Newbie Alpaca farmer question

3 posts

Member for

3 years 3 months
Last seen: 07/01/2021 - 17:10
Joined: 07/01/2021 - 15:44

Newbie Alpaca farmer question

Hi There.

I am completely new to farming of any sort so please bare with me if I seem a bit clueless.

I am in the process of purchasing a 37Ha property at Acacia Creek in Northern NSW. It has 5 separately fenced paddocks and currently has about 20 head of cattle adjisted on the property. My wife and I are planning on using the propery as a weekender and AirBnB and I'm looking at what relatively low maintenance farming options are out there.

I've been interested in Alpacas ever since a South America trip a few years ago where it was on the menu at almost every restaurant as well as the wool being on display on most of the locals. I have found plenty of information about their lower environmental impacts, their herding an guarding behaviors etc. I'd love to be able to start a small herd with the view to breeding more down the track.

What I would like to know is how self sufficient are alpacas? If they have shelter, access to water troughs and a dam and a paddock full of grass will they be okay on their own for up to a week at a time? Do they need to be fed hay or other food everyday or are they happy to graze until I come out with their treats?

I will have gardeners coming out once a fortnight to tend to the gardens around the house, so between them and myself it should be maximum 7 days between someone being on site to tend to the animals. Is this going to be possible? am I dreaming? (probably, but you've got to dream) What potential issues should I be thinking about?

Sorry for the long first post. Any advice would be fantastic

Forums
Last seen: 04/23/2022 - 21:46
Joined: 04/17/2022 - 08:59

Practically any grazing animal can be left on its own. But a farming axiom says if you have live animals you will have dead animals.
Baring annual shearing, teeth clipping and nail cutting as well as quarterly worming following a proper worming schedule they will be fine.
If you ALWAYS give them some feed when you come up you will keep them fairly tame.
Its not the best option to give them 5-7 days without supervision but its doable.
You MUST have good boundary fencing to ensure they cant wander. Alpacas are still fairly expensive so losing one you can cope but if your entire herd wanders off you might get a bit upset.
One good thing is they are not fence jumpers or fence breakers certainly not that I've found.
I have 6 Alpaca females and 1 Alpaca male which I do all my breeding from

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