Greetings to all, it has been a pretty eventful winter from a weather point of view, I trust you have
all managed safely through it and your llamas and other stock have faired well. I find it is a useful
task to body score all my llamas at mid winter, I was surprised last week to notice that a number of
mine are a touch lighter than normal for this time of year and so have bumped up their daily hay
ration accordingly.
These cold winter evenings will also give you time to reflect upon the upcoming season for your
llamas, certainly first and foremost on the social calendar will be the Christchurch Show, Nov 15 –
18th. Once again we have been able to arrange that your llamas need only be in attendance for
the days you are showing, although of course they welcome you to pass the full 3 days there
should you choose. But now is the time to start to think about which llamas you will take and which
classes they will enter. Next year, 2018 will be a ROYAL show, an always well attended event and
this year is a good time to begin to condition your top llamas for it. Once again also you will not be
required to bring a TB test certificate for your llamas. And whereas many llama owners will
continue to TB test as a matter of herd management, it is no longer compulsory for llamas at the A
& P Show in Christchurch.
I would welcome input from any members in regard to experiences with their llamas, and if any are
being confronted with training, health etc issues.
For sure I would like to see more photos of your llamas and I would propose that you send me the
best photo you have of your llama pronking. The best llama pronking photo can then be displayed
on the NZLA Web Site Home Page.
By the way, have you had a look around the NZLA web site recently?
Have you noticed that our membership has almost doubled so far this year?
Have you Facebook devotees noticed that the NZLA has a Facebook page? You can load that up
as well with your photos and llama stories.
Best Regards
Keith
thepaynegang@mac.com