As part of property negotiations we've been offered 4 alpacas and I'm trying to figure out whether that's a good or a bad thing. They've currently got about two or three acres to graze on and it's pretty short stuff ( maybe that's too many for the space right now . I'm guessing we'll have to buy feed inititially? My question is, what part do alpacas play in your system? I don't really want to spin wool for hundreds of jumpers, so are they more work than benefit in a permaculture system, or maybe later when I've had a chance to develop the system more? I'm wondering if anyone has used alpacas Allan Savoury style to improve pasture? All new moving from suburbia! Meryl
Alpacas are used around here for guarding sheep from foxes ect. one or two will "bond " with the herd , if you have too many they wont bother and just hang out together. Big dogs that attack livestock are usually too much for them , so i guess they fill a slot between say sheep and cattle but not as hard on fences as goats . Ive shorn a few and that was interesting , so would be usefull for grass control , reducing fire hazard . I would think 4 would be too many they probably bred from inital pair so would be related , i would suggest finding a home for 2 and keep 2 for now until you have a feel for the property , previous owners had them for a reason you could find yourself in waist deep grass and haveing to mow , starting on your new place you will have a million things you will want to do first , they will keep the grass down for free . Rob
They poo in a pile which is convenient,they eat a lot of grass though. So cute they are hard to kill and eat but do taste good and you have to pay someone to shear them or learn and buy the equipment. My sister has about a dozen of them.
Cute?Have you killed and ate one then? There is a farm nearby here that is hawking alpaca manure. Is there any reason why I can't use that stuff in the compost pile method Geoff taught in the pDc? I mean, like, the corn I grow it in isn't going to look cute or anything right?
Manure looks similar to sheep poo and they seem to wee and poo in one area so if you got it before rain it would be pretty good and grow lots of cute corn. Re; kill They're my sisters and she is a long way away, she has never killed one or ever will. and I think she would kill me if I suggested we should. damn those delicious but cute looking animals.
Excellent! So now I have this dynamite marketing gimmick. I could make up a sign and sell Alpaca corn. When somebody asks me why I call it that, I could pick up two ears of corn, fashion one as the neck, and another as the head, and tell them with a straight face my corn looks like an Alpaca. I could peel back the sleeves a bit on the head, and point to the end of the corn and say, "look, theres the nose". That image of a cute Alpaca conjured up in thier head would work, I just know it. Course, you dasn't tell them it is the other end of the Alpaca your talking about. You would spoil the effect. Heck, you could get twice as much as the next booth as people would consider it more a donation than a purchase.
Alpaca neck stew in a slow cooker on a Tasmanian winters day while you sit at the spinning wheel with your alpaca wool.... Could be really nice! There's no reason I can think of that you couldn't use them in a rotation system. Poo is poo in terms of soil fertility.
About Alpaca, here in Bolivia it's all over the mountains. Together with the llama they are about the only animals to stand the intense cold weather and scarce pasture. Meat wise, here they sell the old ones for butchery, they are tough, full of parasite, including the lethal trichinosis, and without the nice taste of the young one. In my restaurant I was selling hamburgers of llama and Musaka. As a cook you may use the extended repertory of the lamb to accommodate young llama/alpaca. Wool wise, a friend of mine manufacturing all sorts of artifacts with this fantastic wool, told me that the best market is South Corea where a coat of Alpaca is sold for US$ 15 000... While the actual value of the wool is US$ 57. For last year Christmas my wife knitted a 2 places scarf for my parents, about 3 meters. About the manure, in the Andes mountains it's about the only one available and some villages are about to maintain 150 to 400 potatoes variety just on this poo. That's all I know about alpaca.
Yes, poo in poo. I've been collecting paca poo from a farm and using it in my suburban plot. Good stuff. But poo plus meat is better from a sheep! Paca poo is neat and convenient, and they already exist. Hmmm...
I meant to say yes *poo IS poo*. Very profound. Final negotiations meant that the alpacas aren't coming anyway - but on the plus side it looks like I'm getting my bit of land (and some ducks and chickens are coming with it too). I can get whatever animals I want later, perhaps an alpaca or two will find their way into the herd.
We had 3 Alpacas on a 2.5 acre block We fed them some pellets each day to keep them friendly and easier to catch. They are a farm animal as opposed to a pet, but look very cute. Spinners clubs will buy the wool, shorn once a year. They have soft hooves so don't damage the ground and since they poo in piles they can live in smaller enclosures as the paddock does not get spoiled. If we replaced all the wool sheep in the country with alpacas we would have much better pastures. Create a few smaller paddocks and rotate them. We used to collect the poo and run over it with a lawnmower & catcher and then add it too our compost. Otherwise its like a slow release fertilizer. They are lots of fun to have and have a very zen like quality about them, you look at them and feel instant internal peace.
my neighbours have alpacas and i collect their poo. they are guard animals and like to be kept as a minimum of two, apparently not happy on their own. wool is worth quite a bit of money, but after spending a day with the shearers you need many alpacas or you collect the wool and store over so many years. alapaca sausages and burgers are not to bad either. they are everywhere in my area of WA
