ALPACA FARM BASICS FOR EFFICIENT OPERATION

Alpaca Farming

An Alpaca farm needs...Alpacas (of course!), but there are many other things to consider before you purchase alpacas and before your first cuddly animal sets foot on your farm. You do not even need to have a farm. You can board your animals on someone elses property, but it's not near as fun as watching your alpacas grazing in your own fields. You can start small and grow.

Alpaca ranching is a great adventure. If you want your alpaca business to thrive, then you must become knowledgeable in alpaca husbandry and running a business, especially marketing. Protect your alpaca investment by learning all you can and never stop learning.

Ideal alpaca farms start with conscientious breeders. Have a love and a passion for your business and it will flourish (along with some marketing skills and business sense).

Recently, a rainbow appeared over our alpaca fields. We snapped a picture to share with you. It was really spectacular and stretched all the way across the sky.

Try taking this test to see what you know about Alpacas.

Can you own a successful alpaca business?

An alpaca investment is quite substantial and you'll want to start off right. Here's ten questions to ask yourself before making an alpaca investment.

Once you decide an alpaca business is for you then take a peek our Do's and Don'ts of alpaca farming for beginning ranches.

There are both financial and lifestyle benefits of alpaca ranching.

You might need a small business start up loan for your venture.

You'll need a strategy for marketing your alpacas, too. Here are some budget friendly marketing ideas.

To help with marketing your alpacas and fleece, you'll want to create a website.

If you're concerned about alpacas being around your children, don't be. They are very gentle. Here's a coloring activity to introduce your children to the alpaca farm life.

How much room do you need to start alpaca farming? Depends on how many alpacas you plan to raise and how much expansion of your herd is planned. The rule of thumb is 8-10 alpacas per acre.

What is an efficient alpaca farm layout? You want to make it easy on yourself and your animals. Our farm works for us but definitely could have been layed out better. We do not use laneways but we can see where it would be a great advantage.

A barn is nice!...But not always necessary. Our shelters are adequate for Eastern Washington. You'll have to decide based on your location if you need a barn. If you do, then you'll need to plan how to lay it out, too. Loafing sheds are a great shelter for some areas without the expense of having to put up a full barn.

A necessary part of alpaca farming is dealing with alpaca manure. We have compiled ten somewhat humorous but real tips on this subject.

Give your alpacas their worming shots yourself. Our injection technique is easy to do. Some alpaca owners cut the tip off the plastic cap for the needle so the needle protrudes. This way they can jab, inject and move on to the next alpaca. We haven't tried this technique. (Having a nurse in the family comes in handy sometimes.) We thought we would mention it so you know there are other ways that may work for you.

You'll need fencing to keep your animals safe from predators. Do you know what kind of predators you have in your area? The neighbors dogs are our biggest worry. Check out our alpaca fencing to find out what we did to ensure the safety of our animals. Maybe it will work for you.

We employed a guardian as additional protection. Sam our Great Pyrenees livestock guard dog watches over our herd. He has worked out great. We just love the gentle guy. Sam has dual duties.

You'll need a safe way to transport your animals to the vet, shows, off farm shearing and breeding, and anywhere else you might want to take your alpacas. Our tips on transporting alpacas will hopefully help you avoid some of our mistakes.

We have a gun that's handy for stray dogs. While we don't like to kill an animal, we have to protect our livestock. We live next to a state gameland where people tend to dump their dogs. An animal left to fend for itself will kill your alpacas when they are starving. And sometimes a dog will kill just for fun as one local owner lost 10 of his alpacas to a dog that somehow managed to get in one of the pastures.

There are basic equipment and supplies that your farm will need and some that are a nice to have item. We are just a small farm and don't have a lot of capital. Our alpacas are well taken care of with the minimum investment in equipment. You will have to decide what alpaca equipment is essential and what your farm can do without.

Winter can be hard if your not prepared. Learn from our mistake by visiting our winter alpaca care page.

If you plan to have an alpaca ranch you should know about the USDA's national animal identification system plan.

Here are 10 ways to expand your alpaca farm using the luxurious fleece these animals produce.

Here are suggestions on learning how to raise alpacas and assessing alpaca health.

Shearing alpacas on our farm is a once a year chore.

An alpaca farm has many different aspects to consider from care of the animals to the business side. Educate yourself as much as you can and your farm will be successful.

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