Posted on 03/08/2017 5:51:19 PM PST by GRRRRR
I got a great set of stuff to learn how to spin.
My hope was one of the kids would have enough coordination to pump the wheel and feed the fiber etc. in an attempt to make yarn.
Sadly, none of us can do it. Pat your head, rub your tummy and write with your foot at the same time! And without a beer!
Can’t stand mosquitos but they are a meal for birds and bats. In the summer we keep the mosquito magnet working and it does a fairly good job, though during the day the barn swallows are circling and swooping over head, eating mosquitos, I would think and in the evening the bats take over circling and swooping in about the same pattern.
Cool!
I don’t know what they go for now but 20 years ago breeding animals went for 10s of thousands of dollars. Would make for an expensive filet.
We had a few lamas years ago to look after sheep we never bought and mostly kept the horses company, wife wanted some alpaca but the price always kept us out of the market. When I cleaned out the barn, I tossed multiple 55 gallon bags of wool, not much of a market for home shorn wool and getting it custom processed can be more expensive that just buying processed wool on the market.
They are fun to watch though. Even funnier the first time our horses saw a lama. The horse assumed it was some sort of exotic predator, once the lama realized what was going on, he tormented the horses for a few days until they realized he wouldn’t eat them.
But my intent was good.
But a good part of the animal kingdom exists by eating other parts of the animal kingdom.
How much for a breeding pair?
Lama/alpaca dung is like a rabbit’s, it would be a little hard to form a brick but I suppose you could feed them into a pellet stove like contraption.
It is very good fertilizer and they conveniently all pick a single spot and go there as a group and keep using it over time. Unlike cows and horses, they don’t poop where they eat. It is pretty easy to let it compost then scoop up with a front end bucket. Generally there was enough to fertilize a pretty good sized garden every year.
I will not dignify that with an answer.
They really don’t like canids (dog, coyotes) but ours were pretty agnostic about people. Never did anything aggressive towards people but would always chase the dog away even after years of him trying to make friends. Although they were never physically aggressive the spit like fiends when being sheared, I would be covered from head to to with green slime that smelled like a combination of vomit and death.
YO!!! ELSIE!!!!
Over here......
I agree that is odd, but we always introduced new animals to the llamas in an adjoining paddock. I’ve seen the llamas tease horses and they hate dogs but never saw them aggressive to a fellow grass eater. They even got along with the white tail.
Have you sheared them?
I am swaddled in a wool & cashmere shawl right now as we
speak. We have no grazing land here on the river. I bought
3 wool & cashmere shawls in different colors. No alpaca
stuff that I know of. Pet one for me; but if it spits on
you, don’t blame me!
Cost of animals basic, depends on lineage and attributes.
Proven “throws” for a female where she delivers cria with the desired fleece color.
For males, same thing, how often do they sire a cria with the desired fleece color when mated.
Our last two girls bought this year as two year olds cost $2,500 each. I have seen $10K and up for proven animals.
Alpacas aren’t bred as pairs. One stud can service several females and don’t participate in child rearing.
The genetics behind breeding alpacas is well characterized and understood because the fiber color trait is sex linked. This is like the ole Medellin genetics where you can predict the genetics of the offspring to various percents. The recessive and dominance of the 22 official fleece fiber colors can be predicted pretty well. A pure black bred to a pure black will yield a pure black about 65% of the time. The rest are a list of tans, white, faun, browns, and mixes of all shades.
So much fun to learn about this animal and how it was almost extinct after the Spaniards hunted them to less than 20K animals.
Maybe a neurological problem. My llama, little as he is will take on dogs, coyotes and about three months ago, a mountain lion but he loved the goats and gets along fine with the horses.
Alpacas?
No....can’t say we ever had any.
Had a sabre toothed dashhound for awhile.
Great hunting dog.
Got a lot of birdies.....on the golf course.
Oops, sorry...forgot to reply.
The basic rule is no more than ten per acre of pasture.
They will get almost all of their food grazing from May to Oct. but you need good grass to eat. We hay from Oct to May sine we have no decent grass over winter.
They eat about a half a bale per day total, maybe more deep in winter.
Very interesting, thanks!
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