One of the most common guidelines that gets bandied around is
the number of animals per acre. I have heard the figure vary from eight
to ten alpacas per acre, and with this in mind and the belief that we would
'just get a couple and try them out', fenced off a one acre portion of my
existing meadow. Some how I did not see it possible that we would have any
more than 10 for a year or two...Wrong.
Our initial buy was seven alpacas, and this was followed by an impulse buy
at the Grass Valley meet in the Autumn, and then a baby was born. Another
meet where there was a weanling we just could not resist and suddenly we
are up to fourteen and a new pregnant dam was coming within the next month...and
I still only have one acre fenced! This is was not good.
My greed made a rod for my own back, now I had to extend my pastures to
double what my original plan was! Fencing is not cheap. Fencing is time
consuming. Couple this with the fact that I was totally unprepared for some
of the nasty weeds that are in my pastures and we have a lot more work to
accomplish than was ever envisioned.
Other factors to consider were the needed segregation between boys,
weanling boys, nursing dams, and pregnant dams. Something I intellectually
knew but when I started with two pens within the acre, to convert to the
current ten pens was no small task! As a stop gap I was able to rapidly
create a temporary over flow pen with an electric fence external to my no
climb five foot outer fence but this could only be utilized during the day
and when I was home.
I will say that the above comments must take into account the weather in
our locality which gets pretty hot in the summer. Temperatures of 100°
- 110°F are not uncommon but this is at a every low relative humidity
fortunately. The pastures dry up, water evaporates, and the alpacas head
for the shade - fast. A new problem that beset me was a lack of irrigation
water - this is an issue that will probably take years to resolve and snuck
up on me - so my need for a re-adjustment of my original plan is now becoming
apparent. I sense that in place of irrigation water I will in actuality
have to think in the short term of a maximum of five (12) alpacas to the
acre... Dry lot! We will see how that works. So now I see myself topping
out with a total of 6 usable acres with a grand total of no more than 72
alpacas. We now have an additional half acre already fenced and ready for
additional animals and are working on 2 additional acres for agistment purposes.
We are now working on planning for irrigation using our second well
and should have this in place and functioning by spring of 2007.
Weed control is moving forward, that corral has now gone and the parts
used for sub-structure for other loafing sheds - a bonus - it took a while
to figure out how to utilize this material to the best advantage. We are
also intent on adding another 3 stables/pens for birthing to the existing
barn and another loafing barn closer to the house... - 7/6/06
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