The sun is out, the sky is blue.....

.......there's not a cloud, to spoil the view, BUT, it's raining, raining in my heart......

Finally after days of heavy rain our shorn alpacas can graze under some lovely may sunshine. They have been in the barns for the majority of the last two days away from the heavy rain. But today the sun is shining and the alpacas are loving it. See the video for more...

A new home for Wellground First Lady

Well, since the alpaca shearing day here, it's done nothing but thrash down with rain. The alpacas have enjoyed a few hours out grazing when it hasn't been pouring down, but most of their time is spent sheltering in the warmth of our barns.

News from Wellground today, Congratulations to Neil and Donna Stalker from Honeyfield Alpacas, who have added Wellground First Lady to their team of elite female alpacas. First Lady was bred here at Wellground but has recently been owned by Sandra and Derek Williams from Harefield Alpacas. First Lady has been back at Wellground for a few weeks now. First Lady is sister to our World Champion Wellground Lalique and she was sired by our Supreme Champion EP Cambridge Samson.

Not only is Samson a Supreme Champion himself, he has produced several Supreme Champion awards from his offspring. First Lady's fleece has just been shorn and it is of the very highest standard that this breeding line produces. We wish Honeyfield Alpacas all the success in the World with Wellground First Lady.

Wellground First Lady (photographed at a previous shearing when it wasn't constantly raining)

Well that's shearing done for another year

Thanks to Colin Ottery for another excellent day shearing. Now we are shattered.

Thanks also to Jon Monnery, Leanne Simms and John & Lillian Read for helping with the shearing and to Lillian for a lovely spread of sandwiches at lunch time.

Tonight all the alpacas are back in the barns, minus their fleeces, the weather is forecast to be dreadful for the next couple of days, so they need to be looked after.

No pictures today, hopefully in a few days I will have some pics for you, after this nasty weather has blown over.

Last photos of the alpacas before 2012 shearing

Hi everyone,

A blog with still pictures rather than a video for a change.

Today the sun was actually shining, what a change from the constant heavy rain we have had. With shearing coming, we have been housing the alpacas in the barn whilst it's raining and overnight, to try and keep their fleeces dry for the shearer. The down side to keeping them in the barn is that the straw bedding gets in all the weanlings fleeces, they look a bit like straw bales rather than alpacas at the moment.

With the sun shining I grabbed the camera quick for a few photos, before the alpacas are naked once more.

Wellground Moody Blue he's not being shorn, but he's cute enough for a photo anyway.

Wellground Lady Linnhe, daughter of Commisario's Imprint

Wellground Lisomore Lass daughter of EP Cambridge Assertive Lass

Wellground Lora, daughter of EP Cambridge Giselle

World Champion Wellground Lalique

Wellground Commissario's Imprint

Now the males, this is Wellground The Ferryman full brother of Lalique

Wellground High Commissioner, son and mini-me of Cambridge Buckingham

Our new herdsire Wellground Tchaikovsky son of Assertive Lass

Hope you enjoyed the photo shoot. They'll soon be shorn. I don't think the weather is on our side, but we have the facilities to cope despite the weather. Back again soon.

Alpaca Growers Harvest Time - Preparing for Shearing

This week we are preparing our alpacas for shearing, the most important time of year at Wellground Alpaca Stud. The harvesting of our Elite alpaca fleece is the future for us as the fleece is produced into yarn and then into elite alpaca garments that will be worn around the World. This week we are preparing the fleeces for shearing keeping them as dry and clean as possible. See the video for more.

Drought !

This 'drought' is getting to the alpacas here at Wellground, we have had so much 'drought' falling out of the sky, the poor alpacas are paddling in great lakes of drought now.

The Lady in the Lake aka the Wellground Wide Load (Evie)
Building an Ark !!!

WARNING - No Alpaca Content - Petrol Heads ONLY

I wasn't going to put this on the Video Diary, but several of our regular viewers have seen it and enjoyed it. This was my first attempt at filming a session at Castle Combe Circuit in my track car. I forgot to switch on the image stabiliser, so it's a pretty wobbly clip. I hope you think it's fun.

Introducing Lionheart's Successor at Wellground

Well, it was with great sadness that Eringa Park Lionheart has left us, he really was a big part of Wellground Alpaca Stud. We will miss him, as a stud alpaca and a real friend too.

Many people have asked us who will replace Lionheart here at Wellground. Well that question is tinged with a little sadness too. It was going to be Wellground Rasputin, who sadly died last autumn after reconstructive surgery to rebuild a nasty shoulder dislocation. He died from stomach ulcers, caused by the stress of the surgery.

We have put that behind us now. However our original choice Rasputin was solid white, and that is the colour we intended to replace Lionheart with, Rasputin's untimely death has left us with a slight change in colour direction.

Rasputin's solid fawn half-brother Wellground Tchaikovsky has taken over this spot in our herd. If all goes well Tchai will cover some of our females this year so we can evaluate his genetic value for years to come. If all goes well Tchaikovsky will be our new Elite Herdsire.

Introducing Wellground Tchaikovsky by Silverstream Czar of Anzac

Here Tchaikovsky is seen running with his mates in the males paddock. From left to right Wellground High Commissioner (solid white - by Cambridge Buckingham) Wellground The Ferryman (Solid mid-fawn by Cambridge Buckingham and full brother to World Champion Wellground Lalique). With Tchaikovsky on the right of picture.

So, there we have it, Wellground Tchaikovsky is Lionheart's successor for the time being at least. Why does genetic evaluation take so long ;o))

WORLD CHAMPIONS! - We are the Champions.

Hi everyone, I return to the blog this evening with great news from Wellground Alpaca Stud.

We were unable to attend the World Alpaca Conference, but to add our support, we decided to enter just two of our elite fleeces into the World Alpaca Conference - International Fleece Show. The British Alpaca Society promoted the World Fleece Show, looking for (I quote) "The best huacaya and suri fleece in the world"

With only two fleeces entered into such a prestigious international alpaca fleece show, we were hopeful but realistic. This was going to be tough, when our alpaca fleeces were judged against the best breeders in the World. We had submitted the fleeces from Wellground Close Encounter (white senior huacaya) and Wellground Lalique (brown junior huacaya).

We were delighted to discover that from the two fleeces entered, we had won two 1st Place Awards and Champion Brown Huacaya. With this being the World Alpaca Fleece Show, we believe that we have a World Champion Brown Huacaya.

Further to that, having examined the results sheet. It would appear that in the huacaya classes, we were the only British/European breeder to win a huacaya championship. All the others were won by leading American and Australian breeders. Congratulations to all other successful competitors in this World Class event.

Now, please allow me to introduce to you our World Champion Brown Huacaya, Wellground Lalique.

Wellground Lalique was sired by our own herd sire Cambridge Buckingham (solid white). Her dam is our own Eringa Park Caramela (solid Brown).

Also with a 1st place white senior huacaya award, we have our herd sire Wellground Close Encounter, Sired by Cambridge Encounter from New Zealand (Australian born) Close Encounter has very rare genetics here in the UK. In winning his class he beat many top white senior males from Australia, the USA and the United Kingdom.

Wellground Close Encounter's dam is our own EP Cambridge Jewel, who also sired another Supreme Champion from the Wellground Stud, Wellground Banksy.

News travels fast, and today we received a lovely gift through the post, congratulating us on our show success.

Thanks to Donna and Neil from Honeyfield Alpacas for the lovely flowers, the great card and a big bright balloon. Thanks guys, we really appreciate your support. Thanks to all the others who have called us and sent cards of congratulations. We do appreciate it.

Yes, I have been heard singing "We are the Champions" rather a lot in the last two days. It's the only time you'll hear me singing like a Queen ;o))

And the BIG news at Wellground today is.............

........... Eringa Park Lionheart ET has a new home.

Congratulations to Irene and Si from Ashdale Alpacas in East Devon, who have decided to add Eringa Park Lionheart to their list of elite herdsires. Being fawn, Lionheart will work well alongside their other solid white elite herdsire Ashdale Cooper (sired by our own EP Cambridge Samson)

This is great news for Ashdale Alpacas, we are really pleased for them. So this lunchtime, I went out with the camera and took some up to date pictures of him. He is a bit damp as a big hail storm had just passed over the farm. Les and I are just delighted that Lionheart is going to such nice people and to such a lovely home.

Eringa Park Lionheart ET, soon to be resident herdsire at Ashdale Alpacas in East Devon.