Alpaca Ulcers
Over the past several months, we have watched one of our girls - Gemini- rapidly decrease in weight. Her body score is now a 1. With once an enthusiastic appetite for pellets, she now cautiously takes a pellet in her mouth, chews it slightly and spits it out. She has been throughly checked and treated for worms. She more than usual has the foam around her mouth, a byproduct of sugars...
How Many Alpacas Per Acre?
One of the more popular questions I am asked is, "How many can you put per acre?" and I predictably answer, "That depends." It depends on your climate, your weather, if you can water / irrigate, if you deworm every 30 days because of a parasite potential in more humid climate. My answers are different from everyone else. For us, we can put about 5-7 per acre...but we rent...
Alpaca Show Travel Checklist
I am a list person. I have found I depend on lists so that I can sleep at night before the "Big Day" comes - be it shearing, travel, shows, open houses, whatever. So, here is my list of Alpaca Travel necessities:
| Address Paper / Phone Book | Fuel Additive | Screw Driver | ||
| Alpaca Blankets | Garbage Bags | Show attendance confirmation | ||
| Alpaca Cleaning Sticks | Gas | Signs | ||
| Alpaca Combs | Halters | S... | ||
ALPACA NUTRITION AND PREGNANCY
The topic of alpaca nutrition is a long and involved one ranging from water intake, through requirements in crude protein, fiber, energy, trace minerals and vitamins.
And many of these vary with the location of the farm, the type of feed, the fertilizers used, and the state (age, working male, pregnancy etc) of the alpaca.
At our farm, based on our location and...
Bringing Alpaca Products to Market
It is important for alpaca farm owners to embrace direct sales channels that will allow them to realize the highest return on the processed or raw fiber and will educate the general public about the benefits of products made with alpaca fiber, the animals and the lifestyle. There is only so much information and branding that can be put on a product label or a...
You can spend as much as you want - and then some - on marketing. Marketing and advertising are absolutely necessary to get people out there. After 8 years in the business and having the biggest alpaca farm in the state, it still amazes me when I live a mile down the road and people ask me what is an alpaca.
*It is not your customer's job to find you. You must seek them out. Alpacas are not...
*It is not your customer's job to find you. You must seek them out. Alpacas are not...
Top 10 Items Needed for the Alpaca Farm
As with every business, you always need more inventory than you think. Much of this can double over if you have other animals - horses, cows, dogs, but some are specialty items that really need to be sought out to have an effective farm. With this, I am covering three different areas: starting your alpaca farm, having cria, and the stuff we all really...
Transporting Alpacas
Transporting alpacas is surprisingly easy. You do not necessarily need a fancy trailer. They can be put in trucks, cars, vans and horse trailers if you have one available. We’ve put several in the back seat of my Honda on occasion and go cruising down the road.
Alpacas need to feel secure. Never, ever tie them up, or they can easy break their necks. We usually do not even...
Alpaca Shearing
After many checklists and anxious nights, our alpaca shearing is once again done for the year. I believe this was one of the smoothest, easiest shearing sessions we've done, even with a record number of alpacas.
After the surprise early start two days early, we woke up on Monday morning at 5 AM and got ready to go. We cooked breakfast, chased down some alpacas and we were in the...
The first day of shearingis almost always a little chaotic. But this time, instead of starting tomorrow as we were scheduled, the shearers arrived in town early yesterday morning and asked if they could start. I was in my sweat pants, drinking my morning Jo, getting ready to cross out the 17 items need to do in preparation for having four extra guys in the house as well as everything needed to be...
Alpaca Vertical Integration
When we first created our alpaca business plan, all we wanted to do was raise alpacas. And that is exactly what we did for 3 years, very successfully with a lot of rewards. When people would ask if we had any alpaca yarn or hats, we would suggest they look online or go to the alpaca co-op for some terrific items.
After 3 years of shearing, the alpaca fleecewas...
The Joy of Raising Crias
At first glance, I thought that alpacas were cute, fluffy and a bit odd looking. The more I looked at them, the more odd looking they were. My husband James fell in love with them instantly. Me, the ever conservative, "is this the perfect move for us" person, was a little more hesitant. But, once we had our first cria on the ground, I was certainly hooked. I can tell you...