was happy with her results (well, with a sire EP Cambridge Equinox EPC and Dam's sire Jolimont Manfredo I am not surprised).
 - Her sister Athena (same sire) - 3years this year- M23.1, SD 4.5, CV19.5, CF 93.6, Curve 42, SF 22.2
 - Adultress' daughter Astrid (Reserve Champion) 4 years this year - M24.1, SD 4.0, CV 19.0, CF 93.0, Curve 45, SF 23.2
 - Mercedes is Astrid's sister (Dam - Adultress) 3 years this year - M 22.7, SD 5.8, CV 25.6, CF 89.9, Curve 28, SF 23.0
The three cria that we purchased...  their fleece was just excellent - Tegan M17.2, Melony M17.9 but Adlin....M 19.3!!!!!

So what to do with Adlin????!!! I had had in mind that he would be a good stud, but his microns are already so high.  Maybe I have to wait and see what his next fleece stats are and hope that they stay low...or else we are going to have lots of wethers and pets to sell!! Do studs usually wait and see the stats from a couple of fleeces before deciding to breed (or not) from a male?  Please give me your advice!! :)