Tiskilwa Farms Alpacas in Illinois

Since it’s been such a warm season – we needed a little Winter Dreams!!

2012-02-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

Snowmass Alpacas, in Idaho, is, by many accounts, the most highlyregarded North American alpaca breeder. We’ve been dreaming of someSnowmass Genetics for quite a while so with their annual auction, we addedSnowmass Winter Dreams to our barn. Even better yet, she came with herson, Snowmass Winter Solstice!

Winter Solstice is an 8 month old male who will join ourshow string this spring with a debut at the Spring Bling show in a fewweeks. We are hopeful that he will also join our herdsire row – TheChiefs of Tiskilwa – in a few years. Naming his kids will be kind of fun– I can already see an “Inti Raymi” or “Intihuatana” – the Incan Festivalof the Sun celebrated on the Solstice at Sacsayhuaman every year in late June!! WinterSolstice is a son of Snowmass Elite Legend, the 2011 Futurity Light Herdsire ofthe Year.

To make the purchase even better, Winter Dreams is rebred toSnowmass Best Man, the 2011 Futurity Reserve Light Herdsire of the Year for acria due this summer. We’d be happy if she has another boy, but “TFAPeruvian Best Man’s Maid of Honor” has a nice ring to it. Best Man was inthe auction and didn’t sell for $125,000, but did sell for something more thanthat after auction – he’s moving to Europe, so we’ll have one of his lastAmerican kids.

Now if we could just get this winter over with so we can seethe “Winters” pronking in the Tiskilwa Summer Pastures!!

Midwest Select Alpaca Auction

2012-02-27T19:15:00.000-08:00

We have two girls practicing their runway walk for the Midwest Select Alpaca Auction in Wisconsin on May 12. We'll be entering TFA Peruvian Sharon - a Highlander daughter bred to Right of Way. We also have TFA Amalyra - also bred to Right of Way. More to follow:

Spring Shows 2012

2012-02-27T19:10:00.000-08:00

Show season is almost upon us. We will start the year at the Spring Bling Alpacafest in Appleton, WI on March 17th. We love this show, which is held in an ice skating rink. We will debut a whole new show sting with several Knight Rider kids, some Highlander kids, some Quest kids, and of course Winter Solstice - our newest purchase.

We then have a bit of a break until the Minnesota Alpaca Show in Owatanna MN on 4/15. Hmmm 4/15... I don't think we'll have the accountant handlers at that show, so we'll add a few more alpacas to assure that those who do get to attend the show have to work just a bit harder.

We'll have at least some of the string at the Futurity show 4/21... but since it's right after tax season, some of us may sneak off to go sailing in the Caribean instead???????

Next will be the Great Midwest Alpaca Fest in Madison WI on 4/28. We've attended this show for many many years and have finally worked our way up to the main floor stalling. This show will also have our favorite Austrailian Judge.... well, favorite who still lives there full time (hear that Jude??)... Mr. Peter Kennedy. I can't wait for him to evaluate the Knight Rider kids. His farm in Victoria AU focuses exclusively on BLACK alpacas.

Then comes the BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR - the Interstate 80 Alpacafest in Princeton, IL. It's a fun, relaxed show, but last year 3 animals who won championships at this great little show also went on to win Championships at the National Show in Denver just a few weeks later. Oh... did I mention that this show is organized by Tiskilwa Farms and Apple Tree Acres? Sponsorships are still open... so, as we say in Chicago... register early and register often!!!

2011-12-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

New Employee

When we started TFA in 2000, wehad a part time helper. A few years intoit, Chad went full time to make sure we were providing all the necessary carefor the animals and the property. As theherd grew, we added part-time help to at least have weekend chore coverage soChad could have a day off. This summerwe realized we really needed to add another full time hand to the farm. With an ad in the local paper we quicklyrealized just how bad the unemployment is in our area. We had more responses than we everimagined. It was properly advertised asa farm labor job and we had women show up for their “interview” with Chad inhigh heels and guys in ties????? In theend we hired the guy who was best for us – welcomeMatt!! He has been a trueself-starter and is learning every day. We certainly had enough cria born this fall to get him indoctrinatedinto newborn alpaca care. Chad isenjoying the flexibility of focusing on the parts of alpaca farming he is bestsuited for…. and maybe a few more days off.

2011-12-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

Winter Prep in the barns / new waterers

While alpacas are from theCooolddd high altitude of the Andes and should be able to handle the weather inIllinois, there is much work that goes into preparing the farm for the longdreaded winter.

During the warm weather, we sendsome of the boys to “summer camp” in a pasture far from the main barns. They frolic there on good grass and work inpublic relations as people drive down the more traveled road in our “middle ofnowhere” location. For the summer theyhave a shed to get out of the weather and are brought fresh water and feedevery day (boy can they run to the gate when they hear the Gator coming)! When the leaves start falling, the boys moveback to closer digs where their water won’t freeze. That means several other groups of animalneed to be moved to accommodate them. This fall we extended our automatic water system to reach all of thepens near the barns. A common questionwith water systems is whether to put them in the barn, or out in thepasture. We generally put them about 15feet outside the barn doors to encourage the animals to go outside for a drinkand maybe even do some other business outside to make barn cleanup a biteasier. While most of the animals haveaccess to the automatic system, we still need to prepare heaters for otherwaterers. We also use “curtains” in themain barn to block wind and keep the core of the barn warmer for theanimals. This fall we also added some“wind stops” to the eaves between the old barn and the lean too’s. We’re hoping they also double as “bird stops”in the summer.

With the barns prepared and theanimals moved… bring it on Mother Nature!! Well maybe not too much!

2011-12-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

Margaret Hunting

Those of you who knowour farm manager, Chad, know that he is an avid deer hunter. From setting up feed lots and cameras insummer, to bow season, to shotgun season, to driving around with blood on thetailgate of the “Chadillac”, hunting is his passion (other than alpacas ofcourse). Well a little over a year ago,his early high school girlfriend showed up in his life again. Margaret now travels with us for most showsand is a huge help to TFA at shows. Recentlywe planted many small evergreen trees around the farm, but there has been adeer that has been destroying them one by one. As shotgun season approached, we jokingly suggested Chad to get the buckoff the farm instead of going to his usual haunts. Fortunately he had seen some deer in our westpasture so he spent the Saturday morning of season sitting in the wildernessarea of our farm we call “walnut grove”. But, it wasn’t just Chad…. Margaret was sitting at his side wearing anorange cap and holding her own gun! AsChad whispered to her about the doe coming into the creek bed, she whisperedback that there was a buck coming across the road as she aimed and…. Bang… killed him dead!! For now the pines are safe and we can worryless about meniga worm…. But don’t go anywhere Chad…. There’s always nextyear!!

2011-12-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

Falls shows

We typically start the fall showseason with the Indiana show in Indianapolis in late September. As the show date was approaching, we gotregistered but were more than a bit concerned that none of our animals would makethe minimum 2” fleece length for the full fleece show and would end up on shornclasses which are 100% body composition. Unfortunately, due to the economy and low registrations, the Indianaassociation had to cancel their show this year. We hear they’re making plans again for 2012 and we will be sure toreturn then. I like the show…. eventhough it is held in the same building where a sat for 2 ½ grueling days takingthe CPA exam just a “few” years ago.

That meant our first show of thefall was the 10^th Annual Northern Illinois Alpaca Extravaganza inLake County. We’ve exhibited or attended9 of those years so it kinda feels like home. This show was Championship number 9 for Right of Way. We also got several other blue ribbons so itwas a good show for us.

Next we headed to a “new to us”show which happens to be one of the oldest shows around – the MichiganInternational Alpacafest held in Grand Rapids. It was in a great venue with sod for all of the pen areas. Yes, that is expensive, but it was SOOO niceto leave on Sunday without folding up poopy mats!!! At this show Right of Way got his 10^th(and likely final) banner. He’s beenbusy breeding all fall so the testosterone may have an effect on him. His fiber at age three was a mean of 18.3microns – quite impressive for any adult, let alone a brown!! Several of our juveniles did well at theshow. With a little reluctance, we soldTFA Darnell and TFA Sassafrass right out of their pen at the show. We know they are going to a good home andwish their new owners lots of luck.

To end the show season we wentto the sister show of our Interstate 80 Alpacafest – the Springfield RiversideAlpacafest held at the beautiful exhibition hall of the Illinois StateFairgrounds. It was great to be amonggood friends in a small relaxed environment seeing some outstandinganimals. While we didn’t have any oldenough yet, this show was the debut of the first Knight Rider kids. Irish Meadows got a first and a second withjuvenile Black boys and Rock Creek got a first with a Black juvenile girl – wethink Knight Rider kids will tear up the show rings in 2012 – even if he iscompeting against himself a bit!

2011-12-15T19:05:00.000-08:00

Summer in Alaska

Alpaca farming doesn’t mean youcan’t have some other interests! So whenit got hot in Tiskilwa we headed to Alaska to watch whales, bears, eagles, andglaciers. The next big trip on thecalendar will be another trip to Peru in Fall 2012… but the salmon in Alaskawas fantastic.

2011-12-15T19:01:00.000-08:00

Summer Project Week

Most every year, we spend thelast week of June at the farm for “Project Week”. We hire a few extra bodies and get a lotdone. Most every year includes someamount of fence building, painting, general clean up, and at least one bonfireto get rid of branches from around the farm. This year included all of the above. We built a one acre “annex” pasture for the girls below the dam for ourupper pond. It’s got good grass but itsconstruction was debated long and hard because it borders on the “nature”area. However, since the sign at the endof the driveway says “alpacas” not “nature” the girls won some new space. We had to rig a gate system to still allow a Gatorpath down to the lower pond, but the girls (and cria) love their new digs.

We don’t do things small atTiskilwa – so when we needed to take down a dead tree in a fence row, wedecided to start at the top to avoid damaging the existing fence. Hence the need for a high lift and a talentedchain saw operator. The lift also camein handy to paint the girls barn, the machine shed and the house during theweek. By Friday everyone was exhausted,some college kid’s bank accounts were a bit fuller, and the farm looked great!

2011-12-15T18:52:00.001-08:00

Midwest Select Alpaca Auction

We were happy to be consignersat the first annual Midwest Select Alpaca Auction in Wisconsin. In my earlier post I told you about Cessna’sCitation and her write up that she was “Ready for Takeoff”. Well to make the story complete, she neededproper support on the “runway”. Afterseveral cocktails one night, Chad and I joked that he needed to be her“pilot”. Well isn’t Google great??? With the help of an online costume website,Chad did become a pilot of a Cessna at least for a little while in May.

We were there to sell Citation –(thank you Don and Connie Payne of Oaklawn Alpacas) – but we have troublesitting and watching at auctions. Whilewe sold one, we came home with seven new girls – each ready for either KnightRider or Right of Way. So much for cleaningout the barn…??????

Yes, it's been a while since I last posted

2011-10-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

I'll fill you in on the shows soon - I haven't told you about GMAF, I-80 or Nationals, nor have I told you about the Midwest Select Auction - funny thing happens at the end of May - It's SAILING season and the blog gets forgotten!! But what you really want to know:

THE KNIGHT RIDER KIDS ARE AMAZING!!!!

Here's just a few:

We're thrilled with how they look!! Watch out in show ring......

I promise to post again soon.... after all it's almost fall show season!

Tax Season is over - now it's time to focus on the farm

2011-04-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

A big sigh of relief and time to change focus. We were going to head to the farm today, but the weather was not cooperative and it was kind of nice to take care of some of the office side of the farm without a rush. The next several weeks are busy:

April 30 - Great Midwest Alpaca Festival - Madison, WI

May 7 - Interstate 80 Alpacafest - Princeton, IL and a whole lot of work since we are the founders!

May 14 - Midwest Select Alpaca Auction, Watertown, WI

May 16 - Shearing at Tiskilwa Farms

May 19 - AOBA Nationals - Denver, Colorado

All at the same time we have 8 babies due still before May 31. Knight Rider is currently in residence working with some of our girls - Right of Way will get busy as soon as the shows are over. Maybe tax season wasn't so busy afterall???

Midwest Select Alpaca Auction

2011-04-19T13:18:00.001-07:00

We have entered our TFA Peruvian Cessna's Citation in the Midwest Select Alpaca Auction to be held May 14 at Longview Grange Alpacas in Watertown, WI.

TFA Peruvian Cessna's Citation is JET BLACK and ready for take off! She is a gorgeous young girl sired by our rose grey MFI Peruvian Maddock, but she pulls in her black from her dam's side. Her pedigree includes some of the biggest names out of Magical Farms' black breeding program including Black Mequite, Obsydian, Dom Timbo, and of course Maddock's sire, Silvino. Are your seatbelts fastened? Because Citation is bred to 15 time BLACK CHAMPION - Irish Meadows Peruvian KNIGHT RIDER (yeah, you remember his head from the shows last year!) We are certain Knight Rider will add density and fineness to the cria. Cessna's Citation is a perfect example of why we added him to the "Chiefs of Tiskilwa". It is very difficult to part with her, but we wanted to give someone the opportunity to have a truly outstanding BLACK dam with a cria due next spring. Coffee, Tea, or Cessna's Citation???

There are some outstanding animals consigned to this auction - we'll see you there!!

Our first trip up to the Minnesota Alpaca Expo

2011-04-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

And Minnesota makes SIX for Right of Way

But the coolest thing was his Cactus Jack half brother was also the Reserve Champion!! We'd say that says something for the Cactus Jack line.

One of the reasons we signed up for Minnesota was the judge. Peter Kennedy is from Victoria Australia and his Canchones Ranch focuses exclusively on Black Alpacas. We first met him in Peru a few years ago on the Vicuna Chacu roundup and he has earned our respect as a judge here the in U.S.

Other highlights of the weekend were a FIRST PLACE for our TFA Peruvian Sharon in the Beige juvenile females - she is a lovely daughter of Highlander. Our two medium brown juvenile boys - Tiskilwa Eagle Feather and TFA Darnell were 4th and 5th of 11. As the youngest two in the class all of Peter's comments were on size. These guys are growing and will be back to impress next year!

We got Babies hitting the ground which will make it difficult to decide on a show string for next fall.

Spring Bling added some bling for TFA

2011-03-21T18:43:00.001-07:00

The first show of the season is always a little nerve racking - was I being barn blind? are the crias ready to show what they've got? has the competition surpassed us? Amanda is the judge - will she respect us????? We walked in to Spring Bling without any expectations but a lot of hopes - and boy were they answered!!!

Peruvian Right of Way - Brown Huacaya Male Color Champion!

Amanda loved him - and so do we!

In show order, immediately after Brown male huacayas come out of the ring the fawn female suris go in - and it was debut time for TFA Aimed and Ready (Ari) our daughter of Armed and Dangerous. Before she went in, A&D's owner reminded me that Ari was the cross she always wanted to do, but was never able to - a Cantano's Blazing Son daughter (our Golden Sunlight) bred to A&D. Well I guess the cross was good enough because Ari was the Fawn Suri Female Reserve Champion!As a huacaya guy I thought that was kind of neat, but the suri people quickly told me we had beaten some very well respected farms. We quickly made the decision to ship her to the Futurity Show with Andean Vista to see if A&D can again be recognized.

While those two were our highlights, we certainly had others represent us very well:

TFA Cahokia - 1st place brown male huacaya

Tiskilwa Urubamba - 2nd place brown female huacaya

Tiskilwa Northstarr - 2nd place medium fawn male huacaya

Tiskilwa Peace Pipe - 3rd place rose grey male huacaya

Accoyo Kama Sutra - 2nd place to the Reserve Champ white female huacaya

Peruvian Elynora - 3rd place to Kama Sutra white female huacaya

So we can hold our heads high for a few days - but the game starts all over at the next show in Minnesota in a few weeks.

Show season is always amazing - it seems that all of the farms have better animals every year. It is amazing to think back to our "Good" animals from 5-7 years ago and know they couldn't compete today.

Show season is also a great time to catch up with all of our alpaca friends and hear what they've been up to both on and off the farm. We hope everyone enjoyed the show as much as we did.

The Blizzard of 2011

2011-02-11T18:41:00.001-08:00

It had been predicted for several days, lots of snow coming with high winds followed by artic temperatures. The morning of Feb 1 Chad and I talked - it had started snowing in Tiskilwa but had not yet started in Chicago. He was prepared - all the animals were inside, the tractor was facing the door ready to begin the cleanup, he was planning to stay at the farm for the duration. As we were hanging up, I said my biggest concern was that he should lose power..... a few hours later he texted that the farm, and most of western Bureau county had, indeed, lost power. With winds already at 40 mph, this wasn't going to be good. Fortunately, within 3-4 hours, the crews had restored power and he didn't have to break ice in the animals water. He made it to the barn about 11pm wading through drifts to his waist.

The snow didn't stop until mid-day the next day, with 20" as the official count, but a 6-8 foot drift between the house and barn. It took a few hours just to get the barn doors open to check on and feed the animals. It was very late in the day when a plow finally made it down 1100 North Avenue - remember, we are the only house on the road. By that night, freezer burned corn dogs left over from summer were no longer enticing him and he made home to see his kids. The cold came the next several days, as did more snow... but the worst was behind us.

Things weren't much better in Chicago. I was on Lake Shore Drive inching along and realized the other cars weren't all wheel drive like mine and decided to get off the Drive and take surface streets - one of my best decisions of the year!! We were buried in - even our heated driveway couldn't keep up - and were running out of space to put snow. A front end loader finally made it to open the street 2 days later, yes, Chicago.... the City that Works! Go Rahm!!

So when is spring????? We need some good weather so we can install a generator!!

Knight Rider's first cria

2011-01-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's official, Knight Rider has his first cria on the ground! With that, many questions are answered. Our partners, Irish Meadows put him with his first girl when he was 18 months old and he knew what to do! The cria is a bay black boy with a gorgeous head, just like his daddy. He is gaining weight quickly and we can't wait for the Delaney's to put him in a show. He'll be just old enough for the Interstate 80 - maybe we can entice them to bring him along...... Now we just need to wait for two others to have a Get!

Winter doldrums mean signing up for spring shows

2011-01-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

We had dinner with some alpaca friends last night who said they just needed to be around alpaca people to perk them up - I couldn't agree more that in the midst of winter, talking with other alpaca people about breeding decisions does seem to make spring seem closer!

So when spring finally comes Tiskilwa will be back in the show mode - and we think we have some exciting young juveniles to add to our string. Look for Aimed and Ready, Darnel, Northstarr, Peace Pipe, and others to grace the Tiskilwa lineup.

March 19-20 - Spring Bling Alpaca Show in Neenah, WI - we always like this relatively small show and we're excited to show in front of Judge Amanda Vandenbosch. Tiskilwa will also be presenting "Tax and Financial Aspects of Alpaca Ownership" to tell breeders that 2011 is the year to build a new barn financed in part by Uncle Sam.

April 2-3 - Minnesota Alpaca Expo - this is a new show for us this year - we have traditionally gone east that weekend, but we were enticed to go north when they announced Peter Kennedy was judging! He is an Austrailian who specializes in black and we have great respect for his judging style.

April 30 - May 1 - Great Midwest Alpaca Festival in Madison, WI under Judge Polly Michaelis. This is the most difficult show to get space at, but IF we get in we have again been asked to speak on taxes issues.

May 7-8 - The Interstate 80 AlpacaFest - our show in Princeton IL. We are excited to have Sharon Loner coming to judge for us. Our goal is a fun relaxed show just before shearing - please join us!

1st Annual Springfield Riverside Alpacafest

2010-11-23T17:55:00.000-08:00

Some old friends from IAOBA did the same thing we did - we were all upset that IAOBA cancelled its annual show so we started our own shows! Ours in the spring in Princeton, IL and theirs in the fall in Springfield, IL. For a first year show it was a resounding success - Great Job guys!

Not a bad show for Tiskilwa either. Our newest member of the "Chiefs of Tiskilwa" - MFI Peruvian Right of Way - a son of Cactus Jack - was the Brown Male Color Champion! We were standing with the owners of Jack when ROW was awarded - and they were as happy as we were. To quote Kathi - "Jack just beat Jeremiah!"

Not to be outdone or overlooked - another of our Chiefs - TNT Peruvian Highlander - won the Get of Sire as represented by his offspring - TFA Cahokia, TFA Peruvian Sharon, and Autumn Sky's Peruvian Deucalion.

Springfield was also the debut of the Tiskilwa "Scratch and Win" herdsire promotion - all attendees received "lottery" cards worth up to $1000 off a breeding to select Chiefs.

Show season is now over for the fall and it is back to the barn to decide who will represent us in the spring - we've been pleased with the 2010 crias and will show more fawn than ever in the spring.

Northern Illinois Alpaca Extravaganza

2010-11-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post - this was a great show - as always. We did well. Our newest member of the Chiefs of Tiskilwa - MFI Peruvian Right of Way - was the Brown Male Reserve Color Champion - we are very proud of him. Guess he was worth buying at the Magical auction!

Magical Farms Auction

2010-10-10T16:06:00.000-07:00

For years we attended the annual auction at Magical Farms and have purchased some of our best animals at this event. The last few years we had scheduling conflicts that didn't allow us to attend. We were anxious to go back this year, but had sworn we were going to sit on our hands and not bid on anything - yeah right, like that was going to happen!! During the auction preview, we evaluated nearly every animal and then cut the list to those who fit into our breeding program. Fortunately we kept to that list... but we still ended up buying 3 1/2 animals - how's that for the guys who weren't going to buy anything.

The auction started for us with a partnership in Our Peruvian Ilena, a Mister Antonio daughter who is bred to 3 time Herdsire of the Year - Majestic Peruvian Jeremiah. We split this girl with our good friends at Willow Bend Alpacas and are hoping for a Jeremiah boy next June.

The very next lot, MFI Peruvian Rewarding, was high on our list - and we were justly Rewarded! She is a Cactus Jack daughter and is bred to Jericho for a 2011 cria. (Interestingly, we can't wait for her second breeding - to our Jericho brother, MFI Peruvian Natural High.) We love the results of crossing the Jeronimo and Dakotia lines!

Early in the morning, when we arrived at Magical, we ran into one of our favorite Magical farm hands, Lee, and he told us the best animal in the auction was Lot 48. We looked at her and agreed we really really liked her for her density and fineness. To top it, she comes with a breeding to 3 time Herdsire of the Year - Majestic Peruvian Jeremiah! When it came to bidding, we had to do it for Lee and purchased MFI Peruvian Ellynora. She is a daughter of Rolex and will join the Tiskilwa show string for the fall shows before returning to Magical to be bred.

When the auction catalog arrived in the mail several weeks ago, we were drawn to one fantastic animal and that was the main reason we cleared our calendars to attend. Many people know of Tiskilwa as a BROWN FARM with our herdsires, Performer, Natural High, and Red Cloud. When we have put Natural on Performer daughters, we have gotten outstanding results - but we needed something for the next generation. We have been quietly looking for the next BROWN MALE to join the Chiefs of Tiskilwa. There he was in the auction catalog - lot 67 - MFI Peruvian Right of Way - a son of Cactus Jack (see Rewarding above). His ARI certificate is a who's who of the alpaca world including grey, rose grey, fawn, beige, brown, and black! We can't wait to put him on our girls - but he'll temporarily join the TFA show string this fall.

Thanks to the Forstners, the Farleys, and the entire Magical staff. They put on a great event and we always feel extremely welcome at their auctions. We were able to catch up with some old alpaca friends and make several new friends. There were several other animals that we had interest in and we wish all of the buyers good luck with their purchases. And we weren't going to bid.......

Fall Cria birthing season

2010-09-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

We've had five babies in just a few days - three on Thursday and two more on Sunday. 3 boys / 2 girls. One out of our Natural High, one out of our Performer, one out of Splendour in Grey, and two out of our Highlander. We've been very impressed with all of our H-Man kids this year. He is stamping out fineness and bold crimp. While it is tough to say at the ripe old age of 48 hours, but this week's Natural High baby has potential to be the densest animal we have ever birthed. We'll keep you posted.

Our Newest Stud - Irish Meadows Peruvian Knight Rider

2010-07-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

We needed a black stud to fill the gap in our breeding program given the quality black females we have been acquiring. At the AOBA National Show in May we reviewed many of the top black males and confirmed our previous analysis that Knight Rider was really what we needed for our girls. We are excited to add him to "The Chiefs of Tiskilwa" and to be partners with the outstanding program which Irish Meadows has achieved. The fact that the Delaney's are just an hour from our farm certainly added some flexibility to our ability to use him for our girls and those of our customers. We expect Chad will be making many day trips to Iowa to satisfy the demand for breedings that we expect Knight Rider will command. We spent our annual farm chores week creating a special residence for him at our farm where he will Criate with our girls. He is within site of our other boys, and they are not real happy to see him.

The Chiefs of Tiskilwa starting line up now has the following positions:
Black - Peruvian Knight Rider
White - Peruvian Highlander
Brown - Peruvian Natural High
Brown - MFI Performer
Brown - TFA Red Cloud (Yes, we like brown!)
Grey - Peruvian Maddock
Fawn - Peruvian Argo Navis

We've got a promising bench ready to fill in soon, including our Peruvian Goldleaf, Peruvian Gresham, Komodo Dragon, Cahokia, Magellan..... all of whom have been blue ribbon winners.

Ah.... the joys of alpaca farming.

Shearing Day

2010-05-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

May 17 was shearing day at Tiskilwa Farms. By the end of the day we had sheared over 110 animals and 1000 pounds of fleece. The entire crew was tired as we put away the tools. The animals are (generally) happy to have the fleece taken off so they can be cool for summer. The studs, who can be difficult for other handling, come in and almost lay themselves down for their haircut, while the younger crias scream and whine and pee all over the mat. We love to check the fleece quality of the various animals as they are shorn. We did have a few surprises of animals who are much better than we thought - watch for those in the fall show string.

Spring 2010 shows

2010-05-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I've posted - we've attended the following shows since Spring Bling:
Indiana Alpaca Invitational
TFA Magellan - 1st Halter in White Juvenile Males (a son of our Peruvian Highlander)
Tiskilwa Tomahawk - 2nd Halter in a class of 9

Great Midwest Alpaca Festival
TFA Prarie Fire - Champion Fleece
Accoyo Galactica - Reserve Champion Fleece

Interstate 80 Alpacafest
TFA Cahokia - Reserve Champion / 1st Halter
TFA Chief Joseph - 2nd Halter
Accoyo Galactica - 1st Halter

AOBA National Show
Accoyo Galactica - Second Halter in a very competitive class. This doesn't match her championship at nationals last year, but we love this girl!! She is now being bred to Accoyo Principe Dorato - we can't wait to see that cria!!!!!
Accoyo Kama Sutra - 7th in a class of 15 - yes the judge left her there for seventh (when placing usually only goes to 6) and no we have never heard of a judge doing something like that, especially at the national show! She was a new purchase for us at the AOBA auction and we think she is better than 7th - watch for her in the fall shows.

Iiiiiitttt's Show Season

2010-03-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

We started the year with the Spring Bling in Neenah Wisconsin and what a show for us!
Here's just the highlights:
Accoyo America Galactica - 1st Fleece (Wade Gease)(the highest score in the whole show but no championship because she was in her true class of BEIGE)
Accoyo America Galactica - Reserve Champion Halter ((Jill McCloud) in a white class when she is really BEIGE)
TFA Komodo Dragon - Reserve Champion Halter - man is he dense (a son of our Peruvian Natural High
Tiskilwa Tomahawk - First Halter - in his first show of his career (a son of Peruvian Lethal Weapon)
TFA Peruvian Gresham - First Halter (when he was in the Champion round Judge Jill McCloud whispered "I could just run my hands through him all day long" but then gave the champion and reserve to the well deserving older competitors - we're confident he'll get many purple banners in his career for his "ultra soft fleece" again Jill's words (a Son of Accoyo Pulitzer)
TFA Prairie Fire - First Fleece (a daughter of our Performer)
Tiskilwa Urubamba - Second Halter (a daughter of our Peruvian Natural High)
TFA Peruvian Sergeant Pepper - Second Halter

Spring Shows

2010-01-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

Tiskilwa Farms will be traveling this spring. Our show schedule is as follows:

March 20-21 Spring Bling Alpaca Show - Neenah, WI
Grand Sponsor
Speaking on Tax and Financial topics of Alpaca Ownership

April 2-3 Indiana Alpaca Invitational - Fort Wayne, IN
Grand Sponsor

April 24-25 Great Midwest Alpaca Festival - Madison, WI
Speaking on Tax and Financial topics of Alpaca Ownership

May 1-2 Interstate 80 Alpacafest
Show Host and Grand Sponsor

May 20-23 AOBA Nationals - Fort Wayne, IN

Interstate 80 Alpacafest

2010-01-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

When we heard that the Illinois Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association cancelled their show for this coming March we were upset that Illinois would not have a show in the spring. We love the Northern Illinois Alpaca Extravaganza each fall, but Illinois also needs a spring show before these magnificent animals head to shearing. We are convinced that alpaca shows are a great place for breeders to market their farms and learn from each other. We called our dear friends at Apple Tree Acres and asked if they'd put on a smaller show with us. Both Ed and Karen said they had the same idea and were planning to call us. We met on New Year's Day.

We are pleased to announce the Interstate 80 Alpacfest to be held at the Bureau County Fairgrounds May 1-2, 2010. We're working on details and we look forward to a fun Level II show. We hope you'll join us!!

Skirting Fleece

2010-01-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

So what do you do when there is snow on the ground and its cold outside? Why prepare fleece for spring shows, of course! I admire people who have time to get fleece ready for the fall shows, but summer chores just never seem to allow time for skirting. Thanks to some lessons from our friends at Wineaux Alpacas (home of Tsunami!) we will be entering fleece in a few shows this spring. Here's just a few shots of our Accoyo Galactica's fleece spread on the table. What a beautiful sight!

Sub-Zero Temperatures - but new waterers are great

2010-01-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, this morning the mercury in the thermometer was rather shy and didn't show its face above the -0- mark. Not fun for the animals or the caretakers. Last fall we finalized construction of heated automatic waterers and this morning they water was steaming in the cold but fresh and ready for the animals. And who said farmers have a tough life?????
Keep warm.

2009-11-21T14:15:00.001-08:00

Ohio Alpaca Fest 2009

We attended the 2009 Ohio Alpaca Fest in Columbus the weekend of November 6-7 - yes this is the show which was cancelled and then re-instated. This has always been one of our favorite shows. It was a much smaller show this year. They did not use the show arena and instead had the show rings on carpet in the stalling barn with very poor lighting. Even if the facilities were less than stellar, TFA still had a great weekend. Our brown (of course) juvenile male Suri, TFA Lock and Load, was awarded the Reserve Champion banner. Needless to say, we were thrilled. This was his third show this fall and the first one that had enough animals for a Championship.

He is the progeny of MacGyver's Armed and Dangerous and other Mac kids also had a great weekend! Our thanks to Gail Wasserstein of Andean Vista Ranch for her help in showing him.

Indiana Heartland Classic

2009-10-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

We did well in Indianapolis! There was some tough Ohio competition. In several classes the first place went to the largest farm in the country (grrrr....), second went to an extremely well respected Ohio breeding program, and THIRD WENT TO TISKILWA. We can't complain when we're essentially competing against national champions.

Fall Show Schedule

2009-10-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

This fall we will be showing animals and the Indiana Heartland Classic in Indianapolis the weekend of October 3-4. Then we are off to the Northern Illinois Alpaca Extravaganza in Libertyville the weekend of October 24-25. We will end our fall show season with the Ohio AlpacaFest in Columbus the weekend of November 7-8.