·
Shearing time - make sure your fleece is long enough, and that it is clean prior to
shearing. Take a mid side sample and get you
microns tested. Weigh your total
fleece weight, and then remember to fill in the AGE
submission form to get started on
breeding values for your alpacas.
We strongly encourage clients with offspring from our males to
register them and their shear data with AGE. This
helps us get our stud male breeding values more accurate, and give you better
advice on who to use for which female.
We
also recommend that older animals that do not grow enough length for decent use
in a 12 month period, are shorn anyway. This for animal health reasons. The
shearers are still reporting cases of lice in alpacas with 2 year fleeces.
We are finding
that modern day youngsters have fleece perfectly long enough to be shorn at 7
months, and are "over-fleeced" at 10 months. Consider shearing them young. The
second fleece will be far better for it.
Southern
Alpacas is looking to buy in clean, fine, white and light fawn fibre to meet our
manufacturers demands this year. We need this with us by the end of January.
