DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog

Janice Buttitta -Judge and Update o Bella

Yesterday I was the judge for the alpaca youth show held at the Pima County Fair. It was a lot of fun in which I got to judge showmanship and obstacle course.  I was very impressed with the kids and their handling abilities. I was even more impressed when I found out that a lot of the kids had been with alpacas for less than a year. It is quite amazing to watch the alpaca do the jumps and allow the owner to place a hula hoop over it. It just showed us all how much trust the alpaca had in its young, confident owner.

I made it a point to tell the kids what they did right and what areas they needed to improve. I really went out of my way to express to the crowd how the kids should be supported. The parents thanked me afterwards for being so interactive with the kids. From the feedback I received the kids had a great time and are looking forward to doing more shows.

This show was pretty small, so I do hope more kids join in the future. It is a great way to support our future alpaca breeders. Perhaps I will get another chance to judge one of the youth shows again in the future. It was a great time for all.

 Bella has found a new home in Northern California with owners, Rick and Cindy Shipley, of Argonaut Farms. Bella will be guarding a herd of alpaca not at all different than what she was doing here at DMAR. Bella turns 5 months old on the 20th of this month.

Rick and Cindy drove into Tucson on Friday night. On Saturday I took Bella to meet them. Bella did great in the car and was quite a mush when she met her new family. I’m sure she was a bit nervous and shy, but in no time she will show her confident self.

Rick and Cindy appear to be a very good family for Bella. I am confident that they will dote love and attention to her and vice versa. Bella will have an older pyrenees dog to befriend on their return. I’m sure she will be excited.

For now we are out of puppies. We hope to have our next litter between Gianna and Santino in the summer of 2010. Of course this will all depend on how our current relocation goes. I’ll keep everyone informed as we go along.

2010 TxOLAN Results for DMAR:

DMAR Royal Peruvian Princess: 2nd and Reserve Color Champion. We were really surprised when Princess was pulled up from 2nd place to win reserve color champion. It is very surreal and to me worth so much more than simply winning it from the first place line. Go Princess!

DMAR Magnum: 2nd Place. We were really happy with Magnum’s placing. His class was a total of 10 and Magnum was the youngest in his group. The judge, Ken Hibbits, remarked how pleased he was that we brought Magnum in pasture condition. Ken whispered to Tom that Magnum was really dirty. However, Ken went on to say that even with Magnum being in pasture condition his fleece was really one of the finest of the class. Magnum drew a small crowd to check out his fleece after he came out of the ring. One ranch asked us to keep in touch as she was interested to breeding to Magnum when he was of age. Go Magnum!

DMAR Royal Knight- 1st and Reserve Color Champ at TxOLAN Fleece Show. The judge, Kathy Klay, told me that very few fleeces ever get points in the 80’s, only a couple of fleeces got in the 70’s, and that most fleeces received points in the 60’s. I was very pleased when I saw that RK received 71.5 points. Go RK!

We currently have 1/2 interest of RK for sale at a very reasonable price of $5000 for this 3x Reserve Color Champ. Click Here for more info on RK. Also, RK has recently begun his breeding career. Intro price is $850 on the first 3 bookings only. Contact us to reserve your breeding.

DMAR Armani – 1st Place TxOLAN Fleece Show. Again we were very pleased to see that Armani received 70.5 points out of Judge Kathy Klay. This means a lot to us. Go Armani!

Armani is a 2x Reserve Color Champ and multiple blue ribbon winner. Armani is up for sale at 1/2 interest at $5000.Click Here for more information on Armani. Also, Armani has begun his breeding career. His intro price is $850 for the first 3 bookings only. Contact us to reserve your breeding.

Snowmass Incan Emperor is the sire to DMAR Amani. He is available for stud. For more information on Incan Click Here.

 DMAR White Russian – 1st TxOLAN Fleece Show. Well I couldn’t believe it when I walked into the fleece room on Sunday afternoon to over hear a person complaining that they have been looking for Desert Mountain all day. I wasn’t certain I understand the ranch name correctly, but listened as the person went on to say that she had been to my stall several times and all over the building looking for me. I interrupted her to ask the name of the ranch and she said clearly, ” Desert Mountain.” I told her that was me and she quickly took me over to Ruski’s, nickname for White Russian, and asked how much for his fleece. She claimed it was exquisite and she was wanting to spin it up and make some lace scarves among other items. I gave her a price and she bought it. You go Ruski!

White Russian is a 4x blue ribbon winner and either himself or his fleece has only been entered into 4 shows. This boy is a prize and is currently for sale at a steal of a deal at $4500. Click Here for more information on White Russian.

DMAR Results for 2009 Fall Festival:

DMAR Royal Peruvian Princess: 1st and Color Champion

Fall Festival was Princess’ 2nd show. This is her 2nd color championship as well. The judge remarked that she had density, architecture of crimp, and when you opened her fleece it opened up into micro bundles. He did also remark that her handle would feel softer had it not been for the dirt inside. Sorry folks, but we live in the desert. I have no grass. Even with the dirt she is still finer than the other alpacas.

DMAR Magnum: 1st Place

This is Magnum’s 2nd show and his 2nd first place winning. The judge remarked that Magnum was the finest in his class, had architecture of crimp throughout his fleece, and was dense. Overall he is the entire package. DMAR Magnum’s dad is HRAZ Lock & Load, who is available for stud. For more information on Lock & Load Click Here.

DMAR Dominique: 2nd Place

What a way for Dominique to end her show career. She has a blue ribbon winning, (3) 2nd place winnings,  and (2) 3rd place winnings. Dominique has beautiful crimp architecture throughout her fleece, is really dense, lock structure to be envied, and is baby alpaca fine. Dominique is daughter to AOBA Blue Ribbon Winner, HRAZ Lucian. Dominique is for sale and ready to start breeding. Click Here to read more on Dominique.

In addition to the above winners DMAR Armani took a 6th place. We also entered in three fleeces: DMAR White Russian – 1st, DMAR Armani – 2nd, and DMAR Royal Knight – 3rd.

This was a great show and we look forward to the next one!

DMAR results from New Mexico Alpaca Show:

DMAR Royal Peruvivan Princess won 1st and Color Champion of the light fawn female class. Wahoo!!!! This is our first Color Champion, so winning is so delightful. We have plenty of reserve color champions and we’re not complaining, but Color Champion sure beats all. Personally I wasn’t at the show to see Tom and Princess win, but somebody had to stay home on cria watch.

DMAR Royal Peruvian Princess is a juvenile, light fawn female who the judge told my husband that her fleece was amazing. When she won color champ the judge told the crowd that when she opened the fleece it fell into micro bundles, was full of crimp, and very, very soft. This was Princess’ first show, so we are excited to attend future shows to see how she does. Don’t let us down, Princess.

Princess’ dam is GLA Peruvian Alexis and her sire is 105 Peruvian Royal Sun. Unfortunately, Royal Sun passed this year.

DMAR Magnum won 1st and Reserve Color Champion. Magnum won out of the light fawn class with the judge commenting to the crowd that they needed to open his fleece and feel inside, because it felt like butter! I have to admit that this is Tom’s boy of choice out of the juveniles. Great looking boy with plenty of coverage and uniformity of crimp (plenty of it) throughout his entire fleece. This was Magnum’s first show and he is proving to be a winner.

DMAR Magnum’s dam is Kaitlyn-Rose who has 4 offspring on the ground to date. All of the offsprings have won either a blue ribbon or better. Kaitlyn is definitely a wonderful foundation female who surprisingly doesn’t have any well known lineage listed at all. Pretty impressive.

Magnum’s sire is HRAZ Lock & Load. Magnum is the first offspring and you can see he is already making dad proud. We currently have 3 of Lock & Load’s offspring on the ground with 3 more on the way. Lock & Load is available for stud.Click Here  for more information or email us at info@desertmtnalpacas.com.

DMAR Royal Knight won 2nd place. RK was the only beige boy in an all white class to make the class a light class. Tom told me he was sweating bullets as the class consisted of a total of 11 alpacas. Although RK didn’t win 1st the 1st place winner did take Color Champ as well allowing RK to move up for a chance of reserve color champ. Tom said the judge kept going between RK and another alpaca. Alas, the other alpaca won, but I am still thrilled at how well RK did. RK is full brother to Royal Peruvian Princess.

DMAR Royal Knight’s dam is GLA Peruvian Alexis and his sire is 105 Peruvian Royal Sun.

We are interested in selling 1/2 interest of Royal Knight, for more information Click Here. RK has won two 1st places and two reserve color championships to date. He is also full Peruvian.

DMAR Armani won 4th place. This was the first time that we had Armani grouped into a dark class where he competed against blacks and all shades of brown at the same time. However, we are very proud of him as he took 4th out of a class of 9. The judge commented that this was the first time where even up to 4th place all the fleeces were very, very fine.

DMAR Armani’s dam is Alpha Carina. Armani is a medium brown yearling who we are wanting to sell 1/2 interest. He has beautiful, fine fleece with nice crimp characteristics. Armani has won two 1st places and two reserve color championships.Click Here for more information.

Armani’s sire is Snowmass Incan Emperor who is a medium rose grey. Incan is available for breeding. To date (he’s only been breeding for a couple of years) 3 of his offsprings have won 1st or better. For more information on Incan Click Here.

This was a great show! I definitely won’t be missing the next one.

Just In – Results of 2009 FABA Fleece Show for Desert Mountain Alpaca Ranch:

DMAR Armani: First and Reserve Color Champion. This is Armani’s 2nd Reserve Color Champion. He is a yearling and medium brown in color. His Sire is Snowmass Incan Emperor and his dam is Alpha Carina. We are currently selling 1/2 interest on Armani for $5000. To veiw more info on him  Click Here.

DMAR White Russian: 1st Place. Sire is CTA Zecharia and dam is DMAR Athena. Ruski, for short, is a patterned yearling between white and light fawn.

DMAR Royal Knight: 1st Place. This is RK’s second fleece show and is on a streak for taking 1st place. RK  is a light fawn yearling. His Sire is the recently deceased, 105 Peruvian Royal Sun. His dam is GLA Peruvian Alexis. RK is a full Peruvian and 1/2 interest is available on him for $5000. Click Here for more info on RK.

DMAR Dominique: 3rd Place. DMAR Dominique is a medium fawn and this class is very competitive. Dominique is a yearling female with a blue ribbon, a couple of 2nd & 3rd places under her name. Dominique is available for $10,000 with the buyer’s choice in any herdsire owned by DMAR for stud services. Dominique’s sire is HRAZ Lucian. Dam is Kaitlyn-Rose.  Click Here for more info on Dominique.

We did extremely well at this show in placing all four of the fleeces we sent in. Also I have to mention that FABA was wonderful in calling me advising the results. This is rarely done. You usually have to wait for the boxes to return to see if any ribbons were awarded. They were great!

DMAR Update for Week Ending 6-27-09:

DMAR Site Under Attack: Well a few things have been going on. For starters my blog was hacked into and a malicious code was added to my scripts which began attacking other sites. My web host shut me down advising that I was in violation of subscription term. Not knowing what this meant I called them and was told of the issue.

Since I am the designer, writer, and overall maker of my website I was left totally perplexed as to how to clean it up. My host provider sent some information on what might help, but basically I was told to clean up my scripts. I tried to do this, but to be honest it was so over my head.

After a week of having my site down I got online and went to elance. This is a site where you can hire a freelancer in areas of computer programming, website design, administration, etc.. I posted my job and a couple of days later I hired a person in Romania. Within a couple of days my site was up and he even upgraded me to the newest version of WordPress, which is my blog. I couldn’t be happier and what’s best is that I was able to talk him down to my current budget. What a great experience for a terrible problem!

Michelle Rose Update: I haven’t been able to give any updates lately, but Michelle has lost about 5 pounds in about 2 1/2 weeks time. She now weighs 140 lbs. I would be really concerned, but she is so alert and active that I am not terribly worried. This is the best she’s looked in a long time.

I’m not sure if I mentioned about her swollen lymph nodes. When the vet first felt them she was not optimistic at all on Michelle’s outcome. She sent me home with instructions to give antibotics of Naxcel as well as Doxycycline for 10 days. Today I took Michelle back to the vet for her blood draw and the doctor was happy to say that she believed the lymph nodes under the chin had shrunk in size. They are still swollen, but slightly smaller. Overall she thought Michelle looked good and sent us on our way home. I’ll find out the blood test results tomorrow to see if her white cell count has come down. At one time the doctor thought it might be cancer in the lymph nodes, but after speaking with a blood specialist they concluded her lymph nodes were so swollen due to the valley fever.

Finally I believe that even the vet sees a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. I keep praying for Michelle and tell her I love her daily. Do you think that helps?

Testimonial: A couple of weeks ago I had a ranch visit from two sisters that drove approx. 4 hours from Phoenix to see my alpacas. She wanted to learn more about alpacas since she wanted to get some when she retired in the next couple of years. During her visit she mentioned at how pleasantly surprised she was at the information we provided as well as our hospitality. She mentioned that she had gone to another ranch where her visit didn’t last even 30 minutes and she had left deflated. She felt renewed and looked forward to learning more.

A few days later we received this email from our visitor and she has given me permission to share it with you all:

“Hi Tom and Janice,  Once again I would like to thank you for your wonderful hospitality on Saturday.  My sister Nancy and I had a very enlightened and educational experience.  You really went above and beyond anything we had expected. On our drive home she commented about how this would be “right up my alley”.  Our visit has given me a renewed incentive to start looking for property and start making plans for my own ranch.”

Let Tom and I renew your interest in alpacas too. Simply call us at 520-803-9569 or email us at info@desertmtnalpacas.com to schedule your ranch visit.

2009 Estes Park Wool Market Alpaca Fleece Show:

This year I placed two fleeces into this show. It was RK and Dominique. Here is how they placed:

DMAR Royal Knight – 1st and Reserve Color Champ

DMAR Dominique – 3rd Place

SWRAS Show:

 Finally DMAR Dominique gets her blue ribbon. Dominique is a beautiful girl filled with density, crimp, and lock structure not to mention fineness. Yes these are all fiber characteristics, so just take a look at the picture and there is no denying her outstanding conformation. She is the overall package with a sweet demenor to boot. Dominique has taken 2nd in the two previous shows, so you can imagine how excited we were for her to take first.

 DMAR White Russian also took a first. Unfortunately we ran out of time to take pictures of him with his ribbon, but the judge commented on how fine his white fibers were. Exactly like they should be. This was Ruski’s first show and he did great.

Unfortunately with Tom and I both running the show we had very little time to clean up our alpacas. Although DMAR Armani and DMAR Royal Knight both received ribbons it definitely was not first place. The judge even commented on how dusty Armani’s fiber was. Boo for me. Anyway, since Tom and I have paid our dues we can now relax and actually clean our alpacas before and during the shows from now on.

DMAR Update for Week Ending 2/28/09:

Tom and I are super busy this week finalizing all aspects of the SouthWest Regional Alpaca Show that is being held next weekend at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix. Over 400 alpacas will be attending and over 100 different ranches. Although this was a tremendous project for Tom and me as event managers I think we have covered all the necessary parts. We are super excited as usual and can’t wait to see what the judges think of our group of alpacas. As the owners I can tell you that we are quite biased to our own and almost always think our alpacas are better than everyone elses. Ha ha. We will be taking five of our young males and of course Dominique.

If you are interested in going to the show please feel free to visit the show website at http://www.swras.org for more information. It is free to the public except for the parking.

Ever since our article has come out in the papers we have been booking more visits and tours of our ranch. Tessa, the 8 wk old pup, is the overall biggest hit with the guests. She is so fluffy and loving towards the visitors. She allows them to hold her and she offers her little puppy kisses. Once they place her on the ground she is playing with their shoes and then rolling over on her back offering her belly to be petted. What a ham!

The other big hit is Magnum, the month old cria of Kaitlyn and Lock & Load. At two weeks of age he started chasing the other alpacas around trying to breed them. He makes the orgling noise and everything. Granted he doesn’t know exactly what to do since sometimes he is mounting the victim’s neck, but he’s trying. Anyway the poor little guy now has the nickname of being “the horny one”. It is quite amusing to see and if you come visit us it is very likely that you will see it as he puts on this performance everytime we have visitors.

That’s my update for now.

DMAR Update for Week 12/21/08:

DMAR Valentino and DMAR Royal Peruvian Princess: Our two newest crias are both thriving and doing well. Valentino had a little bit of retained fluid at birth which caused him breathing issues. It sounded like he had a snotty nose that he needed to blow. It was agitated when he nursed and the first day he went to open mouth breathing. This isn’t what you want to see as all alpacas must breathe through their noses. Crias especially since they continue to breathe through their nose as they are nursing. However with some naxcel, banamine, and pure oxygen Valentino had cleared up the fluid by day 2 and is now a rambucious two week old cria. Princess, on the other hand, has been battling some diarrhea that started out with a case of e-coli. Her poop was yellow and pasty which is a sure sign. I immediately started her out on Albon and within a week the e-coli was gone, but not the diarrhea. We are currently giving her pepto-bismol and probios. It is getting better, but we aren’t too concerned as we see her nursing regularly (getting hydrated) and is running around being active. The diarrhea we are contributing to mom’s rich milk as we believe she only produces heavy cream and not milk.

DMAR Store will be open all this week for the last minute Christmas shoppers. You can stop by the ranch store, but please call for an appt first at 520-803-9569 or you can shop online at http://www.dmarstore.desertmtnalpacas.com. You can still get the items ontime if you select next day or 2nd day shipping.

Registrations have now opened for the 2009 SouthWest Regional Alpaca Show held at the Arizona State Fairgrounds on March 7th & 8th. The alpaca show is free to the public and if you ever wanted to learn more about alpacas attending a show is a great way to network and meet alpaca ranchers and ask questions. Tom and I are the event show managers, so please contact us at swralpacashow@yahoo.com if you have any questions. The show website may also answer a lot of your questions and that address is http://www.swras.org.

Our maremma dog, Bianca, is due sometime this week or next. We are excited as always to welcome her new pups. The whelping box is in place and Bianca has made herself comfortable in it many times now. I truly felt like she gave a sigh of relief when she saw me putting it in place. I know she was searching a location to have her pups and now she needs to search no more. This week Tom will place a camera in the feed room where the whelping box is, so we and online viewers can watch. Remember that you can reach the web cam by going to http://www.desertmtnalpacas.com and clicking on the Live Cam link at the top menu.

Don’t forget that in January we will have the Alpaca Know How Seminar. This is great for all you need alpaca ranchers to get a hands on as to how to select a good quality alpaca from a pet quality. For more information click on the DMAR Seminar link on the left hand side menu.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

 

 

 

2008 AlpacaFest West Results for DMAR:

What a great show. Tom and I are very happy with how our alpacas did and look forward to our next show.

DMAR Armani is only 9 mths old and this was his first show. He won 1st place and then on to winning Reserve Color Champion. Armani is Carina’s first cria and Snowmass Incan Emperor’s second cria to go into the show ring and win a ribbon. We can’t wait to see what else this young male will do in upcoming shows.

 

 

DMAR Nikoli is now a yearling and has now won his 2nd blue ribbon. So far he is 2 for 2 in show winnings. Nikoli’s dam, AOCR Michelle, is currently up for sale. Her record is impressive with 3 offsprings on the ground and 2 of those offsprings have won blue ribbons and the other winning 2nd place. Nikoli’s sire is Snowmass Incan Emperor. Incan is proving that he has what it takes to create show winners. Contact us today to reserve your breeding to Snowmass Incan Emperor. View more at Alpaca Services. DMAR Nikoli is currently up for sale for $5000. You can view more information at Alpaca Sales.

DMAR Dominique takes another 2nd place ribbon. I didn’t take another picture of her, so that is why it says NMSFAS.