Alpaca husbandry in the wet

Time and Tide wait for no man… and I have not bought a stitch of food for the big day yet – that’s farming for you!

Busy busy and with the fields so wet, the entire herd has had several nights in already (in separate groups) to give their feet a chance to harden. Wet wet consistently and wet on the back is not a good recipe when temperatures fall or the wind gets up. We hit some gusts of 70 miles per hour a few days ago and I could barely walk up the hill with buckets of feed it was that blowy. Great for drying out my hair and the fleeces though!

ADE vitamin jabs to the entire herd is our policy and it is very time consuming. Each Alpaca is thoroughly checked, body scored then weighed before injecting. Toenails are also checked or trimmed at this point too. Why do I bodyscore and then weight too? I like to know I am correct in my assessments when bodyscoring without weighing … by checking my assessment against a weighing machine I know how accurate I am. After 7 years of breeding Alpaca, the odd cria or nursing mother who is a little aged can still keep you on your toes you know!

Weaning is now top of the list for some as the cria have grown on so well.