Posted on 03/08/2017 5:51:19 PM PST by GRRRRR
My Lady Jean and have a nice little ranch near Denver. On our tender little 35 acres, we have ten alpacas.
They belong to the Camelid family, llamas, vicuña and the true humpty humpers. They're cute too, so Lady Jean is happy.
We're expecting a baby "cria" in May. Our first breeding try.
We have all females except one old gelded male, Andy. You don't keep the boys and girls together as the boys will go through a fence if he gets the right wink!
We have two years of fleece, they get shorn once a year and yield around 3 to 5 lbs of quality fleece and can get $5/ounce of top quality! We're not there yet.
This year, we took in three geriatric 'pacas, all over 20 years old. The owner was moving and couldn't take them, so instead of putt them down we too 'em. They are so happy here and are eating like pigs! They can live well into their 20's.
Anyone out there have these fascinating, docile and animals too?
G
Last June was our first co-op shearing.
Several farms all brought their herd to one farm. A traveling Shearing Team makes a reservation to be there all day. We had 54 total animals.
The team runs the show. They work off a pair of large soft mats. The animals are very carefully roped at front a hind legs and laid out and held firmly and safely. They must be restrained for their own safety—long necks, big legs and sharp as heck electric shears are not good to fight against.
The fleece is removed inone blanket off. The back and side, the first quality. Then the neck and legs are cut and collected separately as the second and third quality cuts.
There is a whole bunch to learn about the hair fiber length, thickness and binding quality to make yarn.
Goat ping
Yes, we raise Alpacas for the Fleece and my wife is active in the KY Alpaca Association. I’m the chief Pooper Scooper and feeder.
We currently have 26 of them. We cut back on breeding over the last couple of years but expect to do some more this year. They were are very profitable animal to raise prior to Obama, in the last eight years the industry has been devastated as farm after farm has gone out of business for one reason or another.
What’s left are the big ‘mega farms’ that have deep pockets to work with and small ‘family farms’ such as ourselves that process the fiber ourselves for making hand made items like yarns for knitting.
All in all I really like the Alpacas and find them a real joy to work with.
Can you milk an alpaca?
Maybe berzerk, I’ve read that can happen to llamas but never witnessed it.
I’ve never heard of that but I don’t know much about them at all. Thumper was a rescue as a youngster and I only learned enough about them to care for him properly.
Medellin genetics? Is that for alpacas in Colombia only?
A thread about a camelid...appropriately posted on hump day.
ROTFLMBO at”hoarse man of the alpaca lisp”!!
Did they participate in the ‘Alpaca Sandwich for My Man’ counter-protest today?
This is like the ole Medellin genetics where you can predict the genetics of the offspring to various percents.
Darn auto correct
Should be Mendelian, after Gregor Mendel and his peas!
Thinking?
Or just some wild hair that's tickling you?
They are a LONG term commitment; and they do NOT love ya back like a dog.
More like a cat; which will ignore you and pretend you're not there at times.
My goats will ignore me and look straight at me and almost dare me to do something about it!
How old was it?
That's it!!
I'm trading my goats in for alpacas!!
Mine will crap and pee ANYWHERE!
Sheep say, “Baaaaa”; goats say, “Maaaaa”.
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