Knight Rider's first cria

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.