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Owning Alpacas

Thinking you would like to own alpacas?  Why do you want them? Do you have the room to keep them?  Are you able to perform the required husbandry on the animals (or afford to pay someone who can)?  This section will look at a few of the things you need to consider before purchasing your first alpacas.

 

  1. Reason for purchasing alpacas

  2. Land size, condition and infrastructure

  3. Animal husbandry

What are your plans?

 

It is important to identify your expectations before buying your first animals.  Reasons for buying alpacas generally fall into four categories:

  • fleece production

  • breeding

  • guardians

  • pets

Farming for fleece production

 

 

Things to consider if farming alpacas for fleece production include:

  • target market

    • commercial

    • niche (hand spinners/craftspeople)

  • Huacaya or suri

  • White or coloured

  • scale of production

    • small/medium acreage

    • Large-scale operation

  • In combination with a breeding program?

    • breeding stock vs wethers

Farming as a breeding enterprise

 

Considerations when looking to farm as a breeder include:

  • Breeding for fleece production

  • Breeding for stud stock production

  • Breeding as a hobby

 

Once you know why you want to breed you can more easily answer the following:

  • Huacaya, suri or both?

  • White, coloured or a bit of everything?

  • How much to spend?

  • How many to buy?

Alpacas as guardians

 

Reasons to own alpacas as guardian animals:

  • With a natural aversion to foxes alpacas are often run with lambing ewes or goats to reduce predation by foxes.

  • Alpacas readily bond with sheep and goats so their productive instincts will be applied to the lambs and kids.

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Larger, mature wethers or infertile females are ideally suited for this purpose.  Entire males should never be used as they will fight with each other and may injure other livestock by attempting to mate them.

 

Alpacas as pets on small acreage

 

Alpacas have a great attraction as pet stock as they are:

  • attractive

  • intelligent

  • low maintainence

  • environmentally sound

 

If you want alpacas to be interactive and easy to handle, quite young wethers which have been regularly handled by breeder are recommended.

 

Alpacas should never be kept alone so a minimum of two alpacas are needed in this situation.

What are your property conditions?

 

Key aspects you need to address before purchasing alpacas are:

  • farm size

  • fencing

  • laneways

  • yards

  • shelter

  • shedding

  • water supply

Farming size

 

The size of your farm plays a large part in determining the number of animals you will be able to keep.

 

The general rule of thumb is 1 to 1.5 alpacas per DSE (dry sheep equivalent).

 

If you have good rainfall and quality pasture available all year, then you could potentially run 10 per acre, but this would be rare. Most people stock between 2 and 5 per acre.

Shelter

 

Alpacas require shelter from the wind and rain, particularly if they have been recently shorn or for newborn cria.

 

Shelter may be adequately provided by a combination of undulating land and the availability of trees.  If there is not enough natural shelter then some form of shelter will need to be constructed.

 

Alpacas prefer shelters that are reletavely open - usually two enclosed sides or one enclosed side and two half sides, positioned to provide protection from prevailing winds.

 

A shelter shed of 6m x 3m x 2.1m high will suffice for a mob of 20 or so alpacas.

Fencing

 

Alpacas are generally easy on fencing and mostly won't challenge them by attempting to escape.  There are of course exceptions which include:

  • Feed is scarce

    • When feed is scarce the alpacas will naturally try to get to the green pickings on the other side.

  • Stud males

    • If kept in paddocks adjacent to females, may attempt to go under, over or through the fence.

  • Recently weaned cria

    • Cria should have at least one paddock between them and their mother to avoid temptation of wanting to be reunited.

 

The ideal fencing for alpacas is hinge joint (often known as dogwire) or mesh fastened to carrier wires of medium tensile plain wire.  Carrier wires on their own may be sufficient for internal fencing though in this case it is recommended seven strands be used.

Laneways

 

A laneway system to connect all your paddocks greatly simplifies farm management and movement of stock between paddocks and to and from yards.

 

 

Yards

 

The size and complexity of a yard set-up will depend upon:

  • what is already available

  • herd size

  • whether or not breeding is being undertaken

 

If you have existing sheep or cattle yards can be modified to work with alpacas.

 

Depending on the size of the herd, yards may not be needed.  Pens can be created in laneways or corners of the yard using 4.2m gates.

Water supply

 

Access to good, clean drinking water is essential. This can be from dams or troughs.

 

Dams can be less than ideal due to:

  • fluctuating water quality

  • tendancy for animals to sit in dams

  • risk of liver fluke

  • drowning of young cria

  • vegetation around dams being snake habitats

 

The best way to supply good water is with troughs, either through a reticulated system or by collecting rainwater from roofs of shelter sheds.

 

If using bore water for drinking, it should be tested for water quality.

Shedding

 

Some form of shed is required for shearing.

 

Size and sophistication of area will depend on herd size.

 

Unless shearers use a table, the floor need to be a surface which can be kept clean (such as concrete or timber).

Caring for your alpacas

 

While alpacas are generally low-maintainence there is still some animal husbandry required.  This includes:

  • Toenails

  • Teeth

  • Shearing

  • Worming

  • Ticks

Toe nails

 

Toenails may need to be trimmed. The shearer can do this during the annual shearing, but some may need their toenails trimmed more often.

Teeth

 

Some alpacas may require some trimming of the front teeth, or should their molars grown unevenly they may require some filing. The shearer can usually deal with the overgrown front teeth, but a vet may be required for anything more serious. Entire males will also grow “fighting teeth” at around 3 years of age… it is recommended that these be removed, cut or filed back, so that the alpaca cannot injure others in their paddock during a fight.

Shearing

 

Huacayas need to be shorn every year.  In the colder states suris can be shorn every two years though in the hotter climates it is recommended they are done yearly also.

 

There are a number of alpaca shearers available to use, ranging in price and quality

Worming

 

Alpacas can be infected with the same worms as sheep. There are a several very nasty worms to be aware of: Barbers Pole worm, Liver fluke, Black Scour worm and although not a worm you also need to be aware of coccidia.

 

It is recommended that you take regular samples from their dung pile and get a faecal egg count done. This will identify if your alpacas have worms and which worms they have. 

Ticks

 

The paralysis tick (Ixodes holocyclus) is found in the wetter parts of Queensland.

 

This tick will kill alpacas. The dog anti-tick serum works, but only if you get the alpaca to the vet quickly at first sign of symptoms.

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